18 month old vegetarian diet.. Is this normal?!

[user1473861364]

Hi I have a vegetarian 18 month old child and Im wondering how her diet compares to other kids her age...obviously with being vegetarian I want to ensure she is getting enough variety. She won't eat her lunch at nursery which is usually soup, so just ends up eating a bit of bread. Here is a list of what she WILL eat...

Fruit (berries, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, mango, sometimes melon, and raisins and other dried fruit)
Vegetables - avocado (if it's on toast), cucumber slices, sometimes cheery tomatoes, she loves cooked broccoli brussels sprouts and sweet potato, sometimes green beans, and I can hide courgette onions and peppers in her food. She likes spinach but only with pasta and cream cheese.
Toast - I give her wholegrain or bread with seeds in it
Baked beans (I give her the low salt variety), and sometimes she will eat other types of beans in food - bean burgers etc.
Cheese - cheddar, mozzarella, edam.
Nut butters - almond, peanut, tahini.
Noodles, small pasta shapes, spaghetti.
Porridge, weetabix, ground muesli with coconut and oats
Mixed seeds
Tofu
Quorn chicken nuggets (quite salty so not too often), quorn mince.
Eggs - scrambled, boiled.
Milk and nut/soy milk and fruit smoothies. She has 2 milks a day.

I try not to give her too many sugary treats but she sometimes has a carob chocolate and some of those puffed wheat crisp things and she likes dried cheerios.
Sometimes she will try soup i give her but only if she has a cheese toast to dip in!
The only ready made baby food i give her is a green risotto from M and S which has peas, courgette and spinach. She won't eat homemade versions though!
She also hates hummus despite loving it when she was tiny.
She HATES rice

It looks like quite a lot written out but a lot she will only eat in certain combinations so it's still quite limited I feel. Typical main meals are

Tofu and veg stir fry with noodles and peanut butter sauce
Cheese and spinach pasta
Veggie burgers and broccoli
Omelette
Quorn spag bol
Avocado on toast with low salt beans
A mixed plate with fruit, veggies, plain pasta/cheerios, egg/quorn nuggets etc. which she seems to enjoy picking away at
Cheese or peanut butter sandwiches with fruit and cucumber sticks (basically lunch every day!)


I give her a multi vitamin too.
I feel she relies on fruit and toast a lot. Is this normal. Thoughts please!?

[Dizzydodo]

My 19 month old is not veggie, but would live off fruit, crackers, yoghurt and rich tea biscuits if she could. I think they are just funny creatures at this age, I try not to worry about it too much! Just keep offering a variety of things but don't expect it to be eaten (like my lovingly made burrito which was met with a look of disdain and a 'no more' after not even touching it, which then turned into a sobbing, plate chucking strop)

[user1473861364]

Oops forgot to say she also loves Greek yogurt and Hates potatoes!

[user1473861364]

Thanks for the reply - I agree and sometimes its such a struggle to decide whether to go to the bother of making something new which they will probably hate or whether to stick to a trusted but boring favourite!

[golfmonkey]

Sounds like she has loads of variety. My 21 month old is similar and often refuses lovingly homemade stuff I KNOW she likes! I think there is a scientific law which says that the more effort you put in to the meal, the less likely they are to like it, or even try it. Sigh.

[cornishglos]

My two are veggie but eat fish (so not really veggie, I know). They don't eat as much variety as yours but will eat

Peanut butter
Beans
Houmous
Cheese
Eggs
Peas
Fish
Seeds
All fruit
Mash
Sweet potato
Cereals and porridge
Milk
Pasta
Quorn sausages
Falafels
Bread
Cakes
Yoghurt

I don't worry about their diet really. One is fussy and won't eat tomato, rice or most veg.

[uhoh2016]

In my experience children go through liking and not liking different foods as they grow up regardless whether veggie or not. When 1st weaning I found my dc ate anything I gave them then around 18m it got a bit more limited. Prepare yourself for ages 3 and 4 when they will rarely have much variety what they will and won't eat (ds1 practically lived off salmon paste sandwich es) now he's 9 and his food variety has grown greatly again since then and now eats most things although he refuses anything potato based in any format.
Just go with whatever they are happy to eat that day and make it as healthy as you can.
Some days my youngest dc won't have the best meals ie a hot dog or cheese on toast not very nutritional but I make sure he his snacks are healthy were as if he's had a balanced meal chicken veg etc I'll let him have a biscuit for snack.

[AlpacaLypse]

I'm at the far end of this long slow process now. I set a rule very early that everyone had to try a tiny bit of everything, if you don't like it, that's cool, we'll try again another day. Because I can remember very clearly thinking that mushrooms were devil food when I was little, but now I love them

It's worked, they both eat most foods, except that dd2 has chosen to be vegetarian for ethical reasons. And this works quite well too, it means that as a family we eat vegetarian five nights out of seven, and on the two meat nights, dd1 dp and me indulge in high welfare standard quality cuts of meat.

We only eat fish if it's truly locally caught and not farmed.

[roseteapot101]

i would add some beans and lentils for more variety they have no salt and are very nutritious full of protein .like lentil bolenase

like a bean chilli my daughter likes this

vege chilli 2 cans chopped tomato's,can of red kidney beans,can of butter beans,2 courgettes chopped,2 carrots chopped,large onion chopped,couple cloves crushed garlic,table spoon oregano,1 chopped bell pepper,2 teaspoon cumin,2-3 tablespoon mild chilli powder,250ml veg stock low 6-8hrs

i would only use maybe 2 spoons of chilli to make sure mild

[roseteapot101]

sorry forgot to say that recipe a slow cooker dish =)

[user1473861364]

Thanks for all the replies and recipe ;). Anyone else have good tried and tested veggie recipes for wee ones?