To ask for your help with feeding my toddler?

[Prettyinbeige]

Please bear with this long post! I have a 2yo DS and am becoming slightly paranoid about what he is eating.
When we were children we didn't have a proper meal/snack routine (was a kind of help yourself household) and because of that I find I have a fairly unhealthy relationship with food and I am terrified of DS becoming the same.

Currently his meal time routine is something like this:
Breakfast: porridge/Cheerios/fruit with milk to drink
Snack
Lunch: sandwich with fruit, yogurt, breadsticks or rice cakes

(Snacks tend to be, cheese, rice cake, crisps, cut up fruit/cucumber)

Snack
Dinner: hot meal (spag Bol, tuna pasta, lasagne, jacket potato) and a pudding (yogurt, fruit, sometimes chocolate or cake)
Drink of milk before bed.

I was pretty happy with this until his 2 year check up where HV suggested he may be slightly above average on weight! Mealtimes are an area I really struggle with as a parent as I am not a great cook and as mentioned before it isn't something I had as a child. What do you make of our current routine? Do you have any advice for me regarding new meals to try? DS isn't particularly fussy although he isn't keen on veg.

Any help appreciated thanks.

Food seems ok to me, but what exercise does he do?

Your menu sounds fine to me (apart from crisps). Think I'd use your common sense. Do you think your child is getting enough excercise? Do you walk /go to park /soft play? Do you think he looks too chubby (and not just lovely squidgy toddler!!)

Take hv with pinch salt unless you /partner /friends think ds is getting overweight.

My ds is nearly 3. He's pretty solid and eats for Britain but he's not fat, gets lots fresh air and eats balanced diet.

DS had his two year check up last week-he was 91st centile for height and 98th for weight. However the difference between the centiles is only about 1/2 a kilo, so not loads by any means. HV kept saying what a lovely big strong boy his is and how well he's growing! He's veeeery active-doesn't sit still unless he is strapped into something, or asleep and has the slight 'toddler tummy' but is really slimming out otherwise. He however doesn't ever eat for the sake of it, even chocolate or cakes. If he's offered something, even if he LOVES it, he's not bothered if he's not hungry.

I think that sounds fine, the only things I'd change are adding veg to at least one meal and not giving cake or chocolate as part of a dessert - but that's being picky. My DS isn't too keen on veg, what I've been doing is mixing up a sauce which is actually a powdered/mix with water Heinz baby meal (usually the cauliflower and broccoli one) and adding to the veg which makes it taste nicer for him.

I too am from a 'help yourself' house, my relationship who food is poor and I struggle to maintain a healthy weight. My DS has always been larger than average but his weight appears to be balanced now. I never offer sweets, cake or chocolate as part of any meal, only as extras and usually he's too full to manage. I generally stick to the rule where once all fruit and/or veg portions have been eaten then he can have something as a treat. I also only give him water to drink as I know he doesn't need the extra sugars from juice.

Chop up different fruits and put them in an ice cube tray to tempt him to the different colours and textures if he's not too keen, you could actually do this with vegetables too. You might also avoid cereals like Cheerios but then again, if you're only offering them occasionally I wouldn't worry. Our routine sounds like your and DS usually has some sort of sandwich at lunch time too as he just won't entertain anything else. I usually give him fish or meat with veg and potatoes for his tea, I'm a terrible cook but I discovered how easy it is to cook boneless cod and boneless salmon which I do frequently for him now.

I think that all sounds fine (not too many crisps, though). I found my son would get a little chubby......then shoot up in height.....repeat.

Passthecake the ice cube tray is a great idea will give that a try! He does eat grilled fish as this is something even I can manage, I would love to try casseroles and pasta sauces with veg but for someone so useless in the kitchen this seems very daunting.

I feel he gets a reasonable amount of exercise, he is always on the go anyway but we go to playgroup twice a week and go to the park/soft play/swimming at least once a week.
And weather permitting he almost lives in the garden.
At his check up he was on the 98th percentile for weight (she didn't do his height) but he was also on the 98th percentile at birth and always has been.

The menu looks fine. could it be the portion sizes?

I use a ice cube tray too for dessert. it's a great way into them thinking they're having sweets and chocolate without giving them a whole bag - for example if there are 8 spaces it would be one sweet, one chocolate button, then 6 raspberries/blueberries etc.

Sorry to disagree but I think the diet is ok but far from great. Cheerios, crisps, cake all equate to lots of rubbish treats each day. Not a good habit to get into. Also when you say yogurt, do you mean healthy natural Greek yogurt or rubbish sugar ladened stuff? In your shoes, I'd give more veg - so carrot, humus, peppers, cheese, celery, nuts, sticks etc. Also just for your information, rice cakes are quite high GI so are not ideal either. Maybe consider oatcakes as an alternative.

What build are you and DH? Tall? Thin?

Dips might help him warm to veg by the way

have you have the weight checked against his height? my son was accused of obesity even though you could see his ribs and he was clearly not even chubby (apart from the cheeks) turns out he was exactly in line with where he should be

I'd cut out the cake and crisps, no need, and possibly the sugary cereal, no need. The rest of it sounds great. And as someone upthread said, get him running about too. :)