Does your child dislike fruits? If so, how do you encourage him/her to eat more fruit? - Page 2

[Llyra]

Buying in-season local fruit can help a lot. So can growing your own, or finding a pick-your-own farm in season. Most fruits can be kept in the freezer, so that you can have seasonal fruit all year long. Stuff grown locally and in-season just plain tastes better. My DD1 for example as a toddler would turn down standard supermarket strawberries with a sneer, but would eat the ones from our CSA with relish.

Fruit grown industrially for the large-scale markets is bred to be durable on long truck trips, and to look appealing to the uneducated consumer. So strawberries are bred to stay looking ripe a long time, and not bruise easily, and grow unnaturally large-- all of which makes for a tart, hard, unappealing taste.

So I'd start by laying plans to look for local sources of fruits, as soon as they come in season in your area.

[BetsyS]

My kids are very picky about fruit.

They'll eat clementines and grapefruit this time of year, when it's at its peak. Other times of the year? No way.

They both only like the mushier varieties of apples, like red delicious or Rome. The kind normal people use for cooking.

They only eat strawberries when we pick them from the field. Otherwise, they won't touch them.

They do eat bananas, at *just* the right ripeness. LOL

Again, peaches are only in June, when they are at the peak.

Picky, picky little kids. They'll eat frozen blueberries in oatmeal, though, so we do that throughout the year, and they'll eat dried fruit (raisins, apricots, apples, peaches) pretty well, so we sometimes have that. They sometimes (once every couple of weeks) eat canned fruit, like peaches, pears, or mandarin oranges.

I figure their tastes will change as they grow.

[Marsupialmom]

Originally Posted by 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?

One thing we found out is what they considered serving size.

The average apple on the market is larger than what they consider a serving size.

A great snack my kids love is frozen blueberries....with three kids I have resorted to whole sale club size in the freezer. To hell with purple lips.

It has been a while since I check but to verify what they consider serving size your child might be eatting more than you think.

[annettemarie]

Moving to Nutrition and Good Eating

[peaceful_mama]

You said he likes apples--and *sometimes* bananas. So buy apples and bananas and keep them available. Fruit bowls are good for this.

I have kids who love fruit and like some veggies. I buy a variety of stuff and change it up. We tend to pretty much always have bananas and apples and then *either* oranges, pears, peaches whatever's on sale, and a few times a month (I TRY for once a week but doesn't always happen) a "treat fruit"--a melon, pineapple, pomegranate, mangoes. (read: when Mom goes to the store and sees a sale on one of these)

I'm actually working on offering more veggies, part of it is just remembering to do it. I go with offering right before dinner (who cares, they're eating something healthy, and they are starving, so they are more likely to go for it) and sometimes alongside another snack. (like crackers and carrot sticks and dip)

I notice since I put forth the effort to try and offer more veggies (have them present at *almost* every meal) my kids are trying and eating them. DS1 hardly ever ate salad, now this week I have seen him eat almost nothing *but* salad at 2 meals.

My kids serve themselves as much as possible. I really think this helps.

Also, personal opinion here, but I don't think that canned fruit, as long as it is canned in 100% juice and not corn syrup, is "bad". It is still fruit. And it might even be a "gateway" like "OK I liked those canned peaches, maybe it won't be so bad to try this fresh peach..."

*I* was *Extremely* 'picky' as a child, things like that *eventually* worked for me, that kind of logic. (OK this is XYZ food and I had it this way and liked it....maybe I can try it here too) The thing was it was mostly in my own head, not anything anyone tried to get me to do.

Oh and my kids like to pick out stuff at the store. Most kids do I think.

So, in a nutshell...i wouldn't worry about it. After all, many fruits and veg give the same vitamins, I am sure he is getting what he needs. But in the interest of eating a variety of different foods and learning to like things, I would
--Keep buying the apples and bananas he likes.
--Let him pick out one thing to try at the store. (if he's willing. Make it a family thing and not just about the fruit and it'll probably go over better. )

--Simply present it and then back off. Maybe since he's only 6 a little talk about what it is and if there's something similar he has had and liked might make trying it less 'scary.'

--Oh and I forgot this from when I taught preschool--Spitting out is OK! I've seen many kids who never tried anything before start trying new things when they were given the control over whether or not they actually had to swallow it. Many kids end up liking it right away, some do the 'spit it out' thing even several times the same item's presented.
eventually they DO expand their palates, I am living proof, (as a person who used to *only* eat canned chili, mashed potatoes, french fries, and Cream of Wheat...who now eats pretty much EVERYTHING from ANYWHERE and the hotter the better!)

[Annie Mac]

One of my favourite treats is this "ice cream:" a frozen banana, some other frozen fruits (I like blueberries and raspberries, but whatever you have) and vanilla soy milk. Soy milk works better than rice milk because of the higher fat content & creaminess. You could probably also use regular milk and add a sploosh of vanilla. I have used vanilla yogurt in a pinch. Blend in the blender until it reaches frozen yogurt consistency. It's especially good if you add some chocolate chips in there too!

When she was younger, my daughter would eat anything as long as it had "dip dip." I would often make her a mixed plate of whatever -- fruit, veggies, meats, crackers, etc. all cut to finger food size, and give her an appropriate dip. For fruit, you could put yogurt on the side. I'm sure other people can think up more imaginative fruit dips than me! Or I would give her a toothpick to spear them with, or put them on a skewer. For some reason, the slightly different presentation made a difference.

[Pookietooth]

I think for us it was about limiting other sources of sugar/carbs, but ds generally takes to things based on texture. He hated the texture of raspberries but loved blueberries, for example.

[lil_earthmomma]

Wow, this is an awesome thread!

My boys both love fruit, and if I'm not careful will eat too much in a day! But, the only veggie I can get into them is broccoli. (At least it's a good one.) I agree with all of the other posters about offering over. and over. AND over again. Eventually they will try something new.

We have a no thank you bite policy in this house too. You don't get to say yucky or gross or I don't like it until you've taken a bite. A couple of days ago my 2 yr old ds made ME take a no thank you bite!