critique my 2yo's lunch

[cornishglos]

I honestly do go to effort every day to feed him well. But many meals get refused at the moment. Today, for various reasons, I have decided to have an 'anything goes' day. I thought it might be interesting to see how bad it really is, and how it compares to normal.
So 2yo is eating fir lunch today:

• 2 chips with a tiny amount of cheese
  
• a packet if pom bears
  
• 2 dried apricots
  
• one piece of dried apple
  
• packet of raisins
  
• sesame/ honey bar
  
• water
  

Looks v bad written down! Feel free to tell me IABU to feed him such rubbish!

[Fatmomma99]

oh dear, must be me... I don't think that's too terrible.

A different kind of carb and it would be pretty good. Pasta or rice or bread instead of pom bears next time?

[Sirzy]

Quite a lot of sugary food.

But really you need to look at the picture over a week or more to get any real judgement of the diet

[NickyEds]

YANBU. They're sods to feed at this age IMHO. My ds will eat loads of certain foods. He'll be hungry but reject a shepherds pie which was perfectly acceptable last week, starving but not eat tea because i mixed the peas and sweetcorn together.
Today he's had;
Porridge with raisins- not eaten. A crumpet
Mini malt loaf and about a quarter of a gala melon (melon is very much "in" at the moment)
Sandwich thins, tomatoes and cucumber with hummus- he ate the thins and hummus.

It's fish Pie with broccoli and cauliflower for tea and my hopes aren't high! I just present him with half decent stuff most of the time and ravioli the rest and if he eats it he does and if he doesn't he doesn't.

[CooPie10]

It seems like a lot of sugar. Anything fresh like fresh fruits or veg?

[CaptainCrunch]

Too much sugar and barely any protein.

[bornwithaplasticspoon]

Of course it all depends on what he has for the rest of the day. I'd maybe swap the crisps for wholemeal bread with cream cheese

[HermioneJeanGranger]

Lots of sugar, but as one meal I think it's okay. It depends what the rest of his diet looks like, really.

[feellikeahugefailure]

Thats about the sugar id have in a day. Are the chips deep fried? The crisps will be deep fried. I'd give fresh fruit rather than dried.

[SaucyJack]

Meh. If you are U, then so am I.

My toddler eats a rubbish diet too, supplemented by bottles of milk.

I do cook well- and the other DC eat well. She's just always had a poor appetite for big meals, and prefers to snack.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

lots of sugar very little protein and everything has either been processed or dried.

fine as a one off or part of a generally ok diet.

but very poor as a regular occurrence

however I have alot of sympathy, toddlers cab be the most stubborn pains in the arse and I hope you have some wine in the fridge

[cornishglos]

NickyEds that sounds like our typical day. I agree about the sugar. Lack of protein in general worries me. He loves fresh fruit so no doubt that will get eaten this afternoon.

For breakfast he ate weetabix and for tea will be offered spag bol.

Most days he eats cereal, a lot of fruit, bread and peanut butter, a biscuit, maybe a yoghurt, and finishes the day with milk. Most other foods are a battle (except baked beans).

[theycallmemellojello]

Well obviously that would not be good if it was a representative sample of his entire diet. As a one off, it's fine. But yes, obviously normally you need to give vegetables, protein, and carbs that aren't crisps and chips. I can't get worked up about dried fruit personally.

[dementedpixie]

Dried fruits aren't good for the teeth as they stick...chocolate does less harm than dried fruits as it just dissolves (not that I'm saying to substitute chocolate for raisins though )

[Gileswithachainsaw]

What meal does he eat best at?

I mean battles at tea time when they are it red or irritable from not eating half the day would make this much worse. would doing an omelette say fir breakfast be a bit easier to get down him?

then have tea be beans on toast and something you know won't cause a fuss.

just leaves lunch then and peanut butter on wholemeal toast and some fruit wouldn't he so bad

[GideonSoames]

Its not possible to critique an emergency diet.

This isnt really a choice its just what your dc chose today.

Its better than nothing!

Ive just had a pasty covered in vinaigrette, im off sick and not eaten in 4 days.

Coffee tasted like marmite!

[iwantavuvezela]

As he loves apples and peanut butter, you could try cutting up the apple with peanut butter on the slices. (Could replace the dried fruit and would add some protein, also peanut butter has low sugar - some brands that is)

[iwantavuvezela]

You can also buy the lower sugar baked beans now which might help overall in reducing sugar content.

[cornishglos]

Thank you all for your input. This is really helpful for making me think about his eating habits in general.

[Dontneedausername]

I have a fussy one:

Peanut butter sandwich on whole meal seeded bread.
Raspberry yoghurt
Banana
Apple
Small bowl plain tortilla chips.
Water.

Cannot get the child to eat veg unless in risotto. But won't eat rice on its own. Or the veg.
I'm going down the road of feeding what I know he will eat and just randomly adding extras to try!

[cornishglos]

Gileswithachainsaw eggs at breakfast is a great idea. He loves breakfast and hates tea. Is eggs 7 days a week a bad idea though? Maybe just 3 times a week?

[cornishglos]

Getting very difficult to get him to eat veg.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

People eat cereal every day I don't see how eggs every day can be that bad.

my two have eggs pretty much every day and actually I notice a huge improvement than when they just had cereal so id take my chances with the eggs

But tbh reversing meals might not be such a bad thing. of he's likely to eat left over spag bol or something in the morning then do it that way.

[stegosauruslady]

My 4yo is a nightmare to feed. Thus far today she has eaten...

Toast with butter
Grapes
Plain pasta
A penguin biscuit.

She will eat plain rice for tea while the rest of us have cocnutty chicken curry and rice!

[cornishglos]

Thank you. Worth trying!

[cornishglos]

She sounds like me as a child stegasaurus!