For my DS to eat.

[Freeandsinglewater]

I've just cooked a lovely and healthy meal, from scratch! And DS won't touch it. Yes, the bread is homemade.

He is 3.
The reason it's too, red.

I want the bread. I love tomato bread.

I feel I am, thanks gibbous.

Free of course kids can eat whatever adults do. Not all kids do - but then some adults eat ridiculously too (I knew somebody whose H would only eat foods that could be eaten with a spoon...).

My DD would have eaten that at 3. I have a photo of her eating the "children's sea food platter" at a restaurant in Croatia when she was 2.5 - turned out not to be fish fingers but to be a smaller version of the adult platter of whole baby octopus and muscles in their shells and prawns you needed to pull the heads off etc. She loved it! She is still equally adventurous and there are only 2 or 3 things she doesn't like (although obviously these have to be almost the only 2 or 3 things both her brothers will eat...)

My Ds1 might have at 2 but became ridiculously fussy at 3 and went from wolfing down anything and everything and loving things like chilli con carni and pasta bake to only liking very traditional "meat and 2 veg" type meals, or pizza/ sausage and chips type stuff... He's getting better again now at 8 but still often won't touch a home cooked meal if its anything mixed like a bake rather than separate items.

DS2 has always been a fussy bugger and I think resented being weaned, preferring to BF all night and zoom about without time to eat all day... He often almost always asks for an apple or a pear or a carrot instead of whatever I've cooked for dinner...

If you'd put everything in the bread it would have been a sandwich and no one would have commented on the contents or size of it!

I'd love my 2 year old to eat that. He turned down pasta barely coated in bolognese sauce.. Small portion so as not to overwhelm him. It was pushed aside without even tasting.

So I offered the extra pasta I cooked with a little butter and cheese... Which was picked at but largely ignored.

The list of acceptable foods seems to be shrinking

OP it looks lovely. I disagree it looks too much for a three year old, it looks more food than it is in the pic I'm sure. Prawn cocktail, salad and a piece of bread isn't too much. Though every child is different I know.

My son would have loved that kind of thing at 3. (And aside from baby mushed up food he's always had what everyone else is having, though have encountered the separate adult and child food thing amongst some friends). However at that age, if he decides it's too red, it's just too red and that's what he thinks! Quite sweet. Hope the food doesn't go to waste.

I think the bread looks lovely. However, I'd never have persuaded my children to eat prawn cocktail at 3.

OP thank you for the
I have taken you up on the offer and no longer care what he eats or doesn't eat

My son wouldn't have eaten prawns at 3 but he definitely ate at least that much! However, my very petite DD would have loved it, and would happily have shared it with me.

My DC went through a toddler stage of having only about 15 foods he would eat, nowadays DC eats anything out in front of him (including salad). I think it was just a faddy stage that many toddlers go through, but he was still never introduced to "children's food" such as nuggets / chips etc until around age 5.5 when he had totally abandoned the fussy eating. He still isn't interested in eating chips that much, even when offered.

You know, I've posted a few threads in the past asking for advice on portion size and types of food for DD. Tumbleweed. By the looks of it, I should have posted a picture of the food inviting no criticism and waited for the perfect parents to come and tell me that it was too much, that it wasn't kiddy food and that my cooking looks shit

Looks lovely OP. I did a chicken wrap for DD today. She deconstructed it, ate the chicken and tortilla, rejected the salad, then demanded more. 'More' in this instance meant yoghurt. The child could live off bloody yoghurt, bread and meat. Better luck tomorrow, eh?

I have a very toddler mentality when it comes to food. That meal would have me sweating if it was served to me at a friend's house. Bottom-feeding creatures coated in oil and raw egg, a big piece of lovingly manhandled bread and something black in a cup would horrify me.

I know it's decent, wholesome stuff, but I would panic if someone expected me to plough my way through it. I would see it as a challenge rather than sustenance. I'd eat the salad, if the prawns and mayo hadn't touched it. I might say I can't eat it because it's a bit too red.

Yet I get a bit cross when my children won't eat something that I think is really nice (Quorn, mainly). I can sympathise with you and the stubborn child.

I think the thing to remember is that children can be fussy sods and (a lot of the time) it's not the parents fault.

But if you post on MN you will be JUDGED.

And btw OP, there's nothing wrong with your cooking. I'd def eat your bread, seeds and salad (if minus prawns!). Well done for taking the trouble to cook something nutritious for DC rather than going for the easy option.