Mary, mum to Ryan, 20 months, is a little concerned at
her son’s picky eating habits and apparent aversion to fruit…
“Ryan is a great eater and generally very energetic and healthy except for one thing…I cannot for the life of me convince him to eat fruit. I’ve tried begging, pleading, bribery, hiding it, cutting it into fun shapes for him and he still won’t touch it. He eats everything else just fine, including vegetables and mostly has a pretty good diet, except for the fruit.
I’m constantly reading about how important fruit is for kids and how they can be deficient in vitamin C and other important nutrients if they don’t eat it, but short of forcing it down his throat I don’t know what to do! It’s completely stressing me out, and I think that’s not helping. I offer it to him every day but I don’t want to put too much pressure on him and put him off it entirely. He’s pretty strong willed, as most toddlers are, and I know if I made a big deal out of it he’ll just dig his heels in and that will be the end of any chance he might try it.
I was just wondering if any other parents could help me – are they worried about their toddler’s nutrition or are they more relaxed about it? Is there anything I can do to help encourage Ryan to eat more fruit and will he be ok if he doesn’t?”
The results of our mums survey show that Mary should relax! The vast majority of mums of toddlers are fairly easygoing about their child’s eating habits and not overly concerned as to whether they are getting sufficient nutrition, even if their diets are fairly limited.
The biggest concerns that other mums had regarding their child’s eating habits were that they were having too much sugar, too much salt or not enough protein. Fruit and vegetable intake was a concern for some but ranked much lower than others. Just under 50% of respondents described their child as a picky eater, at least some of the time.
Our mums had plenty of suggestions as to how Mary might be able to get Ryan to eat a more varied diet including:
“Don’t give in - eventually most toddlers will eat what’s in front of them if they are not offered an alternative!” – Chrissie, Bath
“Persevere with offering different foods – it may take quite a number of attempts before they will even pick a new food up, let alone try it,” – Jane, Bedfordshire
“It is difficult but try not to let it get to you as they will pick up on it – look at things over the course of a week rather than what they did or didn’t eat at one meal,” – Janice, Kent