14 month old refuses to eat fruit and veggies

Hi All,

Just wondering if any of you have any tips for getting a 14 month old to eat fruit and veggies. I offer them at each snack and just veggies with lunch, the child refuses them all the time no matter how prepared. I try to hide them in meals and the child leaves the veggies every time. When I serve fruit I even try to squeeze the juice in their mouth to get a taste for it, doesn't work either. At snack time I often resort to giving the child yogurt or applesauce.

Yesterday I asked the one parent if the child eats fruits or veggies at home and was told only pureed ones. I hate to say it, but there is no way I will be pureeing the fruit and veggies and I feel the child is too old to continue on with baby food. I already have to give the child a bottle twice a day because the child refuses to hold it themselves.

Advice is much appreciated.

Sounds like texture is the issue as well as parents not keeping up with the child's eating development. I would still offer small bits of fruit. I purchase shredded carrots and broccoli in a bag and the kids eat them because they are crispy and cold. I would encourage the child by holding the fruit for child to take a bite of. As for the bottle? Place it in front of child put their hands on the bottle and leave them to it. This is just laziness and I would not hold a bottle for a child that age. I would let the parents know that they should stop pureeing the food and to work on child self feeding from bottle and food if child doesn't already. Geez, parents!

I personally would just express my concerns to the parents and ask them to help you out at home by giving the child peices of fruit and veggies with the meals. As for the bottle, do the parents still hold it for the child? If so, tell them to stop that too. I personally would not be holding a bottle for a child that old. Give it to the child, and if they don't want to feed themselves, then they don't get the bottle. The child is old enough not to need that bottle for nutritional purposes as they eat prepared food, so it is not a bad thing if they don't drink it. The child is used to being coddled at home it sounds like.

The first thing you need to do is stop giving in and doing the alternative. Serve what you serve and let the child choose to eat or not.

You can't force them to do it and every time you try (like squeezing the juice into their mouth) you are setting yourself up for a power struggle. It no longer is about eating or liking the fruit or vegetables, it is about not doing what you want them to do.

Serve the food and leave the rest. If he doesn't eat it then don't offer an alternative. Leave it alone and don't allow him to fill up on the things he does like. He has to feel hungry or feel something before he will change his ways. You can't do that part for him. He has to havenatural consequences

I have an 18 mth old dck who does not know how to feed himself using spoon/fork. Obviously parents don't encourage this at home either so no wonder. He does not eat anything unless it is puréed or extremely small chunks. Doesn't even chew it but instead leaves food in his mouth to dissolve. Arghhh! I just don't get parents who don't want to encourage development for their own child. I place same food as everyone else infront of him and hand him a spoon. Eventually he will have to get it.

I don't give bottles after 1 yr .... The child must be on a sippy cup.... Leave it in front of them and they will drink it when they are thirsty enough .... I have one that was totally breast feed and had no idea how to hold a cup or tip it up so I would put his hands on the handles and bring it to his mouth and then I would lift his elbows ... He figured it out after about a week ....

I dont do bottles- period. At that age, they are perfectly capable of drinking from a sippy. When he is thirsty enough, he will drink. Same with food. Kids get what I serve. After enough times of seeing the same things on their plate and witnessing everyone else eat it, they will evetually. I would suggest you have a chat with the parents to help improve the development of this little guy. They are almost stunting him by not allowing him to evolve. Good Luck

There are a few feeding systems where the nipples of the bottle can be used as an insert in the cup. The cup generally has handles on each side to assist child with holding. I would be using something like that at the table for the child with you holding the child's hands on the handles. Then as she gets it try swapping out the nipple for the sippy spout.

As for the fruits and veggies it isn't your job to serve something other than what you are serving to others her age. Mom can make up the difference at home at breakfast and supper till she teaches child to eat what you are serving. I have one in the same situation who is closing in on 17 months and mom still gives the little motts cups for most of her meals at home and other than sometimes a piece of banana eats no fruit at my house and been off veggies since 15 months. She gets a bit of pasta on her plate and 2-3 pieces of the fruit or veggie as I know I am going to waste it and the hope is that she will eat it some day and like them. Her mom still warms her bottles for her morning and night but says I don't have to. As a result I manage to get 3-4 ounces of milk into her the whole time she is with me but as long as I hold my ground she will come to realize there is no other choice.

I agree I have had a lil girl in my care (12 months old) for 2 and a half weeks she didnt eat period and I mean at all....mom insisted on packing snacks and said she didnt want me to waste anything but i wasn't gong to feed her just youguart and or puree so i put it in front of her would stick a piece or 2 in her mouth and everyday bit by bit it got better now she eats almost everything I put incfront of her we had spaghetti for lunch and she ate the entire bowl.......so lots of patience, offer it and walk away, don't cater to the child there just getting there way and it will get better :)

I agree with all comments. I have had several kids that at the beginning do not want to eat fruits or veggies... As everybody else has said all have improved with patience, never forcing to eat, they should not see that you care too much about it. Otherwise, it is a power struggle.

Oh SecondAve, I'm with ya! I have a little girl who only eats about 5 veggies but I keep trying to introduce interesting new ways to talk her into eating. She ate small raw brocolli florets for me last month because I told her she had to eat the whole forest. Her Mom was impressed!

My new baby girl hates fruit, all fruit! I serve fruit with every meal so I'm fumbling around trying to adjust but it takes some practice and you figure it all out. The most difficult time I had was with a little boy who wouldn't eat combined foods and now I'm out of practice with making nice simple dishes like a Shepherd's pie or chili!

With every new dc child comes new challenges. I have a 14 month old on a bottle still and I don't mind. I think it's completely up to the parents to decide when their child finishes the bottle.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Today I just put the bottle on the highchair tray and continued on with serving the other kids. Low and behold they picked it up and started drinking it. Drank the whole thing, not the usual slapping it away when I do it. I can handle this bottle thing for a while if they feed themselves. I'll just have to continue plugging away with the fruit and veggies issue. The best piece of advice you all gave was to not offer the yogurt or applesauce alternative. I am one of those people who always worry that a child is hungry, so often they end up getting fairly large snacks. And I do give them alternatives if they refuse what I offer. This ends today, with the obvious exception of knowing that they truly do not like a certain fruit/veggie, then they can have something else. Thanks for drawing to my attention my own part in this :)

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Originally Posted by SecondAve

Hi All,

Just wondering if any of you have any tips for getting a 14 month old to eat fruit and veggies. I offer them at each snack and just veggies with lunch, the child refuses them all the time no matter how prepared. I try to hide them in meals and the child leaves the veggies every time. When I serve fruit I even try to squeeze the juice in their mouth to get a taste for it, doesn't work either. At snack time I often resort to giving the child yogurt or applesauce.

Yesterday I asked the one parent if the child eats fruits or veggies at home and was told only pureed ones. I hate to say it, but there is no way I will be pureeing the fruit and veggies and I feel the child is too old to continue on with baby food. I already have to give the child a bottle twice a day because the child refuses to hold it themselves.

Advice is much appreciated.

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Stop giving the child any attention for these control issues. He IS controlling you. And you will always lose in a battle of eating because you can not force feed a child. So, in short, YOU are the only one who ends up frustrated.

Personally, I would stop holding the bottle at all. If the child wants to drink the bottle then HE can hold it. He'll learn pretty quick that if he wants to freak out about having it held for him it won't work. With the veg. I would just give him small amounts of the other foods and if he chooses to not eat the veg then it is also his choice to be hungry. He's not gonna starve himself to death. You are catering to his whims and that is why he won't eat other things. Just stop trying so hard.

I have a 14 month dcb who outright refused to eat veggies or hold his own sippy cup when he started. I simply kept offering. If he didn't hold the cup himself, he didn't get it. He knew how to do it, he just didn't want to. As for the veggies, he eats them now, too. He would eat everything else on his plate, and then stare at his veggies and scream at me for more food. I would show him his veggies. It took a few weeks, but now he eats them because he knows that he's not getting any other option.

I agree with others to just keep offering foods. Our job is to provide healthy food. The child's job is to decide what they will eat of that food. Having a son with food issues, I can say that forcing a child to eat is a surefire way to cause more issues with food.

As for the bottle, it may be worth considering, especially for wee ones new to care, that being held to bottle feed is about more than just nutrition. Some children need more physical touch and comfort than others. If holding them for five minutes while they have a bottle gives them the reassurance they need to continue on with a happy day, it's five minutes well spent to avoid hours of frustration for both the child and care giver.