Does your child dislike fruits? If so, how do you encourage him/her to eat more fruit?

[bidgewoe689]

Did you know that the US Dept. of Agriculture recommends children eat 2 to 3 servings of fruit per day, but that the average child (age 6 to 11) gets only 1.4 servings per day? How have you gotten your kids’ to eat more fruit?

[Addy's Mom]

Would love to know. I've got a 3 year old who won't touch them. He does eat a lot of veggies, though. I do try to hide some fruits in his foods. Banana whole wheat waffles, etc. But it's no substitute.

Some kids may like canned fruits better than fresh. Again not the greatest sub, but it's something. My son will eat those little mandarin orange slices and canned pears.

If they are older than mine, a blueberry smoothie might be a big hit. I make one with a cup of frozen blueberries, half a banana, nonfat yogurt, wheat germ, and a splash of pomagranate juice. It tastes like a desert and is jam packed with nutrients. Unfortunately, I can't get my son to eat much of it (yet?).

[lonegirl]

Fruit smoothies made with fresh/frozen berries and bananas as well as plain yogurt and a splash of milk or orange juice

[jessemoon]

My ds hates fruit...always has. He will eat sliced apples and sometimes...only sometimes... a banana. I've gotten him to eat watermelon a few times. He is 6. He won't even eat pie or jam or ice-cream with fruit in it, let alone a smoothie.

I just feed him apples, offer him the fruit that the rest of us are eating, give him good quality juice from time to time and don't worry too much about it. I keep trying, figuring that eventually he will expand his palate.

He does eat a wider variety of veggies, though. I make sure he has lots of sliced red pepper, broccoli, carrots, spinach etc. I think it's a texture aversion for him and veggies are more predictable, somehow.

I figure with enough veggies, a multi-vitamin and a couple of fruits as his standbys, he probably won't get scurvy.

[meemee]

well fruit is just one part of the whole recommendation.

i have always gone by the philosophy that it is my job to offer and my dd's job to eat. now that she is 7, she has gone thru so many stages, that i have learnt to respect her wishes.

then i look at myself. even i dont eat accordingly. that's a LOT of food. i remember my ob asking me to eat the pregnant woman's diet. and i looked at him as ifmy he grew two heads and told him i would try but no way could i eat that much.

plus i kinda trust my dd knows best. she is growing well. lots of energy. nothing out of the ordinary.

[laohaire]

If the child's diet was otherwise good I would not be concerned about fruit.

All the vitamin C, antioxidents and everything can be found in vegetables as well. If you have a particular concern, such as vitamin C, research the vegetables that are high in that (such as bell peppers, which are probably the top vitamin C source, period) and encourage those.

But if my kid was eating a whole foods diet with fresh, local produce and meat and all - I would not sweat the fruit for a minute.

[3boobykins]

I don't buy into the whole USDA recommendation thing. The amount of grains recommended is way too high, and they don't allow for enough good, healthy fats. I think it's more important for kids to get protein and fat (animal, imo) than carbohydrates from grain or fruit. I think the 6-11 (I'm not sure that's exact, but close, I think) servings of grains recommended has much to do with big agriculture and money. Anyway, my point is that I don't think it's necessary to push fruit for kids, and I would, for the most part, stick with lower sugar fruits, especially berries.

[ann_of_loxley]

Originally Posted by meemee

well fruit is just one part of the whole recommendation.

i have always gone by the philosophy that it is my job to offer and my dd's job to eat. now that she is 7, she has gone thru so many stages, that i have learnt to respect her wishes.

then i look at myself. even i dont eat accordingly. that's a LOT of food. i remember my ob asking me to eat the pregnant woman's diet. and i looked at him as ifmy he grew two heads and told him i would try but no way could i eat that much.

plus i kinda trust my dd knows best. she is growing well. lots of energy. nothing out of the ordinary.

Same here.

I also think modeling healthy eating is a HUGE part of it. When I got a nice big fruit bowl that I could put in a central place in the house and fill with fruit, where I helped myself to it throughout the day...my son started doing the same. And he has always loved fruit (and veg)...but I found he started eating things he wouldn't normally have touched such as an apple. (which at least was much cheaper than his usual high standards in taste lmao)

[mamazee]

I make smoothies and then freeze them in popsicle holders. She thinks it's like dessert even if there's no sugar at all in it. I don't know why being frozen makes such a difference.

[mrspineau]

well, my child loves fruit. but, he never was a big fan of the veggies. I have found a way to encourage him to eat them though: i offer him some, and if he doesnt like it, i dont force him to eat it or even act like its a big deal at all, and the next day, ill offer it to him again. it seems that, when i offer it to him enough times, and he sees me and dh eat it enough, he will try it, and usually like it.

[kcstar]

Overall, the recommendation is 5 fruits AND vegetables a day.

When DH and his brothers were small, my MIL was told that as long as they eat lots of fruit, their not eating vegetables wasn't too big a problem.

So as long as DS eats lots of vegetables, I don't worry about him skipping most fruit. He does like bananas, so we try to keep those on hand.

I've read that on average a child has to be offered something about 15 times before they'll eat it. So I've been offering DS apple slices every chance I can, and in December he finally tried one and liked it.

I also have a garden. DS wouldn't touch the strawberries we bought from the store, but last summer he started picking the strawberries right from the patch and eating them there. (I'm not sure this is the wisest idea, but it's a start.)

[lilyka]

i hated fruit as a child. Or at least I thought i did. what I hated was poor quality fruits. I hated oranges bacause I hated peeling them. once someone showed me a different way to cut then I liked them a lot. I hated apples because of their texture. Solution. skip red delicious. they are truely the worst apple. find a different kind of apple with a texture I like, buy fresh and in season. hated strawberries. again they were likely out of season or not ripe. I will eat strawberries now but prefer field ripened ones. usually smaller and pinker. uummmmyumyumyum. didn't like bananas but I was probably just burned out on them....liked watermelon but my kids won't put up with seeds. solution, buy seedless.

there are so many fruits and veggies to choose from these days. find specific ones your kids like. buy high quality. buy in season. buy local. the grocery store I work at offers samples of produce continuously. as many as 15 different kinds at once. so you can taste it.

serve it different ways. cut it up different, server it in smooties, salads, frozen, peeles, cut, whole.

Get a good juice. either a fresh pressed one or if nothing else is available V8 fusion and Vruit are great.

sneak it into stuff if you have to. you can sneak pureed anything into just about anything. baked gooods (especially chocolate), if they eat apple sauce you can always sneak another fruit in, speghetti sauce, smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt if they eat any of those things.

also be mindful of what a serving is. a serving is abpout half a cup. four ounces of v8 juice. half an apple. half a banana, a couple of orange slices, 3 large strawberries, a clementine, 3/4 of a pear. and those are adult portions. a childs portion may be even smaller. Also keep in mind that it is five servings of fruits and veggies a day. if they really don't like fruit but like veggies I would not worry too much about it.

[Equuskia]

Originally Posted by laohaire

If the child's diet was otherwise good I would not be concerned about fruit.

All the vitamin C, antioxidents and everything can be found in vegetables as well. If you have a particular concern, such as vitamin C, research the vegetables that are high in that (such as bell peppers, which are probably the top vitamin C source, period) and encourage those.

But if my kid was eating a whole foods diet with fresh, local produce and meat and all - I would not sweat the fruit for a minute.

Actually, bell peppers are fruit. So are pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, etc. So your kid may actually be eating more fruit than you think.

[lilyka]

good point.

[Hoopin' Mama]

I'm allergic to a lot of fruit so there isn't a whole lot in the house at one time. Usually, aside from tomatoes, only one or two varieties are hanging around at one time. Usually bananas or apples and grapes.

I don't worry about, honestly. Ds will eat a giant bowl of grape tomatoes in one sitting and then won't touch fruit again for 3 days.

[mamatoablessing]

I'm lucky - both of my kids love fruit. They eat fruit at every meal. I usually keep 2-3 types of fruit already cut up in the fridge and then bananas on the counter, so they can help themselves throughout the day. So far, they don't love papaya or oranges. But other than than, they eat a very good variety.

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

I don't eat fruit, and never have. I was one of those picky, sensitive kids, and for whatever reason I decided I hate fruit. To this day I can't even force myself to eat it. It's frustrating, and I know I'm missing out on a lot, but that's just how it is.

But I'm also super healthy. I enjoy a wide variety of vegetables and have a very balanced diet, just sans fruit. For instance, there's lots of vitamin C in tomatoes, and I eat a lot of tomato products. I'm almost never sick, and no doctor has complained about any of my blood tests, ever.

Bottom line, fruit's good, hopefully your kid will grow out of this phase, but if not they'll be just fine. And sometimes, they never do grow out of it.

[Equuskia]

Originally Posted by sunflwrmoonbeam

I don't eat fruit, and never have. I was one of those picky, sensitive kids, and for whatever reason I decided I hate fruit. To this day I can't even force myself to eat it. It's frustrating, and I know I'm missing out on a lot, but that's just how it is.

But I'm also super healthy. I enjoy a wide variety of vegetables and have a very balanced diet, just sans fruit. For instance, there's lots of vitamin C in tomatoes, and I eat a lot of tomato products. I'm almost never sick, and no doctor has complained about any of my blood tests, ever.

Bottom line, fruit's good, hopefully your kid will grow out of this phase, but if not they'll be just fine. And sometimes, they never do grow out of it.

Tomatoes are a fruit, so see, you are eating fruit! Most fruits are misclassified as veggies for some reason, I guess because they aren't as "sweet", even though botanically, they are fruit.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by lilyka

i hated fruit as a child. Or at least I thought i did. what I hated was poor quality fruits.

That's my ds. Sometimes it is the flavor. Sometimes the texture. Right now, he is eating clementines but I have to peel the membrane off each individual section. He does not like canned mandarin oranges, however. He'll eat raspberries if I put honey in each well. I think that evens out the flavor and makes them more consistent so there are fewer "surprises". He doesn't like food touching his lips or in big pieces so I'll dice apples and pears. Apples get sugar on top and pears get maple syrup. Sliced strawberries with sugar. Whatever, lol. I'm glad he is eating something from the fruit and vegetable department. It's hard because fruit varies so much from piece to piece. Sometimes he'll eat the biggest, best blueberries at the height of the season but then I'll buy another package and the fruit is past it's peak.

[HollyBearsMom]

My son is on an anti fruit kick right now. He really only likes strawberries and fresh apples (no sauce) these days. None of which are available locally right now.

I can find strawberries from S. America and CA and I have no idea where the apples are coming from. We prefer to buy local/organic ir local so other than hothouse local tomatoes fruit is hard to come by. I try to neve break my local rule. He won't touch a "mushy" apple so when I tried to dry cellar some last year they just ended up as pie.

He will drink the occasional smoothie so I keep frozen berries in the freezer. i can usally find flash frozen local ones at WF. I do ahve to say that around Feb I start craving fresh vitamin C so I will occasional indulge my love for pink grapefruits.

I do love fruit so I figure I am modeling good eating habits and the kid who used to love fruit will cricle back around.

In the mean time he eats a well balanced diet so a few months w/o a ton fruit is fine with me.