Help Make My Child Eat Properly

[Kamaikia]

Okay my perfect little eater has decided he hates vegies - all vegies and fruit.

The fruit hatred has been happening since he started food. He is almost 18 months and in his life has probably eaten about 5 bananas. He hates fruit. I have tried every kind in a million ways and he refuses. I have left him almost starving then served up fruit and he still refuses. He will eat dried fruit but I'd rather he had fresh.
Oh and he is lactose intolerant so its not like I can just hide the fruit in yogurt or custards.
His hatred of vegies has only just started. He has always eaten vegies at least once a day and all of a sudden won't let them touch his lips. All he wants to eat is meat - great for me as I'm a vegetarian.
Last night for the first time in weeks he ate some mashed potato and corn. But not much.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

[drewid]

Hi there :)

Andrew goes through stages where he doesn't like fruit for a few days and then its fine again. I've learnt not to care, and just make sure he eats as balanced a diet as possible. I've also learnt that if *I* am eating fruit, its more likely that he'll want it, cos he always wants what the grown ups are having!

With the hiding vegies thing, you can make a tomato based sauce to go with mince/pasta with lots of cooked then pureed vegies in it (like capsicum, onion, carrot) and it just looks like tomato sauce, but has all the goodness in it. I have a recipe, if you'd like just send me a PM and I'll pass it on.

Have you tried making vegetable fritters or something like that? Or maybe making some hamburger patties with grated vegies in them?

With the fruit thing, maybe making fruit smoothies with bananas, berries...?

Just a few ideas, sorry this isn't very coherent, just throwing ideas out as they come to mind!!!

[einalem]

I'm with noo..
I hide all of AJ's veggies in a firttata or in pasta sauces. He also eats alot of baked pasta, as they are easy to cut up and for him to hold.

I don't usually puree them, I just usually grate carrot, zucchini, pumkin and sweet potato.

If its a frittata then I would usually hide some spinach and broccali in there too.

Oh and eggplant and lentils are my best friends, especially in mince sauces. If you get a nice fresh eggplant you don't need to salt it. Saves us alot of money in the long run.

AJ has never likes fruit, which is strange as he has a real sweet tooth. But I just generally hide it in yoghurt and musli for breakfast. Which you can't do... Have you thought of using a soy yoghurt? or make a goats milk/soy based custard yourself? Pretty easy to do if you buy the powdered form.

It's probably just a stage he'll grow out of.

[Rell]

Nath has never really liked fruit. The only fruit he will eat is banana's. The only other way I can get fruit into him is in muffins ,yogurt ( have you tryed soy yogurt.) and chopped up very small in his porrage.
As for the veges I find grateing them helps to hide them.
Oh I also make savery muffins and piklets with veges in them.

[red crayon]

i'm like noo and einalem and do a lot of vegie disguising. i do scrambled eggs with cut up vegies, mashed potato and pumpkin with vegies, and zucchini mixed in with tuna and rice, and i also mix vegies in with baked beans and tinned spaghetti. i find grated cheese on vegies helps a lot. spencer is a fruit fiend so i can't help you there.

Good luck, Kamaikia.

[Lucybelle]

I choose my battles and food ain't gonna be one of them! I just keep serving up what we are eating and ds can take it or leave it.
I did the same with dd and she eats everything put in front of her, when she got older I did insist she TRY new stuff. She has some pretty far out tastes, but I like how she is open-minded about food.

[Jax Tellers Old Lady]

sorry i am not yet at that stage my son is 8 months old and eats everything that comes his mouth. My cousins were the worst ever put on this earth they are twins and the only thing they would eat was nutella sandwiches when they would go to a family members for tea they were made to eat there meat and veges and i know that my uncle told them everything was chicken and that peas were pea lollies and funnily enough they ate them.

[suemp]

my son loves fruit but wont eat any vegies so i give him that v8 juice. 1 cup = a serve of vegies. or i juice carrots etc and mix it with his juice (my son is 4 too. hope he gets better)

[Lucybelle]

Heehee hee!

I forgot, my sdd would't eat anything until she was told it was "special chicken", then she cleaned her plate!

[Kamaikia]

Well thanks everyone for replying. We often make fritter because this is the one sure way of getting vegetables into him.
I decided to take your advice and try and hide the fruit. I went and bought some soy yogurts - all different flavours that had fruit chunks in them. It was a joke. I mashed a half banana and hid it in the yoguht and he started crying with the first mouthful. Crying and gagging - put on a real show. So I took it off him and just gave him the yogurt - ate it perfectly.
So this morning I gave him a strawberry soy yogurt. He was doing really well feeding himself until he got a chunk of strawberry in his mouth - gagged like crazy then spit the strawberry on the floor and kept eating the yogurt.
I think now he isn't just fussy - I honestly don't think he likes fruit.
Oh well I guess I'll just keep trying and hope he takes to it one day

[nkenward]

I say don't give in. As I believe he is trying to test you. With the vegies - I think incorporating them into other meals is great. Try the same thing with the fruit. Maybe introduce a fruit smoothie. Banana, honey, soy milk. But you need to have one too, and get him to help make it. Get him to break up the banana and put it in the blender.