Ideas to spark an interest in food

[YukoandHiro]

Cross posting from Weaning as that thread is dead...

I've posted before about my little girl and food. She's never been keen - eats enough now at 20 months in terms of volume to stop me really worrying but her range is really limited.
All carbs are fine. Some fish and meats go in. I can smuggle veggies into mashed potato and rice but fruit ends up being Ella's pouches as she refuses to even pick up any pieces of whole fruits. (She used to eat banana but even that's been refused for the month).
I'm looking for tips to get her more interested in food in general and willing to try things... or even pick them up and sniff/lick them!
I'm thinking:
-books that include food and meals (she loves books)

• buy a play kitchen with play food
• get her involved in shopping trips (we usually do ocado).
• get her to help cooking somehow (safely)

Any other thoughts? I really don't want food to be an issue for her as she has severe egg and dairy allergy so her introduction to food at six months was a horrible time for all of us.
If it's relevant I still bf 2-3 times in 24 hours and she has oat milk as a substitute on cereal as in cooking, and alpro yoghurt (which she also loves)

[Ricekrispie22]

Social eating with other young children.
Get her to feed a doll

[sam221]

A friend had similar types of problems, they had their toddler playing a smash game. Basically get a big plastic bowl and drop in soft fruit or veg and let them smash it all-quickly, with either a spoon or their hands. A little messy but fun and their child loved eating the 'smash'.

[YukoandHiro]

Good ideas thank you - hosting a doll tea party could be good

[aprarl]

Does she like cold things like ice cream? If so try freezing fresh fruit in little pieces.

[YukoandHiro]

I've never tried ice cream as she has dairy allergy but I could try a soya one and if she's into it then try cold fruit

[TheCuddlyOctopus]

Normal knife- not a sharp one- and let her cut up softer things- banana, strawberries avocado etc. Mine loved chucking stuff in the blender and pressing the button. Can you grow anything, even inside?

[TheCuddlyOctopus]

If you grow stuff btw don't worry if it's eaten- just the idea of understanding where it comes from is good in the long term.

Some more ideas- let her make pizza- you can buy ready made dough or bases- chop up a selection of stuff and she can put it on (and vegan cheese if she likes it). We make lollies from avocado, banana and cacao powder- blend and put into lolly moulds, add a bit of honey if you like- coco milk from a tin is good here too.

You can get pastry that doesn't have any dairy in it- I think most supermarket puff pastry but check!- and also do the pizza thing with that.

Another trick that worked was putting stuff on a stick and calling it a lolly...

Both of mine were very fussy (although not with fruit) and we just rode it out. For most kids I think getting into the 'idea" of food- texture, what tastes better than something else etc comes a bit later. It's hard because you want your kid to be the one enjoying Thai curry- we attach such a lot of social stuff to food.

[Seniorschoolmum]

Food faces or pictures on the plate?

I used to make sunrises with yellow pepper strips as sun beams and a pot of houmous as the sun.