3 year olds diet

[dropthedeadhorse]

I feel like I've got into a rut with DD's diet and I'd like to get her trying and enjoying more foods.

For breakfast she will either have cereal and a banana or eggs and toast.

For lunch she will usually have something like a ham or cheese sandwich or wrap with cucumber or pepper and a yoghurt

For snacks she has a lot of fruit - can easily get through 2 bananas, 2 apples and 2 satsumas in a day. She will sometimes eat a whole carrot and I've been trying to do this more. At the weekend I'll often let her have a bit of cake, a soreen or oat bar, an ice cream, a hot chocolate or something like that.

For dinner she has something like lasagne, chicken nuggets (homemade) with potato wedges, chicken tikka masala, etc and a big bowl of berries and grapes. Always with some kind of veg that she will at least take a few bites of when asked.

Drinks are water or milk

The things that worry me are the large amount fruit she eats because of all the sugar. Also the dinners aren't great - they are quite repetitive as they are what I know she will eat (and her extremely fussy older sister) and not particularly healthy.

Any advice very much appreciated!

It doesn't sound too bad and I'm sure it's better than a lot of 3year old's diets!
Could you do things with hidden veg in e.g. roast onions and peppers then blitz with tomatoes to make pasta sauce. Kids often likes peas, sweetcorn and sweet potato if they have a sweet tooth. Butternut squash also counts towards your 5 a day and can be used instead of potato as mash or roasted in chunks / wedges. I'd just give her small amounts of veg with the expectation that she at least tries it.
Will she eat hummus? That can be a good way to get more raw veg in if you do crudités to dip into it.
Or homemade soup, can you easily get a couple of veg portions into that.
I'm surprised her digestive system can cope with that much fruit every day! I'd definitely swap some of the snacks for other savoury alternatives - babybels, rice cakes with peanut butter, bread sticks with cream cheese or hummus dip.

Obviously a really good diet, just too much fruit.

Thanks @emmathedilemma! I’m surprised she can handle so much fruit too- perhaps she’s got used to it gradually? She has only recently developed a taste for raw veg so I’m already gradually replacing some of the fruit with things like carrots. Also when she’s in the kitchen when I’m cooking she will often eat whatever veg I’m preparing raw. She won’t eat babybel but I like the idea of some breadsticks and cream cheese.

For breakfast would she eat porridge? You can jazz it up a bit with a few frozen berries (sugar better at mealtimes than snacks). Or other things on toast? Beans, tomatoes, avocado, garlic mushrooms, cheese?
Crudités and a dip are a good go to snack. Dip into cream cheese or guacamole. Or plain popcorn. Roasted chickpeas are also nice.
Have you tried her on fritata for lunch? Can be served hot or cold and great for sneaking veg in.
Dinner wise, what about fish? Tuna fish cakes? Salmon tray bake.
Sweet potato jackets with filling. If you can get her to eat cottage pie you can get some veg in the filling as well as adding root veg to the mash. Fajitas, more of a fun food for self assembly. Cauliflower cheese. Sausage casserole, pasta with smoked salmon, cream cheese, peas and sweet corn. Chicken and veg skewers with corn on the cob.

Ive tried porridge but she won’t eat it. Fish has been a no in the past but I think it would be good to try her on it again. Frittata is a great idea! I do give her a bowl of homemade soup with her lunches at the weekends (during the week she’s packed lunches) but she doesn’t usually eat much. We do have fajitas sometimes but anything that comes with a side of bread is dangerous as she fills up on that first. So she’ll eat a whole wrap and not touch the chicken or veg. Then want her fruit. For that reason I rarely serve any naan/garlic bread etc.

Hi OP,
I have a 3 year old DD so I feel your pain. Our dinners are quite repetitive too but that's because we're not big fans of certain meats. My dd loves salmon so you could try introduce that either on its own or in amother form e.g. fishcakes or mixed with pasta. Homemade fish goujons are another option using whatever white fish you like. My dd ate stew for the first time last week. She really doesn't eat much veg but is getting better. With fajitas I cut the wraps up quite small so she gets one with chicken and cheese. I'm going to try a lentil dhal this week but don't hold out much hope-she isn't a fan of spicy food yet.

As for snacks, my dd would eat peanut butter all day if we let her. I find putting some on wholemeal toast/bagel or oatcake/cracker is great. Also yes to pp who said breadsticks with cream cheese. Homemade toddler pancakes (think it's from the toddler workshop blog) are a hit too and can be served with yogurt and fruit. You could try serve porridge with some fruit grated in like pear. Sweetens it up a bit. I make mine with milk on the hob and dd is a big fan. I give her the pear on the side.

Honestly though it sounds like your dd is doing very well. Maybe just try swap out a fruit snack or two for something with more protein-cheese slices, peanut butter etc.

For meal ideas you could look at websites like Aileen Cox Blundell & Annabel Karmel. They focus on weaning but have a lot on family meals and food for smaller kids too. I've gotten a few ideas from them.

It's definitely a good diet. Fruit is better for the teeth if consumed with a meal rather than grazed on through the day, so you could maybe give her more fruit as dessert/with her meals and protein snacks like yoghurt at other times of day?

Good point about the teeth. I have read that toddlers shouldn't really need snacks and I know that mine won't each much dinner if she has had anything substantial in the afternoon. So what do I do at 3pm when she's asking for a snack and dinner is a couple of hours away - I would usually let her have an apple or a handful of blueberries.

I'm not sure where you read that toddlers don't need snacks but the health authority in my country, and most other sources I've read, say toddlers need 3 meals a day and 2-3 snacks per day. Their stomachs are much smaller hence why they need to eat little and often. It might be worth looking at the NHS guidelines to see what it suggested.

I don't think you need to give her anything substantial in the afternoon but just something other than fruit. Again the NHS might have advice here as well as the snacks suggested by pps.

I found the nhs info here op, some good snack ideas there too!

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/young-children-and-food-common-questions/

Mine is nearly 3 and has gotten so fussy, she often eats nothing at dinner time or will just eat a bread component. She doesn't really eat any veg at all except for cucumber and corn on the cob.

I think fruit for a snack is healthy, maybe try and just increase the variety so instead of 2 bananas in a day it's 1 apple and 1 banana? Mine eats a lot of fruit (especially as she won't eat veg, we think it's important for her bowels!), we buy a variety regularly such as: apples (different varieties), oranges, satsumas/clems, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, mango, pineapple, honeydew melon. She also will eat some dried fruits like raisins, banana chips, dried mango, and dried cranberries.

For non-fruit snacks we do: Baybels/small block of cheese/Cheesetrings/Dairylea dunkers, a plain rice cake or a few crackers, sometimes with peanut butter or cream cheese on it, or a few fruit-flavoured mini ones, small portion of Greek yoghurt or a little lot of kids fruit-flavoured yoghurt, a slice of Quorn ham/chicken, a couple of Quorn cocktail sausages/picnic eggs. Plus less healthy things sometimes like a kids/toddler pack of crisps or biscuits.

Your daughter's diet sounds really good to me.

What about omelette for a change? Could include peppers, sweetcorn and mushroom.
Spaghetti bolognese with blended in veg, as well as tomato.
Sticks of celery, or pepper, or cucumber as an alternative to sticks of carrot.

Omlettes could work well although she eats a lot of eggs in the mornings so I'd need to make sure she's not eating too many eggs.

@MartyMcShy you are right - snacks are recommended! I think it must be the advice for under 1s that I was thinking of or something like that.

Thanks so much for all the snack ideas! I'll be revisiting this thread when I make my weekly shopping list.

Our dentist recommended serving fruit snacks with cheese to neutralise the acid.

Her diet sounds awesome, it puts mines to shame let alone a child’s! I don’t eat anywhere near as good as that x

Echoing PPs to say she does sound like she has a great diet.

If you were looking for some more food ideas, I have a 4 year old so slightly older but hope I can give you ideas. He’s still a bit suspicious of some things but in the main likes mince (which I sneak masses of veg and also lentils into) so we have that with pasta, couscous, rice. I change the spices and sometimes add beans to make a chilli.

I also make lots of smooth soups, chicken and veg curries (particularly ones with butternut squash or sweet potato for the sweetness - Jamie Oliver does a good one) - I serve with parathas but only a bit at a time otherwise he’s just like your DD and would scoff the bread and not touch the curry.

I make a lot of pasta & veg combos - carbonara with peas; chicken & a pesto which has whizzed broccoli in it; veg sauce with masses of hidden stuff.

I’ve def resorted to freezer/ready meals so I get a break from cooking during covid times and he likes chicken kievs, nuggets, fish fingers, burgers, meatballs. But I always serve with lots of veg. He also likes baked salmon with pesto on top and baked potato & tuna / beans. Make your own pizzas on top of tortilla wraps is a quick one, as well as bought quiche with some veg on the side (higgidy do one we call the pizza quiche - pesto and tomato, it’s amazing). Hope some of that helps.