Obsessions how to deal/cope with them

[Mamatex]

I have 5 children my oldest is 10yr old asd/adhd, 9 and 8 yo girls no issues, 4yo undiagnosed but certain asd/adhd waiting to be seen and a 3yo boy no issues.
Im hoping for some ideas around my 4 yo, he has a really bad obsession with fruit and veg, constantly wants to hold it play with it smell it, he won't eat it but treats it as a toy. I have tried to distract by buying him play fruit/veg but he knows the difference and only wants the real ones which he sometimes squashes gets all over the house plus it's leading to me having no fruit or veg for anyone else or meal times, he is constantly in/out of the kitchen and if stopped he has a huge meltdown (I have baby gates all over the house he can open them), iv tried to distract with other toys taking him out ect but he soon gets bored, then we are back to fruit and veg, he is taking all my time from my other kids with this obsession and I don't know what else to do. My older sons obsession is acting like cartoon characters which doesn't effect anyone so I can let him do it but I'm stuck so please any ideas or previous experiences ect would be a great help.

Hi, well I have no experience with a child being obsessed with fruit & veg but I didn't want to read and run. My 6yo DS does have Autism and his obsessions are quite extreme. He is obsessed with things such as the hoover, washing machine etc which can make housework extremely hard work so I tend to catch up during school hours. My son is that obsessed with hoovers he has a meltdown if we don't let him have a go and if we go to anyone's house (rare to be honest) he has a full blown meltdown as he wants a go on their vaccum. So I do understand how much hard work it is.

He is also obsessed with lifts and elevators (he used to be scared of them). So we avoid shops with these now as he would quite happily 'play' on them all day and have a meltdown when it's time to leave. It's best just to avoid as much as possible. Avoiding is obviously harder with fruit and veg. Have you got somewhere you can store them out of sight? But then if he's anything like my son, he search the house looking for them.

I really have no other suggestions. 'Obsessions' are hard work.

I wish you and your family the best!