Improving diet- please can I have your top tips for fruit and veg refuser

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

The only fruit and veg ds currently has in his diet is as follows: innocent smoothie, innocent fruit purée tubes, fruit juice, vegetables hidden in pasta sauce and the occasional half a banana ( this requires bribery in the form of a turn on daddy's iPad).
The problem is a texture one I think. He has gagged on slimy textures since weaning and is now totally resistant to even trying veg or fruit. But we need to improve his diet to help his behaviour (aspergers) so are determined to get some more into him somehow.

What worked for you?

Ds was same, with labels, he can now tolerate them, but again like your ds i think it depends on his regulating that day, as to how well he tolerates it.

Noise too, although now ds just blocks out everything, so often doesnt respond when he should as he has blocked out everything!

You could focus on one or the other ie fruit or veg, i think its rare even for nt children to eat both and it might be less confusing for him.

Does he prefer crunchy or soft? Im guessing soft, if he will eat a banana and likes smoothies etc. Ds is a crunchy boy!

Would he have a problem with touching the fruit or veg?

Is fine with touching stuff as long as it's not sticky. Has just eaten half a strawberry! Some progress as we don't usually get past a bite. But you could see he was struggling and was doing it to be a good boy which makes me feel terrible. I think banana works as it is quite dry and not squelchy. I suspect if I could get him past hating the idea he would like dried fruit. He ate raisins til he was about 3.

Liking pleasing mum or dad is good in one way, as it gives you more room to work, but its horrible when you know he is only doing it to please you isnt it!

Maybe your ds is quite good at regulating his sensory processing with regard to eating, as he can eat most foods, but hasnt managed fruit or veg yet.

OT explained it to me as nt people get exactly the same reponse everytime they eat say a raisin ie the same message is sent to the brain, so it tastes and feels like a raisin each time you eat it. People with sensory processing difficulties can get the same response as nt people from some food, but not from others, so never know what to expect from some food. One day a raisin tastes just like a raisin, another day it tastes like something quite different. Obviously like ASD, it can happen in varying degrees.

Saying that i think its also quite a normal response from even nt children not to like fruit or veg!

Sounds like you are well on track with the dry fruit, good luck

thanks :) am going to try a strawberry again tomorrow - perhaps if he eats one a day he will soon get to feel ok about them and we can add them to the 'will eat' list

Your DS is doing better than my DS2, shopping. We made a pretty amazing discovery, last year, though. Not only does he like apple pie/crumble, he likes it with things like blackcurrants or blackberries in, even better. And he loves my rhubarb and ginger crumble :D And rhubarb is a vegetable and everything!

We've also discovered that if we cut up apples that in season and insist on putting a piece in his hand, he will happily eat it. He used to like bananas, but has gone off those.

He's rather too fond of raisins. He got hold of a plate of them when he was in reception (his regular 1:1 was off, poorly). Tipped them on the floor and he was found eating them off the floor. I'm sure you can guess what the result of that was!

My son won't touch fruit either, its the texture, I've tried every fruit on the planet. However he will eat pureed fruits, the one's you can buy are expensive and some have added things in them. I now make him purees. I make a big load up all at once and freeze it, that way I have enough to give him a pot every day (I have to transfer it into the correct pot of course!)

Have any of you tried the mini shredded wheat from sainsburys that have dried fruit in them ? They are cruncy and quite sweet, my lot (and me!) eat them dry as a snack, the apricot filled ones are very nice.

Ds can spot a raisin at twenty yards. He ate another strawberry today though - was pitiful to watch, poor child was dry retching while trying to smile and say 'mm yummy'. I seriously think he would stick a pin in his eye for a chance to watch Lego videos on YouTube.

ive had years of hiding veg too!
I steam fresh veg & then chuck in a tin of tomatoes, blend & stir in to pasta.
Or use as on a pizza base instead of just tomato paste.
I have tried roasted veg, wont go near them.

He will however eat carrotts & broccolli if with a roast dinner as long as there is a yorkshire pudding on his plate.... nothing touching of course & the gravy must only be inside the york pud otherwise its game over :)

Fruit its apple chopped up with a little honey only or he will have a tiny amount of a smoothie.

Salad is a total no no, not worked out how to disguise or tempt him with salad been trying for 9 years!

ds 8 doesn't eat fruit or veg at all, He will only eat potatoes in the form of chips.

He has a little more variety than Claws ds but not much, things come in and out of favour with him also. He took a packed lunch to my mums for xmas dinner, the exact packed lunch he has had for the last four years in school.

He will take vitamin tablets and fish oils (mixed with yoghurt) and will say these are my fruit and veg.

It is deffo sensory, I used to really push him to try things but the retching and heaving made me feel so bad. I am hoping as he gets older he will start to try more foodstuffs.

Some ideas that have worked for us (but not consistently!)

eating outside
fruit lollies
peas out of a pod
banana cake straight out of the oven
veg cooked with plenty of salt and butter
curry
pureed soup
tiny amounts of mushroom/spinach/carrot in spag bol
cut out milk to increase appetite
chopping cucumber

definitely agree with the no pressure/tiny steps approach

Mine love frozen peas as a snack, and frozen grapes. Freezing seems to remove texture issues.

Will try frozen peas again. He ate one last summer but refused to go back for a second. Yesterday's strawberry experience was better. He explained that he loves the taste but doesn't like how it feels ( first time he has voiced what I suspected was the problem). I explained that if he tried enough strawberries his mouth would get used to the feeling then he would be able to just enjoy the taste. He actually asked to have the strawberry yesterday too - albeit because he wanted a turn on the iPad but usually he tries to get away with having a turn without eating any fruit.

good stuff on the strawberries! mine will eat tiny alpine strawbeerries straight off the plant, but will refuse larger shop bought ones.

Frozen peas and frozen grapes, not thought of that one, thankyou wigglybeezer

Look up how to make "ice cream" from frozen bananas too, you basically stick frozen bananas in a food processor and blitz them and they turn into fairly convincing banan ice-cream (some people add things like vanilla and honey, there are variations on the web).