When Green Means “Gross!” – Parenting a Selective Eater

By Laura Johnstone

Today’s prompt might be about favourite fruits, but honestly – fruit is not the battle I’m fighting right now.

Right now, it’s green. The colour green. More specifically – anything green on my toddler’s plate.

Our daughter has decided that green is terrifying. Spinach? Launched. Peas? Flicked. Broccoli? Thrown with flair. If it’s green, it’s gone. And every day, we keep trying. Not because we expect her to suddenly fall in love with a leaf of rocket, but because we’re trying to gently desensitise her. We want green to feel less threatening, less yucky, less like an alien species invading her plate.

But here’s the thing. It doesn’t always work. In fact, right now, it never works. And some days, it’s hard not to feel like we’re failing – or that we’re doing something wrong. But we’re not. And neither are you.

Selective eating, especially around colours or textures, is so common in toddlers – and even more so for neurodivergent children. And for neurodivergent parents like us, it can bring back our own memories of food anxiety or sensory overload, making it even harder not to take it personally.

The day she doesn’t throw spinach across the room in disgust will feel like a major win. But until then, we celebrate the tiny victories: sniffing a pea, touching the broccoli, or simply letting something green stay on the plate (instead of the floor).

So if your child is also going through a green-food-phobia (or purple, or mushy, or anything “wet”), you’re not alone. We’re right there with you – one leaf at a time.

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Have you experienced food battles with your little one? What’s their no-go food? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to like and subscribe to follow our journey through all the good, the bad, and your parenting journey.

List your top 5 favorite fruits.