Toddler won’t eat fruit

[sunshinerainandrainbows]

Hopefully it doesn’t matter too much as her overall diet is good but she won’t touch fruit. She doesn’t have her back molars and won’t accept puree so I think some like apple and pear are too hard for her but she won’t eat raspberries, peach, banana … She used to eat cucumber but refuses that now (I know it isn’t a fruit but was a useful snack.)

Just wondering how much it matters in the scheme of things; pointless to fret as I can’t force her to eat!

As you say her overall diet is good then it doesn't matter that she won't eat fruit - too much is bad for her teeth anyway.

Vegetables are more important.

Is it cold straight from the fridge, cold fruit always seems really unappetising to me, same with cucumber and carrot sticks, cold and hard

On the other hand I think fruit is overrated, is she getting plenty of veggies in her diet?

She does, I cook well but it tends to be vegetables mixed in, so yesterday she had a chicken casserole with onion, carrot and leek and then a cottage pie with onion, tomatoes and carrots (again!) she doesn’t eat ‘separate’ veg like broccoli unless it is peas or sweetcorn.

She does go to nursery three days a week and eats fruit there I think and occasionally she will deign to have a bit of banana but overall she seems to have a pickier palate than her brother who hoovers everything up.

Meat is most important.

Vegetables second.

Fruit is a nice to have.

Would she eat it you stir a little puréed fruit into things - eg porridge, yoghurt? Mash some banana into pancake mixture etc? Make a smoothie in the blender? There are lots of sneaky ways to trick fruit/veg into fussy children!

Also make sure she is having a multivitamin every day - you can get gummy or syrup ones.

Meat is not important at all. Millions of people never eat meat.

I think people dont experiment with veg enough

Celeriac, squash, courgette, aubergine, beetroot, spinach, watercress (probably too spicy for her), rocket, tomatoes (technically a fruit), peppers, cauli, turnip, swede, greens, chard

theres tons more that I cant think of at the moment

Thats without considering pulses of course

I probably do need to experiment more. At the moment my staple meals are lasagne, spaghetti bolognaise, cottage pie, chicken casserole, chilli.

She doesn’t eat porridge or yoghurt - just doesn’t seem to like those sorts of meals! It’s a bit annoying as porridge is so good and you can add things to it but she doesn’t like it and neither does her brother.

After the puree stage my little one wouldn't take any fruit at all. He's just turned 2 and all he will have is grapes and it's 50/50 if he'll take apple😅 I figure he'll hopefully get more adventurous as he grows

Rice pudding without too much sugar? Savoury rice pudding? Porridge is just a grain, so try other grains like rice or pearl barley or bulgar, flavour it it up either sweet or savoury, perhaps shes not got a sweet tooth

You can use normal milk or plant milks or coconut milk

Would she eat a very mild tarka dhal, its used in India for children and people who are ill quite often! Its so comforting and mild and creamy. I often eat it for breakfast

My DS stopped eating fruit at around 18 months and hasn't eaten any since. He's 23 now. Very healthy and eats absolutely anything-except fruit. I am as baffled by it now as I was 21 years ago!

She eats a homemade chicken curry I make but there isn’t a lot of veg in it apart from onion and tomato puree.

She just doesn’t seem to like soup, porridge, yoghurt type things - she wouldn’t eat purées either when weaning! She also rejects the humble baked bean which I thought was the last bastion of parents of fussy eaters! I’m not too bothered since she does eat good meals, it’s more that I feel her diet is a bit samey in some ways, and I do wish she’d eat fruit for snack purposes. I also suspect she’s having a bit too much milk.

My dd wouldn’t eat fruit either. She’s 14 now and loves it.

Fruit is very inconsistent - a ripe banana is totally different from an unripe one; a sharp firm strawberry nothing like a soft sweet one.

If dc is eating a range of veggies then I wouldn’t worry too much. Although make sure Vit C intake is adequate.

Thanks. They both had a fruit salad for pudding the other day - banana, strawberry, melon and kiwi and she just threw it around (she is 15 months.)

She does eat it a bit at nursery which is good and she goes there three days a week. Then the four days with me I do home cooked meals but I do feel they’re a bit samey so welcome any suggestions!

Do you think she would eat the same curry if you replaced the chicken now and then with squash and chickpeas?

Sounds like she just doesnt like mushy stuff

It’s definitely worth a shot - or even just adding some squash and chickpeas, thank you.

@Devilsmommy

try to use different fruits together if you can, rather than just the one at a time.

@sunshinerainandrainbows

theres nothing in fruit you can't get from veg.

just keep getting veg into her in any sneaky way you can (lots of suggestions online) and making it available in plain sight. Always nicer from your plate!! Just on the side of her dinner, in a bowl in the middle, let her see you enjoying it. No pressure to eat it or even 'try' it.

Don't stress about fruit. (Or meat!!). Plenty of vegetarians/vegans in the world - perfectly healthy!!

Oh believe me I've tried it every which way and he just throws everything he doesn't like/want and eats the grapes and apples 😅 I thought I'd finally got another one with blueberries but after he'd had 3 of them he spat them out and pulled a face and obviously wouldn't take anymore. He's fussy with alot of food, not sure if it's a sensory thing and as he doesn't talk at all yet he can't even tell me why😭

@Devilsmommy

Don't be too sad about the blueberries... it was nearly the cause of bankruptcy here!!

Same child was obsessed with frozen peas!

I rarely eat fruit. You can get every nutrient you require from other sources, without the sugar.

Sorry to be totally irrelevant but recently discovered that cucumber is a fruit!

No tips OP other than my mum used to give us "floating island" which was fruit puree with a dollop of ice cream in the middle - wonder if she'd go for that?

Well I didnt want to go off topic but lots of things we call vegetables are fruits, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, peppers I believe, possibly squashes (cant quite remember), avocado

I think is it when it has seeds inside its a fruit?

Not sure on the exact fruity definition.