what the hell do I feed 18mth DS??!!

[teuch]

Don't get me wrong...for an 18mth old he's really quite amenable, but if he smiles and says 'no sanks' to one more thing, I might scream...

'no sanks' to potato, pasta, rice, eggs, cous cous, any veg bar mashed sweet potato, chicken, fish, any saucey thing...the list goes on.

He will eat sausages, cereal, tesco veggie fingers, smoked haddock fishcakes (faaaarrr too salty methinks!), any kind of fruit, any kind of yoghurt, cheese, mince or spag bol...

oh...and cake! He actually asks for cheesecake, by name I blame my mum for that one!

[CorrieDale]

With DS, who will eat anything as long as it isn't all mixed up (which is a LOT more restrictive than you might think), I have stopped asking him. I put it on his plate. He ignores it. Or picks it up, holds it out, says 'bin' and delicately drops it on the table. I shrug and say 'OK but it's really nice' and try again next time. We eat ours with every appearance of enjoyment and hope that he'll succumb eventually. To be fair, he ate rice last night, which he really wouldn't have done at 18 mo, so I have high hopes that one day we may get to eat lasagne again.

Have you tried cooking veg and liquidising it to add to spag bol? Otherwise, just continue to offer, eat together, and not make a big deal of it.

[teuch]

ah yes! mince or spag bol are the only foods that I can sneak veg into... so he does eat them more regularly than your average person


I try not to stress and then I worry that he's getting too much salt, too little veg, blah, blah, blah...

[CorrieDale]

I see your point about the salt - but if you're aware and checking labels (and I assume the fishcakes and sausages don't appear every day!) then at least he's getting fruit and yogurt and meat. The too little veg I wouldn't stress over - fruit's good and if you're able to sneak it into other things then, like you say, he's probably getting more than some adults.

[DaisyMOO]

I just give my 20 month old a plate of whatever we're having. If he eats it he eats it, if he doesn't I clear it away. He has obvious favourites (sausages, tomatoes, cheese, eggs, sweet potato, peas, broccoli) but I think he tries pretty much everything. I just don't see the point of making a fuss and deciding that because he didn't try something one day he doesn't like it full stop. Personally I'd just completely stop thinnking in terms of likes and dislikes and expect him to try everything - not as in actually tell him to try it, just put it on his plate and don't make a big deal of it.

[busybaby]

LOL at "no sanks" and "bin" - all too familiar! We are in exactly the same position with dd1 who's 20 months too. She says either "nuff" and gives the plate back or "birdies" (having just got back from a holiday where the birds were frequently tidying up after her on the balcony!).
We are starting to wonder whether she is just being fussy or whether we had a future 'freaky eater' on our hands as she seems reluctant to chew anything. Having read your posts, maybe she's just being 20 months going on 20 and showing us her own mind. Although, has anyone else had any experience of this?
Why do they feel a need to be so fussy? They just don't seem to understand that they are the ones who go hungry do they?! And it can be so hard to just say 'oh well, never mind' when you've made the effort to prepare it and when you know they've not eaten a sausage (not literally!) all day.

[warthog]

i would try and make things look like spag bog. so make with lamb or chicken mince instead.. also try fish fingers alla annabel karmel.

[Circus]

Well the range your DS is eating is positively epicurean compared with my 18 month old DD. As a younger child she seemed to eat anything including strong flavours like veg curry, olives, anchovies etc. But over the past 2-3 months she's gradually reduced the range of what she'll eat. I think (hope) we may be past the low point where the only acceptable fruit was bananas - apples now being OK as well. But still extremely restricted in her tastes (no vegetables within 100m if we don't want histrionics) and completely immovable if she decides she doesn't want to try something. So, have given up on despair (too draining) and am now trying hope that 'it's just a phase', and keep remembering she's healthy and not wasting away. Good luck!