To feed my toddler...

[bumblebee39]

Nothing but crap?

It is all he'll eat

Fruit
Sandwiches
Toddler milk
& junk

Freezer dinner today was such a relief after weeks of him refusing proper dinners

AIBU to feed him nothing but freezer food, fruit, sandwiches and toddler milk? He used to eat a (fairly) balanced diet but is going through a fussy phase... Do I just go with it? Or keep providing nutritious fare he just doesn't eat?

Tia

Can you just give him “proper” food that’s still dry and able to be picked up? New potatoes, pasta, chunks of chicken or pork, cooked and salad veg?

Or maybe give him his dinner at lunch time, and then have a sandwich in the evening?

I think a lot of kids goes through phases where they just can’t be arsed to eat a wet cooked dinner when they’re tired and wanting bed.

There not really "on the menu" we have freezer dinner (junk) about once a week. Otherwise he just doesn't eat dinner.

Toddlers can be so difficult when they go through phases like this!

My DS was the same, as cruel as it sounds. he soon ate when he was hungry when he couldn't dictate as such what he would eat.

Keep persevering with the good stuff!!!!

One thing I can rely on my child always eating is chicken on the bone - she loves picking it up and gnawing on it, maybe it's more fun/easier?

Another tip I've tried with some (albeit limited) success is offering the veg first, when she is still very hungry. Then I give the rest of the meal I know she'll more happily eat.

My 15mo DS is going through the same phase right now. He wants to feed himself with a spoon but can't quite manage it so we do tandem feeding (we both have a spoon so he can try himself and I also spoon feed him bits) or things he can pick up himself. He's just finished his lunch of chicken fridge raiders, cubes of cheese, cucumber and some veggie straw crisp things and was very happy eating most of it although some still ended up on the floor. My theory is that as long as he's eating something fairly healthy then I'm happy.

My dentist told me the sugars in follow-on milk are detrimental to teeth.

It’s a marketing scam in essence.

Have you tried proper adult foods - not bland mush? Mine hated baby foods, it was only when I ignored drs and nurses and just fed them proper food we had a break through - did get some looks when dd2 was tucking into curry etc eating out (emphasised because she was in the 10th percentile and nearly bald until 2!)

6 out of 7 days or thereabouts we have home cooked food. Fish pie, pasta bake, roast dinner etc. My freezer dinner night is just so damned easy compared to that though. Less cooking washing up etc and more gets eaten. It's very disheartening when I cook properly and it doesn't get eaten but I guess I just need to persevere.

Sometimes I just feel like giving into the beige 😂

Seriously - don't worry about it.

I was the fussiest child on the planet. I ate no fruit at all as a child, no milk from age 1.
I ate only the leanest of meat (would refuse anything that looked like it had fat on it), carrots and peas only with gravy on.
Nothing with lumps, nothing with bits. No onion, no spice, no flavour.

I lived on:
Plain bread, no butter and water - this was my favourite meal for years. Just endless slices of bread that I peeled the crusts off.
Plain meat but free of fat
Potatoes apart from boiled or new with skins on
Carrots and peas with gravy
Marmite and dairylea sandwiches
Plain hula hoops
Chocolate chip cookies
Cheese
I only drank plain water. No squash, nothing fizzy.

I have always been healthy - rarely ill and never overweight. Not a single filling either.

I eat the hugest range of food now - proper foodie. The only thing that hasn't changed is milk (can't stand it still) or fruit juice with bits in.

I sorted myself out by myself in mid teens, and got better and better in to my 20's. Now there is very little I won't eat.

I was fine, am educated to PG level. Have a good job. Not a psychopath. Nothing bad came of it! I didn't starve/get scurvy/die/go mad.

My poor mother though - I do feel bad!!

I'm sure we all feel like giving into the beige most days - as you say, it's so much easier lol

How did today go OP? Did you make any changes?

@bumblebee39

This thread is for you 👍

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3393291-To-ask-What-did-your-toddler-eat-today

@BonnieandHyde it was on that thread that someone advised me to make my own thread about my toddlers dreadful eating 🙈

Not made much progress but not going to replace the snack bars and pouches when they run out. If he wants a yoghurt he can eat it with a spoon or his fingers

This will also be the last tub of formula 🙌🏽 not much left so wish me luck!

Been monopolising on the love of sandwiches but run out of bread now. Must go shopping 😂 and then forging ahead with an improved diet for both DCs

I don't snack much anyway and don't buy snack foods for myself often, When I do its crisps or cheese and crackers not the processed crap the kids end up eating.

I think there is a happy median between letting my older DC not have food as a battle, and all eating a healthy balanced diet. Although I am expecting to put much more in the bin than goes into their tummies...