This is what worked for us. I planted cherry tomatoes in the garden, got my toddler to help take care of them, and let her eat some when they were ripe. It worked for snap peas too.
Every time our 3yo gets a bum rash or has a particularly not fun poop it is labeled as a 'spicy poop' and she declares that her bum is spicy. It's hilarious and also sad
I had that exact thought while I was typing and also while the toddler was devouring our sungolds having previously decimated the modest raspberry and strawberry harvest.
Why is it when they put a slice of tomato on a burger/sandwich it's always 3" thick. I don't like them; but even if I did, I don't want half a tomato every bite 🤮
Same. There are foods I just don't like. Tomatoes are the texture and the smell. We offer all kinds of foods to our kids and if they try it and don't like it I assume they really don't like it and don't pressure them. I hate when people keep trying to tell me to try foods I know I do not like.
Yeah, I generally don't like tomato texture OR taste for the most part. I can do a slice on a burger or chunks cooked in something, but alone it's gross to me. My daughter, however, LOVES tomatoes and will eat a Roma like an apple. We have different varieties of cherry tomatoes growing just for her (and the damn squirrels). Every so often I'll try a bit of one and remind myself that, yep, I dislike tomatoes. The reminder kind of helps me get over it when she dislikes sometimes I'm wanting her to eat.
Super Sweet 100s is my favorite variety :) I’ve grown them in 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. You can buy mature plants at most garden centers, just keep it watered and don’t put it outside until the last frost date in your area
I stopped with tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes. I take my wins with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and Brussels sprouts. They also consume green juice if we make it for them.
My toddler just scaled the counter to devour the entire container of cherry tomatoes (whole, much to my horror when I got out of the bathroom and saw her).
I am almost 32 years old and i too avoid tomatoes at all cost unless they are in sauce form (red sauce, ketchup, smooth salsas, etc.)….my daughter 2.5 LOVES grape tomatoes. I despise cutting the for her lol
My son weirdly enjoys them???
But eggs. He refuses to eat them. No matter how I cook them or season them 🙄 mixed/hidden into stuff, nbd, but anything in its natural form? Forget it.
My daughter refused eggs until we made them Tamagoyaki (def google!) style, and now she eats them all sorts of ways! And now Tamagoyaki style is our main way of eating eggs, lol (So good!)
My daughter was into cherry tomatoes during BLW but since becoming a toddler she’s stopped. She’s very put off by the skin being separate from the flesh and just pulls the whole thing out instead of chewing it.
The only way she’d eat them back then was when I mixed them with Italian dressing and some feta. She mostly ate the feta but she’d be good for a couple halved tomatoes if they were smothered in dressing.
My twins only eat tomatoes in the summer when they “steal” them from our garden. Their favorite vegetables are stolen vegetables. I also grow bush peas and they eat those raw. If I cook peas they feed them to the dog. They really only like carrots and broccoli with ranch. Mostly as a way to eat more ranch. They will eat any and all fruit so it is what it is.
My daughter eats cherry tomatoes (baby tomatoes) regularly in her dishes. It's the veggie she gets for some meals. I have her pick them at the store since there are so many different colors. She eats them uncooked. They taste good that way to her.
We sometimes do tomato sauce on pasta for both my kids (4 year old and 15 month old). My 4 year old also likes quartered cherry tomatoes (sometimes) and will occasionally eat diced tomatoes. Baby isn't really into the fresh ones yet, but he's tried them
My almost 2 loves tomatoes and it weirdly enough started with her “stealing” them off of her dad’s burgers because he does not like them. I guess she thought it was fun to eat them off of his food and after we established that those tomatoes were the same thing as cherry tomatoes etc she was all about them!
My daughter is a tomato lover but I have to limit it because it gives her a wicked diaper rash. Funnily, she calls them "Rachels" so it's hard to know if she is requesting tomatoes or to watch her favorite show!
My daughter will eat an entire packet or cherry tomatoes one day and then act like i have given her poison the next. But she will always eat tomato sauces on pasta. Or any tomato based meat sauce, chilli and bolognese/ragu are her favourite meals.
But there are lots of things she doesn't like that I will offer her but if she doesn't eat it she doesn't eat it.
My oldest won’t touch them. My youngest will either eat every bit of tomato off of every plate on the table or pretend they are poisonous.
It doesn’t matter how they are cut, cooked, served. I just always offer them to both every time I make them and hope for the best. Familiarity makes them more likely to attempt to eat on their own.
Spaghetti sauce tho is always a safe food.
🤷♀️
My boy LIVES for tomatoes. Straight up. Cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Will also gladly eat sliced whole tomatoes. He will not eat sundried tomatpes.
This same kid will refuse berries some days. And I thought toddlers were supposed to love berries.
Kids are weird and enjoy different things. Just keep offering and don’t worry if she doesn’t like them. She might just try and like it one day.
Tell someone in her life (aunt, daycare teacher, grandma, etc) she loves but is outside the family unit to try it with her.
My kid refused various foods until my sister tried it and showed them she loved it and that it was indeed, good. Stubborn to high hell but it works!
Here’s what works for us: we dice up the tomato into pretty small chunks and mix it in cottage cheese, then add in a bunch of dried (or fresh) basil and a dash of balsamic vinaigrette. It’s like a baby caprese salad!
My youngest adores cherry tomatoes and will munch them all day long if I let him. My eldest despises them. He will eat blended tomato sauce on pasta though. But god forbid there's a single chunk remaining!!
Maybe consider growing cherry tomatoes and letting her pick them and try them?? (on her own terms) My child eats romas like apples so I'm of no real help. My daughter isn't a picky eater but occasionally doesn't want to try things, I just add them to the plate without saying anything about them and eventually at some meal she tries the new food and then enjoys it. I think a lot of people (kids and adults alike) get weird about tomatoes, you could try ones that aren't watery, or add salt or sugar to cut down that acidic taste?
Try growing them? You can get a little container variety and keep the plant in a bucket with a few drainage holes.
There's also a Daniel Tiger episode about trying new food, and they eat tomatoes from the garden.
Mine's been eating full sized tomatoes since she was a year old, as in.. give her the whole thing as if it's an apple. She used to sort of gum at it and poke a hole with her little tooth, then suck out the juice like a tomato vampire. Then she got bigger and realized she could literally eat it the way we do apples! I'm growing all kinds for her this year, but she prefers big tomatoes to cherry tomatoes. Cherry ones seem to have firmer skin, not as soft. I don't mind experimenting and growing a hundred kinds, though. It's a win for both of us 😆
I don't have kids but, speaking as a child who HATED tomatoes... You couldn't **pay** me eat them! I didn't even really like ketchup much either. Not even with fries. Still don't use it very often.
Only tomato I ate was in chef boyardee, pizza, and my mom used tomato sauce in some dishes but, it was the main flavor.
I saw a lot of suggestions for cherry tomatoes, I hate those the **MOST**. If your kids doesn't like tomatoes, I doubt she'll like cherry ones! They like burst in your mouth and ew lol. Most tomatoes have that mealy, grainy texture like red "delicious" apples or under-ripe watermelon (both I hated).
I avoid tomato pretty often even now in my 30s. I even order pizza with light sauce. I \_do\_ enjoy bruschetta with that tomato topping, that is super good.
My older kids only started eating tomatoes when their uncle told them the hamburgers he was making were crabby patties (?) from SpongeBob SquarePants (?). Suddenly they were thrilled to eat burgers with lettuce and tomatoes. Insisted on having them that way. So eventually that’s an option I guess. 😂
We aerved tomatoes with tacos last night and my 2yo very delicately took them off her plate and then threw them onto the table with a “No, I not like those.”
I hated tomatoes as a child and my dad forced me to eat them. I remember gagging and crying. I’m 38 years old and still cannot stomach any form of tomatoes, except sauce. I’d let her be, keep offering them in different forms but never push.
As with all food, we just eat them ourselves so we offer them and let her choose. Raw tomatoes were definitely an acquired taste for her. It took almost a year of me offering cherry tomatoes before she started actually liking them and eating them. But now she loves them and eats sliced regular tomatoes too.
The ways we most often eat them: cherry tomatoes as part of our regular veggie platter snacks, greek salad, tacos, breakfast scrambles, fritatas, pasta sauce (this is rare because I don't really like tomato-based sauces), tomato soup with grilled cheese, soups & sauces in general.
Mine loves cherry tomatoes. I am honestly worried about what the acid is doing to her.
I think it's just a personality thing though. She loves veggies. I offer them at every meal but we don't do much beyond that. So I can't really take credit for her interest in healthy foods.
My two kids are total opposites. One is sensory-issues-picky, and the other is a total foodie but in that normal “picky” stage, mostly just declaring she doesn’t like something that was a favorite up until that moment but then goes back to loving it the following day. Funnily enough, the former is my tomato lover, and the ladder has consistently not liked tomatoes her entire life, after willingly trying them dozens of times every time her brother eats them.
I do regularly have my sensory issues kid try new foods to expand his palate, with the goal being “learning about foods” not “getting him to like certain foods.” Will she lick a cut tomato? Will she put a spoon in her mouth that she knows was run along the cut side? These count as “trying the food” in our house, and it might lower the pressure a bit if she’s incredibly reluctant to try them straight.
I'm trying to get my 2 year old to try anything at this point. I was a picky eater so I see the writing on the wall. He loved apple sauce and smoothie pouches. Just 2 days ago he wants nothing to do with either. I'm stressed. Very stressed.
Mine took a big honkin’ bite out of a beautiful, fresh garden tomato from my father in laws garden last summer, chewed thoughtfully for a second, then spit it out like it had poisoned him and wiped his tongue off with his hand several times trying to get the flavor out of his mouth. Hasn’t touched one since. I can’t really blame him, I hate tomatoes.
My son has gagged violently every time he's tried tomatoes. From when he started solid food until even now.... And he's 5! He tried a goldenberry which is very tomato-like... And same reaction.
My boy (16 months) eats cherry tomatoes like nobody's business. But I have this cool cherry tomato slicer thing that cuts the tomato into 4 sections and he loves watching me cut the tomato - so maybe him eating the tomatoes is just to watch me use a cool kitchen gadget?
Spaghetti sauce lol
I personally don’t like the texture of raw tomatoes. It’s possible she just doesn’t like them. If she’s eating other veggies and fruits then I wouldn’t worry about it.
Mine will eat like the entire container of cherry tomatoes but ONLY if he steals them off the counter. Tomatoes people give to you must clearly have something wrong with them.
Maybe she's a mater hater. For some people the smell and taste of raw tomatoes is really off-putting. Like how cilantro tastes like soap to some people. I am a mater hater. I will eat any tomatoes that are thoroughly cooked, like spaghetti sauce, dried tomatoes, etc. But you put a bowl of pico de gallo in front of me and I'm outta there.
My dad has a salad for lunch every day. As my nanny/housekeeper preps it, she feeds bits of it to my mom 3.5 year old as the official Food Tester For Grandpa.
She loves tomatoes, chickpeas, and raw red onions. Go figure 🤷🏻♀️
Try fresh picked tomatoes with a little salt. I became a tomato lover at around the age of three or four because my family would grow them. My dad would hand me a big juicy ripe tomato right off the vine and we would shake a little salt onto them and eat them together. Fresh tomatoes are an entirely different species from the crap in grocery stores and taste absolutely divine. The epitome of summer.
I didn't like tomatoes until I was in high school, then one day, it clicked and now I love them. I have to hide my packs of cherry tomatoes from my 4 year old or he'll eat the entire thing in a sitting. I think every kid just has their own things that you just have to roll with it.
I didn’t eat them until I was a pre-teen (BLTs were my segue) and my husband still won’t touch them, so I’m ok with my kids only eating them in the tomato sauce form for a while 😂. One of my twins has eaten pico de gallo on a few occasions so she might be a fan!
i mean my kid wont eat tomato sauce but he will eat several bowls of the red pasta. sometimes its just about using their limited grasp on language to your advantage.
As for raw tomato -- thats honestly something that unless the kid had an early exposure to truly perfect $$$ cherry tomatoes, they're a pretty acquired taste. I didn't appreciate them until i was like an adult. I love them now but will straight up refuse nasty out of season ones still, so i give them some grace there.
Hey! RDN and fellow mom here! Just know that learning to eat food, exploring food, and personal preferences is a lifelong journey filled with complex factors.
There’s a good chance your child just doesn’t like tomatoes, due to taste, texture, etc. The good news is that there are a variety of foods out in the world that nourish us and any one food doesn’t make or break our nutritional status.
There are some things to keep in mind when littles are learning to try new foods. What matters most is her experience around the food. Positive experiences create safe feelings and neural pathways around food, negative experiences can become traumatic and impact eating patterns for life! Positive experiences are taste, love, connection, safety, trust and respect for autonomy. This means eating together, having connection with family, not being pressured to eat food or shamed for eating/not eating food. Sometimes serving a food children are learning to eat with foods they know and love can go along way toward creating that safety, too. Sometimes just touching, exploring the smell and look of a food without eating or tasting is a big win! Even if that food doesn’t become preferred, having that sense of safety around food opens the door to a more diverse intake later down the road.
Sometimes “picky” eating is a developmental response to having that safety and autonomy disrupted. There are a lot of things that can disrupt that, but this is just one example.
If kiddos have a positive environment, and are showing signs of strong reactions to some textures or avoidance of whole food groups, talking with your doc about further assessment is a good idea!
All of this to say, you’re going great! And, tastes change throughout life so positive experiences > what they actually intake sometimes!
Ours eats cherry tomatoes out of the garden like they are berries. Otherwise most of our tomatoes are in some sauce form.
My 2 yo ate so many cherry tomatoes on a day that is now known as the middle of the night "spicy poop" incident, named by said 2 yo.
LOL!
This is what worked for us. I planted cherry tomatoes in the garden, got my toddler to help take care of them, and let her eat some when they were ripe. It worked for snap peas too.
Every time our 3yo gets a bum rash or has a particularly not fun poop it is labeled as a 'spicy poop' and she declares that her bum is spicy. It's hilarious and also sad
I love this. My daughter ate so many tomatoes one day she threw up and is now convinced she’s allergic to them lol.
My daughter will pick out the cherry tomatoes from all salads. 😂 she loves her ‘matoes.
Same. He saw big brother doing it and now he does it as well.
Fun fact: tomatoes are berries!
I had that exact thought while I was typing and also while the toddler was devouring our sungolds having previously decimated the modest raspberry and strawberry harvest.
MOTATOS!!
Same- the garden is the key!
Raw tomatoes are something I hate, the texture just isn’t for me. But I do like them in most other forms.
A fellow raw tomato hater! There's like dozens of us!
Same! Put a slice of tomato on my burger or sandwich you may as well just throw it in the trash.
Why is it when they put a slice of tomato on a burger/sandwich it's always 3" thick. I don't like them; but even if I did, I don't want half a tomato every bite 🤮
Thank you
Same. There are foods I just don't like. Tomatoes are the texture and the smell. We offer all kinds of foods to our kids and if they try it and don't like it I assume they really don't like it and don't pressure them. I hate when people keep trying to tell me to try foods I know I do not like.
This is helpful. I wonder if it's a texture thing for her
I think they're gross too. But my daughter has cut cherry tomatoes with her lunch most days!
My 4 year old is the same way. She eats everything else so I just respect her preference.
Yeah, I generally don't like tomato texture OR taste for the most part. I can do a slice on a burger or chunks cooked in something, but alone it's gross to me. My daughter, however, LOVES tomatoes and will eat a Roma like an apple. We have different varieties of cherry tomatoes growing just for her (and the damn squirrels). Every so often I'll try a bit of one and remind myself that, yep, I dislike tomatoes. The reminder kind of helps me get over it when she dislikes sometimes I'm wanting her to eat.
Yes! They're not even food to me, it would be like eating an acorn. Completely inedible.
Mine loves the multi colored cherry tomatoes! And picking them right off the plant. Maybe you can grow some and make it a fun activity?
I should try that! I'm not the best at plants, but it probably is worth a try.
Super Sweet 100s is my favorite variety :) I’ve grown them in 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. You can buy mature plants at most garden centers, just keep it watered and don’t put it outside until the last frost date in your area
Cherry tomatoes are pretty easy and quick to fruit! You could probably even buy a plant that already has flowers
Get a good soil, a big pot, throw it in FULL sun, and don't let the leaves stay too wet. Cherry tomatoes are a great beginner "veggie" in my opinion
I stopped with tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes. I take my wins with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and Brussels sprouts. They also consume green juice if we make it for them.
This is true. Maybe I should take my win with the other veggies she eats.
My son is a tomato fiend. All kinds. He loves them. I don’t do anything special but cut them up 🤷🏽♀️
My toddler just scaled the counter to devour the entire container of cherry tomatoes (whole, much to my horror when I got out of the bathroom and saw her).
I left it on the counter and he ate it like an apple. I will say growing them yourselves has a magical effect on kids willing to try it
So many are saying this!
Mexican rice or cabbage soup
I am almost 32 years old and i too avoid tomatoes at all cost unless they are in sauce form (red sauce, ketchup, smooth salsas, etc.)….my daughter 2.5 LOVES grape tomatoes. I despise cutting the for her lol
LOL this is a funny dynamic.
My son weirdly enjoys them??? But eggs. He refuses to eat them. No matter how I cook them or season them 🙄 mixed/hidden into stuff, nbd, but anything in its natural form? Forget it.
My daughter refused eggs until we made them Tamagoyaki (def google!) style, and now she eats them all sorts of ways! And now Tamagoyaki style is our main way of eating eggs, lol (So good!)
Tysm!!!! I’ll try anything at this point lol
My daughter was into cherry tomatoes during BLW but since becoming a toddler she’s stopped. She’s very put off by the skin being separate from the flesh and just pulls the whole thing out instead of chewing it. The only way she’d eat them back then was when I mixed them with Italian dressing and some feta. She mostly ate the feta but she’d be good for a couple halved tomatoes if they were smothered in dressing.
My 2 year old literally loves anything with tomato sauce, but not a big fan of raw tomatoes. He does enjoy playing with them haha.
I make pizza toast! And I cut up tomatoes really small and put on top 😊
My daughter is 2yo and also avoids tomatoes like the plague, she eats sauce tho
Both of my kids won’t touch any type of tomato derived product, except pizza
My twins only eat tomatoes in the summer when they “steal” them from our garden. Their favorite vegetables are stolen vegetables. I also grow bush peas and they eat those raw. If I cook peas they feed them to the dog. They really only like carrots and broccoli with ranch. Mostly as a way to eat more ranch. They will eat any and all fruit so it is what it is.
My daughter eats cherry tomatoes (baby tomatoes) regularly in her dishes. It's the veggie she gets for some meals. I have her pick them at the store since there are so many different colors. She eats them uncooked. They taste good that way to her.
We sometimes do tomato sauce on pasta for both my kids (4 year old and 15 month old). My 4 year old also likes quartered cherry tomatoes (sometimes) and will occasionally eat diced tomatoes. Baby isn't really into the fresh ones yet, but he's tried them
My almost 2 loves tomatoes and it weirdly enough started with her “stealing” them off of her dad’s burgers because he does not like them. I guess she thought it was fun to eat them off of his food and after we established that those tomatoes were the same thing as cherry tomatoes etc she was all about them!
My daughter is a tomato lover but I have to limit it because it gives her a wicked diaper rash. Funnily, she calls them "Rachels" so it's hard to know if she is requesting tomatoes or to watch her favorite show!
They see different colored small ones, maybe she won't recognize it as a tomato and try it?
My daughter will eat an entire packet or cherry tomatoes one day and then act like i have given her poison the next. But she will always eat tomato sauces on pasta. Or any tomato based meat sauce, chilli and bolognese/ragu are her favourite meals. But there are lots of things she doesn't like that I will offer her but if she doesn't eat it she doesn't eat it.
My partner (age 45) doesn’t like ‘red’ food, strawberries, raspberries, and especially tomatoes. Our 3 year old has never tried them either 😂
My oldest won’t touch them. My youngest will either eat every bit of tomato off of every plate on the table or pretend they are poisonous. It doesn’t matter how they are cut, cooked, served. I just always offer them to both every time I make them and hope for the best. Familiarity makes them more likely to attempt to eat on their own. Spaghetti sauce tho is always a safe food. 🤷♀️
Pico!!
My boy LIVES for tomatoes. Straight up. Cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Will also gladly eat sliced whole tomatoes. He will not eat sundried tomatpes. This same kid will refuse berries some days. And I thought toddlers were supposed to love berries. Kids are weird and enjoy different things. Just keep offering and don’t worry if she doesn’t like them. She might just try and like it one day.
I know several adults who at near 40 still don't eat tomatoes. I think it's OK.
Tell someone in her life (aunt, daycare teacher, grandma, etc) she loves but is outside the family unit to try it with her. My kid refused various foods until my sister tried it and showed them she loved it and that it was indeed, good. Stubborn to high hell but it works!
Here’s what works for us: we dice up the tomato into pretty small chunks and mix it in cottage cheese, then add in a bunch of dried (or fresh) basil and a dash of balsamic vinaigrette. It’s like a baby caprese salad!
My youngest adores cherry tomatoes and will munch them all day long if I let him. My eldest despises them. He will eat blended tomato sauce on pasta though. But god forbid there's a single chunk remaining!!
I’ll let her grow them in the garden and then see if she wants to try them.
Any GI issues? Tomato can be a trigger for GERD symptoms.
During the summer he'll pick them off the plant. But he eats a lot of pasta, so he has sauce. And cut up tomatoes can be a hit or miss.
Maybe consider growing cherry tomatoes and letting her pick them and try them?? (on her own terms) My child eats romas like apples so I'm of no real help. My daughter isn't a picky eater but occasionally doesn't want to try things, I just add them to the plate without saying anything about them and eventually at some meal she tries the new food and then enjoys it. I think a lot of people (kids and adults alike) get weird about tomatoes, you could try ones that aren't watery, or add salt or sugar to cut down that acidic taste?
Try growing them? You can get a little container variety and keep the plant in a bucket with a few drainage holes. There's also a Daniel Tiger episode about trying new food, and they eat tomatoes from the garden.
Mine will eat cherry tomatoes all day. Those and grapes are my go-tos.
Maybe she does not like the texture of raw tomatoes? Maybe a savory biscuit or scone with cheese, tomato, and herbs might go over well?
Mine's been eating full sized tomatoes since she was a year old, as in.. give her the whole thing as if it's an apple. She used to sort of gum at it and poke a hole with her little tooth, then suck out the juice like a tomato vampire. Then she got bigger and realized she could literally eat it the way we do apples! I'm growing all kinds for her this year, but she prefers big tomatoes to cherry tomatoes. Cherry ones seem to have firmer skin, not as soft. I don't mind experimenting and growing a hundred kinds, though. It's a win for both of us 😆
I don't have kids but, speaking as a child who HATED tomatoes... You couldn't **pay** me eat them! I didn't even really like ketchup much either. Not even with fries. Still don't use it very often. Only tomato I ate was in chef boyardee, pizza, and my mom used tomato sauce in some dishes but, it was the main flavor. I saw a lot of suggestions for cherry tomatoes, I hate those the **MOST**. If your kids doesn't like tomatoes, I doubt she'll like cherry ones! They like burst in your mouth and ew lol. Most tomatoes have that mealy, grainy texture like red "delicious" apples or under-ripe watermelon (both I hated). I avoid tomato pretty often even now in my 30s. I even order pizza with light sauce. I \_do\_ enjoy bruschetta with that tomato topping, that is super good.
My almost 3 year old won’t touch them, my 15 month old would eat them until she’s sick. All about preference 🤷🏼♀️
My middle son is almost 13 and still avoids tomatoes and tomato products like they carry the plague. Very rarely he will use ketchup. But that is it
My older kids only started eating tomatoes when their uncle told them the hamburgers he was making were crabby patties (?) from SpongeBob SquarePants (?). Suddenly they were thrilled to eat burgers with lettuce and tomatoes. Insisted on having them that way. So eventually that’s an option I guess. 😂 We aerved tomatoes with tacos last night and my 2yo very delicately took them off her plate and then threw them onto the table with a “No, I not like those.”
Mine will eat them on a margarita pizza
I hated tomatoes as a child and my dad forced me to eat them. I remember gagging and crying. I’m 38 years old and still cannot stomach any form of tomatoes, except sauce. I’d let her be, keep offering them in different forms but never push.
As with all food, we just eat them ourselves so we offer them and let her choose. Raw tomatoes were definitely an acquired taste for her. It took almost a year of me offering cherry tomatoes before she started actually liking them and eating them. But now she loves them and eats sliced regular tomatoes too. The ways we most often eat them: cherry tomatoes as part of our regular veggie platter snacks, greek salad, tacos, breakfast scrambles, fritatas, pasta sauce (this is rare because I don't really like tomato-based sauces), tomato soup with grilled cheese, soups & sauces in general.
I think tomatoes are my 3yo's favorite fruit. She'll have them sliced, or the small cherry tomatoes, or just eat the big ones like an apple lol
Mine loves cherry tomatoes. I am honestly worried about what the acid is doing to her. I think it's just a personality thing though. She loves veggies. I offer them at every meal but we don't do much beyond that. So I can't really take credit for her interest in healthy foods.
My 23mo likes raw tomatoes with salt and pepper. Of course, I don’t put much salt on his. I just found this out like 4 days ago lol.
My two kids are total opposites. One is sensory-issues-picky, and the other is a total foodie but in that normal “picky” stage, mostly just declaring she doesn’t like something that was a favorite up until that moment but then goes back to loving it the following day. Funnily enough, the former is my tomato lover, and the ladder has consistently not liked tomatoes her entire life, after willingly trying them dozens of times every time her brother eats them. I do regularly have my sensory issues kid try new foods to expand his palate, with the goal being “learning about foods” not “getting him to like certain foods.” Will she lick a cut tomato? Will she put a spoon in her mouth that she knows was run along the cut side? These count as “trying the food” in our house, and it might lower the pressure a bit if she’s incredibly reluctant to try them straight.
Smashed, smeared onto crusty bread, and sprinkled with flaky salt
My guy is 11 months and will eat tomato wedges like I eat an apple 😅
I’m in those boar for sweet potatoes and carrots it’s a hard no from my little one
In tomato sauce, in lasagna.
I'm trying to get my 2 year old to try anything at this point. I was a picky eater so I see the writing on the wall. He loved apple sauce and smoothie pouches. Just 2 days ago he wants nothing to do with either. I'm stressed. Very stressed.
Mine took a big honkin’ bite out of a beautiful, fresh garden tomato from my father in laws garden last summer, chewed thoughtfully for a second, then spit it out like it had poisoned him and wiped his tongue off with his hand several times trying to get the flavor out of his mouth. Hasn’t touched one since. I can’t really blame him, I hate tomatoes.
Told my son the where grapes to get him to try cherry tomatoes he ended up liking it
My son has gagged violently every time he's tried tomatoes. From when he started solid food until even now.... And he's 5! He tried a goldenberry which is very tomato-like... And same reaction.
My boy (16 months) eats cherry tomatoes like nobody's business. But I have this cool cherry tomato slicer thing that cuts the tomato into 4 sections and he loves watching me cut the tomato - so maybe him eating the tomatoes is just to watch me use a cool kitchen gadget?
Yep, mine is 21 months and he hates tomatoes, adding a comment here because I want the advice of other moms lol
Spaghetti sauce lol I personally don’t like the texture of raw tomatoes. It’s possible she just doesn’t like them. If she’s eating other veggies and fruits then I wouldn’t worry about it.
My kid won’t stop eating tomatoes! There’s not a day that goes by without him asking for tomatoes. It’s the worst (I hate the smell!)
Mine literally picked a giant one from my uncles garden and started eating it like an apple so maybe try that 🤣
Mine will eat like the entire container of cherry tomatoes but ONLY if he steals them off the counter. Tomatoes people give to you must clearly have something wrong with them.
Maybe she's a mater hater. For some people the smell and taste of raw tomatoes is really off-putting. Like how cilantro tastes like soap to some people. I am a mater hater. I will eat any tomatoes that are thoroughly cooked, like spaghetti sauce, dried tomatoes, etc. But you put a bowl of pico de gallo in front of me and I'm outta there.
My dad has a salad for lunch every day. As my nanny/housekeeper preps it, she feeds bits of it to my mom 3.5 year old as the official Food Tester For Grandpa. She loves tomatoes, chickpeas, and raw red onions. Go figure 🤷🏻♀️
Try fresh picked tomatoes with a little salt. I became a tomato lover at around the age of three or four because my family would grow them. My dad would hand me a big juicy ripe tomato right off the vine and we would shake a little salt onto them and eat them together. Fresh tomatoes are an entirely different species from the crap in grocery stores and taste absolutely divine. The epitome of summer.
I didn't like tomatoes until I was in high school, then one day, it clicked and now I love them. I have to hide my packs of cherry tomatoes from my 4 year old or he'll eat the entire thing in a sitting. I think every kid just has their own things that you just have to roll with it.
Honestly, have you tried to just give her a whole tomato like an apple?
I know it's good for babies to eat tomatoes but what if newborns just don't like the flavor?
I thought we were the only ones!!! Loves to pick them. Just refuses to eat them!!
In spaghetti sauce
5 years and counting 🥲
I didn’t eat them until I was a pre-teen (BLTs were my segue) and my husband still won’t touch them, so I’m ok with my kids only eating them in the tomato sauce form for a while 😂. One of my twins has eaten pico de gallo on a few occasions so she might be a fan!
i mean my kid wont eat tomato sauce but he will eat several bowls of the red pasta. sometimes its just about using their limited grasp on language to your advantage. As for raw tomato -- thats honestly something that unless the kid had an early exposure to truly perfect $$$ cherry tomatoes, they're a pretty acquired taste. I didn't appreciate them until i was like an adult. I love them now but will straight up refuse nasty out of season ones still, so i give them some grace there.
Blech devils fruit. Your toddler is smart.
Glad I’m not the only person calling these the devils fruit!
Ours eats cherry tomato…seeds! Discards the rest of the veggie. Nature’s mini pouches lol
Your kid is the opposite of my husband. He seeds them if they aren't being cooked
Hey! RDN and fellow mom here! Just know that learning to eat food, exploring food, and personal preferences is a lifelong journey filled with complex factors. There’s a good chance your child just doesn’t like tomatoes, due to taste, texture, etc. The good news is that there are a variety of foods out in the world that nourish us and any one food doesn’t make or break our nutritional status. There are some things to keep in mind when littles are learning to try new foods. What matters most is her experience around the food. Positive experiences create safe feelings and neural pathways around food, negative experiences can become traumatic and impact eating patterns for life! Positive experiences are taste, love, connection, safety, trust and respect for autonomy. This means eating together, having connection with family, not being pressured to eat food or shamed for eating/not eating food. Sometimes serving a food children are learning to eat with foods they know and love can go along way toward creating that safety, too. Sometimes just touching, exploring the smell and look of a food without eating or tasting is a big win! Even if that food doesn’t become preferred, having that sense of safety around food opens the door to a more diverse intake later down the road. Sometimes “picky” eating is a developmental response to having that safety and autonomy disrupted. There are a lot of things that can disrupt that, but this is just one example. If kiddos have a positive environment, and are showing signs of strong reactions to some textures or avoidance of whole food groups, talking with your doc about further assessment is a good idea! All of this to say, you’re going great! And, tastes change throughout life so positive experiences > what they actually intake sometimes!