HELP. My Son Won't Eat Fruit!!!

[peta1410]

My almost 3 year old son absolutely refuses to eat fruit. Sultanas is about the only fruit he will put in his mouth. I've tried mixing different kinds of fruit in yoghurt but he always seems to know it's in there...seriously!!! I've tried making smoothies, he won't drink them. When I begged him to try a bit of apple the other week he did but then he started gagging, I get the same reaction with bananas. I've recently started buying those V8 poppers and he loves them, drinks 1 a day so he gets his serve of fruit and veg but I want to get him used to the idea of fruit and what it looks like, not that it comes in a cardboard box with a straw. He usually eats his veg. Does anyone know any good ways to get kids to eat friut, or even any sneaky fruit recipes??? HELP!!!

[Lastcenturymum]

Dont worry about it! Dont make too much of an issue about food. Begging them to eat is only setting yourself up for a battle. Kids go thru stages and my brother is old as the hills and still doesnt eat it!!:laughing:

If you can't disguise it, leave it for a while. Its amazing what limited diets kids can live on and thrive! If he's eating vegies then half the mums here would be jealous of you anyway!!!

Meant to say, often its texture related - bananas might seem to mushy or strong, apples too hard, so that could be part of the gagging - kids can find them a bit tart sometimes

[~J'dore~]

You could try cutting up lots of fruit and get him to help you make skewers. Kids love making things and it might encourage him to eat them.

[Chickadee]

I agree with the previous post. Sometimes the more fuss you make, the more a kid sets their feet and refuses.

When DD would refuse a food without tasting it, I started to work in smaller stages. If she licked it she got praise. A 2nd lick even more. Even if she took a small bite and then spat it back out, I would tell her I was proud of her for trying it.

Another trick is to get him to help with preparing the fruit. Make a plate of cut up fruit for yourself and ask him to help by taking the fruit off the cutting board and into the bowl, or to arrange it on the plate. Chances are he'll lick his fingers. He may even have a taste while handling it.

My DD absolutely loves watermelon. Most kids do, so that might be somewhere to start.

[mumof2angels]

What about apple pie with sultanas in it and ice cream or apple/pear crumble with sultanas and ice cream for desserts? Dont tell him its apple in it just serve it up as a nice crispy pie or something. My DD2 was never keen on apples either till i cooked these recipes and she loves them, I dont put much sugar in it either.

Sliced banana and custard or ice cream? Or homemade jelly with small pieces of chopped up tin fruit in it? Also what about strawberries, raspberries? My DDs love them.

Also agree with the other posts the more u force it the less he'll want to try it.

[perrywinkle]

I have the same problem too. DS wont eat vegies either. I'm not going to push it. I'm hoping he will see everyone else eating fruit when he starts kindy and realises he can eat fruit and it wont hurt him. He use to be so good when he was a bub and then changed over night.

[Milk_Monkey]

Sometimes I make DS piklets with grated apple or mashed banana in them (try processing the banana or apple into puree so he cant even see the 'bits').
if you spread on some jam it will disguise it even more.

Could also do the same sort of thing with muffins?

i understand you aim in getting him to eat whole fruit, but at least he'll be getting it.

And as everyone has said before, try not to make too a big deal out of it. Kids are smart, they know when you have a motive.
but in saying that, its great that you are concerned - too many parents arent. my cousin still doesnt eat veges (except hot chips) and he is almost 30!

[BiNdI86]

If he likes sultana's, have you tried other dried fruit.

DD loves dried fruit of any sort. Or try fruit leathers (good roll-ups!!)

simply puree fruit and dry in a slow oven or food dehydrator and waahlaaa......a healthy version of roll-ups.

[peta1410]

:yes: Thanks for all the great ideas. I used too strong a word in my original post when I said "begged". Honestly I don't try to force him, if any thing I've always been far too casual about the whole fruit thing and didn't offer it to him much when he was younger because I knew he had a dislike for it, so I think I have probably set myself up for the great fruit battle. It just frustrates me so much when he refuses to even lick it because he doesn't know what he's missing. (He has this compulsive thing where if there is even a speck of something foreign on his fingers he HAS to have it wiped off. He won't even lick chocolate off his fingers!! :eek: ) I never ate alot of fruit as a kid but my mum never pushed it on us and we only ever had the standard old apples, bananas and oranges. Anything like watermelon and rockmelon was a treat for us. YUMMMM!!! You're all right though, I don't believe forcing kids to eat is the way to do it and I know from experience that they will always to what they want to do in the end when it comes to food. As someone once said to me, "Pick your battles". So that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to stress about it anymore. He eats his vegies and he drinks his V8 Juice and that's just the way it's going to be. :D Thanks for the suggestions and I'm certainly going to try them and if they work...great, and if not then we'll move on.

[Missy75]

I remember hearing Dr Karl talking about this once, and apparently some people have over-active or under-active tastebuds. Not sure which is which, but one prefers veges and the other prefers fruit. Fruit may taste really horrible to your son. I don't have any advice, just wanted you to know that he may have a valid reason for not liking it. I'd still keep trying though.

[Amberlea]

I wouldnt worry about it too much either if hes at least eating veges and will drink fruit juice.

But you could try (as someone else said) fruit pikelets (mash a banana into the mix etc) or fruit muffins..
you just cook and puree any fruit you want, and add it to the muffin mix (probably around half a cup to one muffin mix is sufficient).
Things like blueberries and strawberries can be added as they are - just chop strawberries up a bit.

[MoOaNdLiTtLePoPpEt]

hmmm...my 11 month old wont eat any fruite except banana.....

so might try a few ideas.

he was eating sultanas but not anymore.
he loves his veges, eats broccoli florets bythemsevles. lol.....but i think it is the squishiness of the furit that puts him off???

i keep offering and hopefully one day he will take it...

he will eat the heinz apple and pear thru yoghurt but as soon as i put home made stewed fruit through he knows ans refuses it...i don't push him either....