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Mackenzie is by no means a terribly picky eater. I cant complain too much, she does eat fruits and veggies, and meats. I usually dont have to fight her too much to finish off a plate, but i also know what she likes so i make our meals around what i know the kids will eat, and i occasionally offer new foods.
However, ive noticed over the years her getting pickier about fruits. She will eat and eat them, until she burns out, and then refuse to ever try them again. We have been through it with kiwi, grapes, blueberries oranges and black berries ( although im not sure she was ever a huge fan of those to begin with, but she did eat them a few times)
The problem is im running out of options. She will barely even try anything, its a struggle to even get her to take a small bite, to which she ALWAYS replies, ewww. when i know she is just being 4.
I jsut went through a massive overhaul with Charlie, he wouldnt eat more than a handful of things, and now i can pretty much put anything ( as long as it isnt green...including kiwi) in front of him and he goes to town on it. He has done a complete 180 and im so happy. it took a few nights of going to bed hungry before he gave up. But he is 2, and i think his will power isnt there like his sisters.
Will she outgrow this, or should i just kind of take the same approach of , eat this or go hungry. Usually i give the kids meals, and fruits, applesauce, yogurt ect are snacks with a meal. Should i just offer them the same thing and if she refuses she can be done, isntead of offering them different snacks that i know they will eat.
Is it a big deal? Right now she will only eat strawberries ( and is even starting to get picky about those) bananas and raspberries.
I also dont want to make mealtime a complete struggle, becuase she does normally eat what we put in front of her, its just the fruits that im having issues with. I hate that she wont eat them. I wish i could pack her fruits in her school lunch, but i dont want them to go to waste or have her be hungry at school. I hate sending processed snacks with her all the time, even though its only 3 days a week, it will be 4 come august.
Leah is like this with veggies. When she was younger, she ate several different types and now she'll only eat carrots, maybe corn. She'll try things after some prodding but like Mackenzie, will claim it's gross.
For now, I'm not forcing the issue. I still put a tiny portion on her plate and if she wants a snack/dessert after dinner, she has to at least try a bite. But since she's a really good eater otherwise, I don't fight the veggie issue more than that. Both my sister and I weren't big veggie eaters as kids, but our tastes changed and matured. I'd still offer them while making sure you still have the fruits she does like on hand.
Yea, i just dont want meal time to turn into a struggle with her. becuase really i cant complain about her other eating habits, she eats all meats, and most the veggies we eat in the house. She has always been weird about sweets ( like pies) so maybe she just really doesnt like fruit? Is that possible, lol
Gah Kate is doing the same thing with fruits!!! She LOVES fruits!! She'll eat them all day, every day! Until one day she just refuses to eat it. She's done it with strawberries, watermelon, some others to a lesser degree. Makes me so frustrated! I figure she'll start eating them again one day when the produce is a bit better than what we can get right now. Bah.
I focused for so long on trying to get them to eat veggies and fruits. So now we eat green beans almost every day because I know he will eat them. Same with fruit I always have what he will eat on hand and offer other types. Sometimes he will choose something new and likes them other times he sticks with what he likes.
Every couple days I give him the option to try something new and he can choose snack if he eats a few bites. Since she really isn't a terrible eater I wouldn't focus on it. Let her be and just keep encouraging her to try.
Such a normal 4 year old thing! Eric went through the same phase, and sometime in the second half of 4, it resolved and he became a fabulous eater of veggies...and an ok one with fruits. There aren't a LOT of fruits he'll eat still, but he loves to eat the ones he enjoys. Danny right now will only eat about 2 veggies and 1 kind of fruit for me - green beans, carrots, and mandarin oranges. I do some of the veggie+fruit juices out there with him, and I found these Motts fruit snacks that actually have some veggie and fruit in them, LOL.
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Natasha isn't big on fruits either. For the LONGEST time she only ate apples & bananas, that's it. Made it REALLY hard to make kindergarten snacks when she started at age 4. And the apples had to be peeled, too.
Now at 5.5... she's still picky. But she now eats her apples unpeeled, lol. But aside from apples, she'll eat: bananas, strawberries, watermelon, *sometimes* mandarin oranges, and *sometimes* a raspberry? lol. So still not that much!
HOWEVER, she loves smoothies. So I can blend anything with some yogurt and ice and orange juice and she drinks it right up.
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Julia - Mommy to 3 sweet kids Natasha - 6.5 Veronika - 5 and Sebastian - 17 months
Im glad to hear this is normal. I want to believe she just doesnt like them, but i think she is being stubborn, ill keep offering and see what happens.
I don't push meals/foods. I don't want mealtimes to be power trips for either of us. Pretty much the only things kids can really control in their little worlds is what goes into their bodies and what comes out which is why feeding and PTing are such roller coasters. If my kids are on a special fruit or veg kick I roll with it, since I know it'll pass eventually. Nolan went through a phase at 18 months where he was screaming/demanding up to 8 bananas a day-now he won't eat one to keep himself alive. Kids can be weird that way it seems.
“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” – Napoleon Hill
“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway...let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.”
“Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else's happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you're not sure what the right thing is...and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.”
Keep offering it. Supposedly it takes quite a few times before kids will eat it and like it. I think it might take millions of times though... We still have the eat it or not, you don't get anything else. It is frustrating most nights. I have to remember- MY job is to offer the good healthy foods, their job is to eat it, or not.
Same issues here, only Birk will not touch veggies, at all! He'll eat corn but that's it. He's pretty good with fruits, but not berries.. He grew into his picky habit, he never ate a lot during meals, but would always try everything. Now he won't even try most of what's put in front of him. He didn't use to like pizza, but I do, so I just kept making it and last time we had pizza he didn't say "I don't like pizza" once and ate a few bites without mentioning it. I'm stubborn, so if Birk doesn't try something I won't make him anything else.
