To ask what you feed your two-year-old?

[UnderTheDesk]

Because trying to think of things to feed mine that aren't too sugary, salty, fatty, meat-heavy or nutritionally empty is giving me a headache. Inspire me, please!

My youngest is the same age. He has whatever my older two are also having,

Breakfast can be cereal, porridge, toast with different toppings, granola with yogurt and fruit, pancakes, croissants, fruit toast. He will have a cup of milk and usually a banana or apple aswell.

Lunches vary alot. This week we've had wraps with veg sticks, cheese and chicken breast, pitta pizzas with salad, sandwiches, bagels with soft cheese, and cucumber,homemade soup with bread. Usually followed by some fruit or a biscuit. He has water or milk with lunch.

Some afternoons he will have a snack which can be breadsticks, a biscuit, raisins etc

So today my twins have had:

Watered down orange juice first thing as they refuse milk
2 x weetabix with milk (boy)
Half a bagel with Nutella (fussy girl)

No snack in the morning as we had a late breakfast.

Pumpkin soup and bread roll for lunch (and boy twin snuck some leftover pizza while I wasn't looking!), grapes after.

Toad in the hole, mashed potato and veg for tea, followed by Petit filous and then cake.

Soup is a brilliant one, as you can inject them with piles of veg all in one go!

Breakfast - porridge, cereal, eggs, fruit, yoghurt, toast with cheese/ham, pancakes, sometimes croissants or brioche
Lunch - sandwiches, pasta, jacket potatoes, frittata, soup, salad/crudités
Afternoon snack - fruit, veg crudités, boiled egg and soldiers, bagels, crumpets, hot chocolate

To be fair DD still has her bottle twice a day (full fat milk and only half full). She wakes at about 6 but refuses food until half eight so it keeps he going and there would be the biggest tantrum if I didn't get one for her to do the bed time story with. Figured it wasn't a battle worth having.

Generally has a small bowl of cereal, half a slice of toast and fruit for breakfast. Whatever is on nursery's menu for lunch and "tea" which is at half 3. Then has a snack of some sort at about 6 when we get home - cheese, fruit, veg sticks and dip.

On a weekend we just eat together generally. We had scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast. Birthday party buffet for lunch and stir-fry for tea. The only difference on a weekend is that we eat at slightly different times because am I balls having my lunch at half 11 and tea at half 3.

Thank you all, this is very interesting reading, and has given me some good ideas. And I'm irrationally glad I'm not the only one still giving a bottle twice a day.

I really want to get on board with soup, but Dd a.) insists on feeding herself, and b.) is really shit at it, so I doubt she'd get more soup into her mouth than she would down her top. Hence giving it to her in a bottle. Or is this just one more of those developmental phases we have to suffer through?

Mine has a bottle of milk first thing.

Breakfast is porridge, weetabix, toast, crumpets with cheese, eggs, sausages, bagels, pancakes with berries.

Lunch is at nursery part week, when at home it's eggs on toast, beans on toast, sandwiches of cheese/egg/chicken/ham/tuna, baked potato, fish fingers, pasta, can just add a bit of chopped veg or salad.

Fruit and yoghurt for pudding.

Evening meal is whatever we're having.

Mine still has 2x bottles of milk, no idea if it's the right thing but he loves his milk so I'm not taking it away anytime soon.

Today?
Breakfast: toast with marmite and a bowl of blueberries and yoghurt (as that was my breakfast!)
Lunch: Yo Sushi with a friend, so avocado maki, chicken katsu (loved) and veg gyoza (ate bits of) tried to give him more veg but unsuccessful
Dinner: slow cooker lamb, mashed swede and carrot and broccoli. Ignored broccoli, very little mash, another blueberries and yoghurt.
Milk wise he has 8oz morning and night but wanted more so had 6oz before midday nap.
Mine hates veg, does eat fruit though! Also hates egg which limits breakfast options.
Though eats curry and spicy food by the bucketload!

Cows milk i should clarify! We've just done the milk ladder so it's a big deal!

God I wish my 2 year old would eat some of this. He's very hit and miss and will graze but rarely eats much of a proper hot cooked meal. He won't eat baked beans or mash or jacket potatoes or pesto pasta or cottage or fish pie. Likes cake though funnily enough....

My DC is 21 months and his usual staples are

Breakfast - Porridge/banana or yoghurt and fruit, scrambled egg.

Lunch is usually things like soup and a slice of bread or cheese sticks, hummus with carrots or celery or bread sticks, tomatoes, olives. Blueberries. He would eat a whole packet if I let him

Dinner he loves corn on the cob, peas, fish fingers, tuna, spaghetti, mash potato, jacket potatoes with filling.

And sometimes a wee custard pot.

1 or 2 milks a day.

Note I'm only posting the healthy stuff. He eats a lot of Pom Bears and turkey dinosaurs too

Can I just clarify something OP as I'm sure I've misunderstood! You haven't been giving her soup in a babies bottle??!! Or putting cereal and milk into a babies bottle for her??!
My DS is 20 months and horrendously fussy but has a huge appetite on a typical day he eats..
Breakfast : 8oz formula bottle,either a weetabix with fruit purée mixed in and milk or porridge with fruit or Cheerios all with whole cows milk (we alternate!)
Lunch : ham and or cheese sandwich (whole meal bread only) scrambled eggs/omelette/beans and (NOT on!) toast/ sausages (low salt butchers) followed by a banana/Apple/strawberries etc

Snack: a yoghurt

Tea: fish fingers/sausages/breaded chicken breast strips/ roast chicken/fish bites/ slices of cheese accompanied by home menace potato wedges/potato waffle/sweet potato smiley faces/hash browns and peas/sweet corn or baked beans followed by maybe a degestive biscuit or more fruit or nothing depending how much he eats.

Bedtime: 8oz bottle of formula

Yes he still has first stage formula twice a day (16oz) under GP advice because he has literally JUST this month been diagnosed with reflux and asthma that he's suffered with since day one pretty much but it's taken him vomiting every day and starting to lose weight over a 3 month period rather than the expected gaining as he grows,to actually be diagnosed and treated! He's had vomiting issues with eating/milk since day one so that's held him back with confidence eating new foods

The milk thickened with cereal/milk soup in a baby bottle is a very French thing! They also spoonfeed purees and give formula for ages.

Today mine had:

Bowl of shreddies
Boiled egg with soildiers
Yoghurt

Spinach and chickpea curry with rice
Some melon

A pear

Veggie sausages, sweet potato wedges and cherry tomatoes

He does also drink whole cows milk as a drink too in preparation for hopefully one day eating/keeping enough food down consistently enough to come off formula!

She'll get better at the soup thing if you keep persisting! Until then, get a lot of Vanish laudry spray, and donnt let her eat in her good clothes 😐

We also have 4 meals a day, and to be honest one is usually leftovers. Eg, meals 2&3 are the same, or 3&4. There's nothing wrong with 3h old stew!

Breakfast, weetabix/porridge with a few berries/ eggs & toast/ peanut butter toast/ crumpets/ fruit & yoghurt/ the odd pancake

Lunch; sandwiches ( chicken, egg, cheese, ham, cheese spread, tuna) beans or egg on toast. I find a “picnic box” works well so cubes of cheese, breadsticks, cucumber & carrot sticks with apple sticks. Savoury muffins. Soup

Snacks, cube of cheese, breadstick, veg sticks, few skips, the odd home made cake, rice cake

Dinner current favourite is plain salmon with sweet potato mash & broccoli.
Spag Bol
Cottage pie with veg
Sausage pasta
Pesto pasta
Cod with wedges and veg
lamb meatballs with cous cous
Veg casserole with mash
Plain chicken breast, veg and mash
Cheesy pasta
Toad in the hole with veg
Omelette with broccoli and sweet corn on the side
Veg chilli with jacket potatoe
Falafel with hummus and carrot sticks

Mine won’t really drink milk anymore so only have it in porridge, in yoghurt and cheese

Munchies I think your lo might be a bit young for wholemeal bread? I don’t mean to sound judgemental I just thought the recommended age for it was 5+ years.
Op if she has 4 meals a day and no snacks how about a fruit salad as one of the meals? I’d do porridge for break, then fruit salad, lunch I’d make pasta salad/ jacket potato then dinner would be same as me.

A bit young for wholemeal bread?

Am I reading that right? The recommended age for wholemeal bread is 5+ years? Since when?

I doubt wholemeal bread is a problem, but lots of brown rice/whole wheat pasta etc is hard for small children to digest and can mean they don't absorb enough nutrients. Generally white is better for them when they are little.

I didn't know that, just googled it. Ah well we can eat white bread/pasta guilt free.

I can't believe I've had two children and never known that.

Usual day for DS is -

B - Cheerios/rice krispies with full fat milk and possibly a yoghurt pouch if he asks

S - pitta bread, olives, cheese, veg

L - at Nursery it's their main meal so he'd have something like shepherds pie or chicken curry but at home he usually asks for beans on toast with cheese and broccoli

S - fruit or crackers

D - if at Nursery he gets sandwiches or wraps. At home he'd have whatever we are having.

Today he had a roast for lunch (chicken, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, roast potatoes, carrots) and wanted it again for dinner so he had the leftovers we plated up for him.

He eats a lot, and often eats what I'd think of as adult portions then he'll go a week or two of just grazing or picking at his food. He eats pretty much anything which is handy when we go out to eat, including spicy food. I'd say he's more adventurous than I am. Doesn't seem that interested in sugary snacks and quite often turns down things like buttons or cakes but is a sucker for Pom bears and waffle ice cream cones.

Porridge with half a banana and full fat milk cinnamon for some flavour.

Half a slice Toast.... vegemite or peanut butter with or without jam.

Mid morning - fruit slices... either half an apple or pear or whatever fruit she asks for.

Lunch... today she had a leftover burger patty (DH made them last night) with carrot sticks, baked beans and peppers... spinach and some black olives and tomatoes.

Lunch is usually a sandwich or leftovers with veg - peppers cucumber tomato etc.

Afternoon- yogurt ( Greek or natural) with sliced or grated fruit or mashed banana with a bit of muesli.

Dinner - today's was dauphinois potatoes, with roast chicken... green beans and carrots.

We don't do puddings but if I've baked a cake and she didn't have too much during the day she will get a small slice with some ice cream ... but only on a Sunday. She only has water. And she doesn't like milk.

You think you've got it hard?! Try doing this with a cmpi toddler who also can't tolerate wheat!!

(Hint - it's a blardy nightmare 🤣😢😡☺️😲)