To just feed 2 yo DS simple "kids" meals?

[Boysclothes]

He's 2.9 and I feel I'm still just sticking to the basics with his dinners. I used to cook lovely things for him from kids recipe books etc and it just wasn't getting eaten, so I decided to give myself a break and not worry. However I've never got the get up and go back. Does it matter?

He'll eat spag Bol with hidden veg, omelettes with cheese and ham and cuke, fish fingers chips and peas, sausage mash and broccoli, tuna pea pasta, quiche, fish pie and cottage pie and chicken with veg. I don't really give him anything else for dinner! He has fruit afterwards and a raw carrot mid afternoon, lunch is sandwiches or pitta and dips etc. Just drinks water and milk, fruit kid morning and weetabix or porridge for breakfast.

I like to eat with DH when he gets in. We tend to have a lot of things like fish fillets etc which are tricky to scale up as I'd have to buy three sea bream fillets, which are expensive etc.

AIBU and should I branch out a bit or does this sound OK? My friends tend to be either the spaghetti hoop brigade or going all out with homemade different dinners every night.

Ds is 2 1/2 and we are just trying to adjust our meals so we all eat together at 5.30 on the days we can. Dh works shifts so is often at home at that time, or if he isn't then ds and I eat together and dh fends for himself! We have simplified what we're eating and sometimes we all have fish finger, chips and beans as it's easier.

I agree pets. Hopefully one day we will all be able to eat together. Another consideration, possible red herring, is that DH really likes to sit down with me in the evening, and vice versa, and eat. He has anxiety an depression and needs that time to offload. It's quite a precious part of his day. I could sit with him I suppose but not the same?

Sounds fine to me. But then DS is probably suffering from crab and pak choi deprivation.

wish my 2 year old would eat that much. variety

So basically you do quick meals all month - fish fingers, sausage and pasta on rotation with the fish pie/quiche/cottage pie only once a month.

The trouble is that you are limiting his palette by rotating the same three meals. Also left overs has got to be better then some crappie processed sausage or fish finger!

I do believe in offering kids a wide variety of foods. If you really need to do a separate simple meal for DS, jacket potato with cheese/tuna/salad or vegetable omelette or grilled cod would be much better then processed stuff out of a packet.

Looks better than mine at that age. You might make a point of sharing meals with him on weekends and using that time to expand his repetoires bit by bit. Either more grown up versions of his dishes, or versions of new dishes suitable for him.

Yes figgie I would say he has fishfingers, sausage, tune pasta, omelette, chicken and veg and spag Bol across a five day week on rotation. Hot pie and roast at weekends.

Plus generally he does get a day of left overs and one day at the CM where she does homemade pizza or soup and roll or nuggets, a mix of things.

I think it sounds fine and similar to the diet of my kids, with the difference that I would batch cook bolognese, fish pie, shepherds pie, mild chilli etc, then freeze, so they could have it more often than once a month. Also I'd aim for more than one portion of veg in the meal e.g. bangers and mash with broccoli and peas. You could probably lose the chips from the fish fingers meal too, as breaded products have quite a lot of carb as it is. Maybe some extra crudités at lunch time too? Or try some veg soup with toast dippers.

If you were looking for additions to your repertoire, how about: broccoli cheese with extra chopped spinach and peas added;goulash or stew with lots of chunky vegetables (i buy the frozen stewing veg from the supermarket); some plain chicken baked with various marinades (e.g. honey and ginger, mild peri peri, morrocan spices) just to try to broaden his palate.

I don't buy into this "our children must eat with us" stuff. I can't keep mine up until 10 pm when my DH gets home!

If you'd have just listed the food he eats and left it at that, I would have said it's fine.
But, then you threw in that you cook decent stuff for your dh, better cuts etc. now I'll admit to finding that odd, well, different to how I do anyway. If I only had money for one piece of fish, then the kids would get it, not the grown ups, because their brains are still developing and a good piece if fish would do wonders for them.
Also, it's great to give your two yr old the stuff you've detailed giving your dh.

Problem is when you spend loads of money on food that get left or thrown on the floor...

I have the money for as much fish as I want. But it just seemed so wasteful. He does get salmon roughly once a week via leftovers, which he loves, and tuna once a week which I thought was OK fish wise? Plus salmon fishfingers but not sure if they count! He also likes tinned mackerel which I give him a couple of times a month, with pasta normally.

Have you tried fresh mackerel fir him? They're fab and only about £1 per fish from the deli,. Takes five minutes to fry, and if he doesn't like it, make fish. She's for you and hubby with the leftovers.

How on earth did 'cakes' get changed in to '. She's' ?!

iPads are arseholes, that's why!

Thanks for that suggestion, and also schmee, some great idea. Just remembered sweet potato wedges too which I think he'll like. Thinking I'll try one new thing a week for him as I do for DH and I.

Honestly, it doesn't sound awful especially not if you have family meals at weekends - actually it sounds really nice! I don't think your DS's diet is bad at all.

I guess I just don't see why you'd automatically do an all separate menu for a child who doesn't seem to need it, since he eats loads of things which you eat too. My default would be the other way round - the whole family would always have the same meal unless there was a particular reason not to (for instance my kids have never much liked Chinese food, so if we're having that then they do have something else).

Normally I'd say your DH was being extremely U at putting his enjoyment of a "couples" meal ahead of the benefits to his son of having a family meal - but your DH isn't well, all bets are off at that point. You have to do what's net best for the family.

It's clear that your boy has a good diet, but maybe you want to make it a bit more varied? What about curries? Dhal or Thai curries are easy and easy to fill with good stuff. What about risotto or moussaka? I've ended up cooking these things far more frequently than I did because DS seems to really like them. It means I eat fairly decent food most of the time too.

Risotto! DH and I eat that all the time, not sure why I didn't think of it. Although it never seems quite right the next day. Will try that. Used to do a lot of dhal and spinach curries but they were getting rejected, I will try again!

I think there's some thing about not eating rice the next day btw

Couldn't you buy 3 pieces of fish and cut one in half, to do your ds for 2 meals? freeze the other half so he can have it whenever. I think his diet sounds good but no reason why you shouldn't make it even better!

I would ditch the processed quiche, sausages and fish fingers and share what ever you're eating with him. The more varied and interesting the better. Who cares if he's not that interested? Make the meals fun and don't fuss about the food.

I fed mine the same food I cook for myself.
Yesterday in church I observed a little boy of about 2 or 3, scoff all manner of food on the buffet table. His family are really poor . He chomped on lettuce, samosas, radish ,rice salad ,quiche, couscous you name it.
Not once did he make a beeline for cake and crisps.
I think he subconsciously chose what was good for him IYKWIM.
He was quite skinny but perfectly healthy, normal weight.
He wasn't once prompted by his mom; she just took a back seat.
Our food is " foreign" to her ; yet she never told him what he might like or not like.
I think she was just thankful of the food we had to offer as was her lovely son.
It was a real pleasure to see this little man tuck into unfamiliar foods and devour them with gusto.
I cannot abide all this " kid's food" malarkey.
Too many times I've seen parents choose food of little nutritional value at buffets/salad bars because they think children will only eat nuggets and chips.

I don't think its awful but at that age we'd be encouraging a family meal altogether. How long do you think you'll contine to eat separately? Until they start school? Until they are older? If money wasn't a consideration I'd certainly eat together.

I love the look of your meals - my 5 year old would really enjoy trying them all, possibly because she was exposed to everything we ate earlier.

Completely off the topic really... but please do tell us more about the meals you both eat - I could do with some inspiration and your grown up meals sound lovely.

My ds2 is 2.5 and I wish he ate as well as your ds op

Today, a fairly typical day he had a croissant and satsuma for breakfast, some slices of cucumber, 2 breadsticks, a banana and a frube for lunch and a small portion of beef casserole for dinner but refused all veg except the carrots.

Food is either "scusting" and gets thrown on the floor or "licious" and he eats it.

It's a well known fact that some people find vegetables abhorrent
( 'scusting) a throwback perhaps to when foraging for food was perilous.
When my dc has friends over for tea I put everything in serving dishes and let them help themselves without kicking up a fuss if they don't try new things.
Was astounded yesterday after dc's guest ; a fussy eater requested a pickled egg after the pudding ( mine dislikes sweet food ,preferring blue cheese ,labneh or gherkins and crackers)
Child ate 2 pickled eggs and a dish of olives ( the cheap tinned ones)
Part of me knows it's only a matter of time before kid scoffs everything put in front of them.
Try not to force food onto them, just offer it and leave it at that. Malnutrition is rare in the UK nowadays.