Fruit, fruit, fruit...

[lakoczera]

Hi everyone,
My daughter is 21 months old and loves fruit. She eats mainly raw foods, with the majority being fruit. I know it's much better than what most kids her age eat, but can she eat too much? She eats some veggies, but even avocados and tomatoes are technically fruits. I make green drinks for us each evening, but she doesn't want to drink them anymore. I want to trust that her body knows what she needs, but all she points to is fruit. I'd like to get some other parents opinions and maybe some ideas of how to work more veggies into her diet. We don't do many recipes, just whole foods, plain and simple. Also, do any of your toddlers take a B-12 supplement? We haven't gotten into that yet, and I was also wondering if I should take some sort of supplement. I just found out I'm pregnant and am debating prenatal vitamins, at least the type I know my doctor will give me. Thank you for your help, it will all be very appreciated!
Lacey

[juliebove]

Most kids seem to prefer fruit. Not mine though. She has always eaten apples, pears and "bow-nanas" as she called them as a toddler. Turns out she has a severe banana allergy so no more of those. But she liked them so much that she'd look around at the other people's shopping carts at the grocery store and if they didn't contain bananas, she take them some and insist that they needed them. Heh!

Now at age 8 she will eat the occasional orange. Sometimes grapes. She'll eat strawberries fresh from the garden, but no others. She'll eat blueberries in things but not by themselves. She'll eat raisins and other dried fruit on occasion. She'll eat most melon. That's about it for the fruit for her. I don't push it because I don't personally like fruit so I can see how she might not like the taste and texture of it.

She has always preferred the taste of vegetables to fruit as do I. And by vegetables I mean those things we eat as vegetables. She has always like baby carrots. Was eating those at about a year of age. She had all of her teeth by a year though and there was no fear of her choking. The other day we went out to eat and the put baby carrots on her plate. She shrieked, "I can't eat these! They're COOKED!" Hehe. As a toddler she also ate celery, cucumbers, peppers, and sometimes pieces of tomato.

By about age 4 her tastes seemed to have changed and she refused to eat raw tomato at all. Now she is starting to eat it again. She is starting to eat more things and will now eat salad, although she isn't overly fond of it.

What her former pediatrician told me is that toddlers tend to go in cycles with food. They might eat nothing but bananas for two weeks and then suddenly refuse to eat bananas and then will eat nothing but apples. This is very common. And at that age there is nothing to worry about provided they are growing as they should. Their bodies are still adjusting to their surroundings and they are learning to eat new things. You should provide the child with a variety of foods, but just small pieces, allowing them to taste the foods as they wish. My daughter had a habit of grabbing whatever she wanted off of my plate. I just never knew what she might want. Two things she could never be without though were black olives and green beans cooked to a mush. She loved those!

As for supplements, at that age I gave her liquid vitamins mixed in with her serving of juice. I didn't put in the full amount because I think she was really getting a pretty balanced diet, but I did give her about half the recommended amount. Now she doesn't much care for the supplements. Doesn't like the taste of them. I do use nutritional yeast in her food when I can. This does provide B vitamins.

[eachpeachpearplum]

My son (2yrs) & daughter (6yrs) both eat mainly fruit. I have always taken the approach of giving them what they want. As they are high raw this is fine. . .it's not like as many tweenkies as they want - LOL!

My son has been raw since birth and my daughter for about two years but before that she mostly ate whole foods, not dairy & grain since 2yrs - as she has sever intestinal issues and cannot eliminate ANY grain or processed food.

My son LOVES very green smoothies and downs between 2 - 4 cups a day, my daughter HATES them! In this I also add coconut butter & Lethecin(?). I give both kids Udo's oil too. So I make "red" smoothies for her slipping in as many greens as i can before the color changes - LOL!

Have a look at the recent "How much do you spend" thread posted last week I think and I have included a picture of JUST how much fruit we go through a week.

Given that very young kids cannot chew greens and most kids do not like them I am actually not too worried, I know that the desire will come as they mature. I also investigated the diet of baby & young Gorillas (LOL) to see what they eat . . .fruit, minimal leaves & a very few bugs! :rolleyes:

So in a nut shell; both eat mainly smoothies, fruit, all kinds of nuts & nut butters & dehydrated snacks (with lots of water). . They are both in excellent shape although thinner than EVERYBODIES kids.

The veggies they do like are cucumbers, little tomatos, salad w/ dressing, olives, mini carrots (sometimes) and she LOVEs whole corn on the cob!! Oh yes and marinated veggies especially the on the zucchini from Alissa's Lasagna!!

Oh also my kids have only EVER consumed water or fruit teas, period. Oh yah and breast milk! :p

[lakoczera]

Thank you for the responses. I did mix her veggie juice in with a banana tonight and she drank more than usual. I guess I'll just keep trying and if she doesn't drink it some nights, more for me! Yes, luckily we have a great produce stand nearby, as she certainly does have an endless appetite for fruit!
Any suggestions on the supplements or prenatals? Thanks!!!

[spicyfull]

Fruit sounds good to me. It is a whole food and a lot better that twinkies. You are doing a wonderful thing raising your children RAW............

[freetarian]

I wish I had been raised on fruit only...that would have spared me a lot of illnesses.

[Helen Of Tennessee]

My grandson will be 3 in a couple of weeks. He eats mostly all fruits. About the only veggies he gets are green smoothies, which he doesn't get that often. He does eat a lot of carrots, but then again, they aren't the "greens". On a rare occasion he'll eat some of my salad. I need to eat more salads in front of him and hope he wants to have it more frequently. He seems to be very healthy, so I'm not too concerned, but I do want to see him getting a little bit more greens in his diet, as I also need to do in mine.