Help! My almost 3 year old have never been a good eater. In the US we used Vfruit juice & V8 fusion juice to help supplement his vegetable consumption. These products are a mixture of fruit & vegetable juice, and are quite tasty. I have been unable to find anything like this here. Does anyone know of a similar product or perhaps where I could find something like this? We are working on ways to introduce vegetables & fruits, and have been trying for the past year to get him to eat, but I really feel like I need something to help in the interim. We have yet to see a pediatrician here (will do in October), and perhaps they can also help. Just looking for any help - even advice! Thank you!

Could you make it yourself with a mixer or a juicer? You could even invite him to help you - perhaps cutting some of the softer stuff up, and pushing the big red button to make it go...

Just a thought...

Have you tried really sweet, soft fruits as a starter? Our toddler goes mad for bananas, blueberries, strawberries and really ripe peaches.

Also, if you look at the Hipp range of jarred foods they do a range of fruity yoghurts with muesli, that might be a compromise with could turn his tastebuds to fruit.

On the subject of the juice you mentioned, our pediatrician warned us off fruit juices as it's a killer for their teeth. If our son happens to have orange or apple juice we only let him have it with meals and then it is diluted about 1 part water to 3 parts juice.

Knorr makes a product called Vie. It is a mixture of fruit and veggie juice. I buy it in Coop. It is usually located next to all the other juices. They are small, one shot bottles. They have a couple of different flavors so maybe you can find one that appeals to your little one. I feel for you, I have one of these hopelessly, impossible eaters myself. Another trick that works is that she loves pizza so much so I buy the veggies that are finely cut up (very small plastic container at coop by the bagged salads) and put those on our homemade pizza. She doesn't notice them and slurps them up with the rest. I also order the fruit compote without added sugars from LeShop. They are in squeeze containers and she thinks they are dessert (I like them, too). Avocado is another easy one. She loves it cut up with aromat (yes, she is half-swiss!).

Good luck! And please share any tricks you have up your sleeve. I am always looking for new ideas.

I have yet to find a young child that doesn't like purees, e.g. potato and carrots, zuccini or why not pumpkin-puree now that we are in the pumpkin-season. Knorr has some nice ready made ones in tetrapak if one is in a hurry. The texture should be more liquid than the baby-purees but slightly thicker than a traditional soup. A splash of cream in it makes it softer in flavour.

As others have mentioned there is quite a few mixed vegetable and fruit juices available. I believe both Coop and Migros have several.

I know the feeling my little boy used to be terrible at eating fruit, and vegetables, used to blend all the vegatables into a liquid and add it to the food so it was like a sauce, and because he xould not see the green, or orange pieces he was happy to eat his dinner. For breakfast he eats quark, and as a yogurt drink (it is called Aktifit) which is full if vitamins.

Goodluck

As I know having a fussy eater can be really hard work! We tend to have the most success when he is involved with the cooking and also obviously is hungry without being too hungry (very tricky to get this right). Then use every opportunity to sneak in the good stuff. For example he is made about pasta and likes pesto sauce so easy to sneak in frozen spinach. Pizza as already mentioned, I add grated zucchini after the tomato paste. But vegetable juices also work well, again if is he part of the process of doing the juicing.
Good luck and try not to loose too much sleep over it!

HTD major would only eat pureed vegs from a jar. HTD minor never touched the stuff - would only eat what we were eating - a real problem before she got teeth

Good idea on the pumpkin. I usually cook it with potatoes and maked orange mashed potatoes. She loves it.

I used to grate apples for the girls when they were babies, as a step up from the jars of puree, thinking that they would make the transition to apple slices later much easier. Wrong! My oldest totally rejects apples in any form unless it is apple puree/compote. But the kid will eat any other fruit/berry put in front of her. Go figure!

We had the same problem with our youngest who is two now - he refused to eat it unless it was off our plates. I got around this by liquidising the veggies and then I would make soups and lasagne etc that I could add it to. The bonus was that my 10 year old who claims that the veggies make his stomache sore always guzzles these meals up and asks for seconds - no tummy-ache in sight

Both my little boys also have a problem eating veggis but my husband found something they love!

We buy Biotta juices (at a Drogerei) and mix carrot juice with beet juice. These are healthy juices without added sugar.

Thanks to all for your suggestions! I will try a few of these for sure. I think that my little guy has some other things going on too, as he WILL NOT even put a piece of fruit in his mouth! Yesterday I tried to give him some grapes and he absolutely refused them. So I will continue to offer and start hiding what ever I can in his meals. Thanks too for the suggestions on the juices/drinks. I've been trying not to stress too much, but it just gets so frustrating some days! I hope, like so many other things in my life, I'll look back on this in a few years and laugh. Thanks again, and keep the suggestions coming!

Frozen grapes will be tolerated by our daugher. Put some seedless ones on a toothpick and freeze, she'll also tolerate frozen fruit juice because she thinks it is a lolly. For added nutritional value a bit of natural yoghurt can be stirred into the moulds. I can assure you that our girl is a worse eater than your child can ever be. I have told her on several occasions that she'll get scurvy.

Every kid I know who has supposedly hated fruit has always been only too happy to suck on the slice of lemon they dug out of my glass of Coke on occasion.

I could never fathom that one out because if you don't like fruit, sucking on a lemon must be like drinking battery acid...

Kids, eh...

For really picky eaters, the best way is to sneak in relatively neutral-tasting vegetables into the food they normally love. For example, pureed courgettes with pasta or rice. My experience is also that you need to be persistent and offer them vegetables regularly even if they refuse to eat them. As long as you put some vegetables on their plate, chances are at some point they will start eating. Especially if they see you eating the same. I have never seen a kid that absolutely refused all vegetables all the time unless parents themselves did not eat or care or gave up offering.

But if he eats fruit, then there is no reason for concern. Apparently, everything you find in vegetables can be found in fruit as well.

A friend of mine in the UK informed his non-greens eating son in a hush-hush-don't-tell-your-mother kind of a way that if he ate his broccoli, green beans, peas, whatever he would be able to fart like his older brother.

Predictably this struck a chord with the little fella and he stuffed himself daft with his veggies thereafter.

My 27 month old son thinks melon is cake One day he kept asking for cake for dessert so we told him it was orange cake. He loves it.

You can hide the vegetables in rice or noodles. My son's fav food at the moment is spring onions, grated carrot and peas with red curry paste and noodles.

Zug Bound - you give me hope! I would love to compare notes on the eating habits of our respective children. I honestly have never seen a child refuse as much as this one does! I always thought that as he got a bit older I could 'reason' with him a bit more! HA! I will continue to persist! All of your comments have given me renewed hope! THANK YOU!

another tip - veg sticks and dip - most kids I know love to dip! - hommus is a fantastic healthy high protein veg dip...or just plain yoghurt.

My mum used to make the salad/veg part of dinner first, put it out on the kitchen bench or on the dining table, then go back to the kitchen to finish off 'dinner' - because we were hungry, we'd eat half the veg/salad before dinner was ready - whereas, serve the 'main course' first - you can forget the veggies!

Also, the example we set is the one our kids will follow - so if you or your husband are particular about their veg, the kids may be also..

Another one is try various options with cooking - my kids prefer raw broccoli and carrots to cooked ones...

Another one is to buy tinned veggies - now, culturally, I'd never use these, but gee it's easy to mush up those tinned baby carrots and hide them in anything...

And of course, if the kids help cook it, they are far more likely to eat it...

And my last piece of advice, write down what they do eat...for a few days, or anything they have tried and eaten, even just once - if they can 'stomach' it then they 'can' eat it - the food battles may not be actually because they don't like it - it might be because they are just exercising their right to say no, or because they are hanging out for something 'better', or just because they are not hungry...

Oh, and last one, try not to resort to hot chips - a friend fell for this one, and by age 4 her kid is twice the size of the other four year olds - mum keeps saying she can't understand how her daughter got so fat - after telling me at age three that the only thing she would eat was hot chips - so she was cooking them at home for her with every meal!!! - I tell you, that child did not starve!

I was shopping at Aligro on Saturday and I noticed that they sold V8!! Of course we a bit far from you. But 1.) if they sell it here, they should sell it there somewhere, 2.) if it's urgent, you can come to Lausanne sight seeing after you stop at the Aligro!
Good luck.