Do your toddlers eat what you eat?

[ghostpop]

I'm in a bit of a rut with my two, heavy rotation of meatballs, spaghetti bolegenese, cheesy pasta, sausages and fishfingers. Oh and homemade pizza.

I know people always say "just give them what you have!" but AIBU to think it's not that simple? This week me and dh have had halloumi salad, a spicy curry, tuna steak, a morrocan chicken stew thing (which I did offer leftovers of to the kids but they didn't touch it).

We eat together at the weekend so they get introduced to stuff then but in the week I just offer what I know they will probably eat tbh.

What are your meals that you can share with your toddlers?

Agree those are all things he can eat at least a version of. Yes, they might refuse food a bit at first, but ultimately so long as you aren't serving up their most hated foods, if they are hungry they will eat.

@PRoseLegend would that it 'twere so simple. It doesn't stay pristine on the plate. It gets squished, mushed, thrown, mixed anything but eaten. For example I will give mine a small spoonful of mashed potato which he won't eat but will muck about with (I mean explore, of course). It's not a large enough quantity to save, and really not appealing if it gets mixed with fish finger crumbs and peas. I'm not convinced toddler portions are worth preserving - they're never appetising after the fact.

I've always cooked separately for the children, mainly because my husband and I don't eat until around 8pm. They eat a lot of pasta based dishes. Do try and cook something for all at the weekends though.

I have a recently turned 3yr old. I am a very bland eater, my dad’s influence! I do try new things but my palate is knackered!

I constantly encourage my daughter to try everything and anything. She’s not allowed to dislike something until she’s tried it twice. She’s curious anyway and will often ask to try things.

Her nursery are fantastic with giving the children different meals to try too.

She enjoys chicken tikka masala, chicken fajitas made in a tomato sauce with peppers and onions, fish pie, salmon risotto, any kind of pasta with any kind of meat or veg. She enjoys a calamari starter if we’re out to dinner too! Tonight however she had beans on toast for tea!

So in answer to your question no, she doesn’t eat what I eat all the time, she’s way more adventurous and I hope it lasts.

Prose it depends on what it is. If DS has eaten half of it, he has had his hands in it/half eaten some and spat it out/done something else disgusting to it (he has just turned two, he does his best with a knife and fork but is still quite messy).

If he hasn’t eaten any of it, I might serve it to him the next day (depending on what it is, and whether he is just not very hungry or actually doesn’t like it), but it’s too small a portion for either DH or me to have as leftovers. If he’s turned it down two days running, I don’t think it’s safe to reheat it a third time.

Well yesterday we all sat down to have a pasta bake I made, it had goats cheese and courgettes in it and the 3yr old ate some of it! And ate some chicken which only happens once in a blue moon.

The one year old is another story.

Ah this thread made reassuring reading, as our son is 14 months old and I rarely give him what we’re having. Like others, I don’t want to/isn’t feasible to eat at 5pm when he does. And I found it intensely depressing and irritating to cook food he just wouldn’t eat (he took a long time to get into actual food). Likewise I don’t want to eat what he will, and I’m not cooking two meals so he tends to have assembly type food (cottage cheese, scrambled egg, couscous, fruit).

Someone mentioned eating together at weekends, which would work for us. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. If I’m eating leftovers I offer him some of whatever I’m having, but I also make sure there’s some sure bets to hand. As he’s teething at the moment, that pretty much means he ate yoghurt and melon yesterday, but life has improved since I decided not to stress about it. I also don’t want to make food a battleground so I don’t push it. I was the child who ate everything so Sod’s law he’s tricky from the get go.

Oh and chilli oil for curries - my other half doesn’t really tolerate heat so that’s my go to when I want to spice things up :). Raw chillis over the top don’t give a nice consistent heat.

All these people talking about throwing food away... Do you honestly throw food in the bin if your kids don't eat it?

Depends. We have a food bin so it mostly goes in there. If it was reheatable I may save it. DH might eat it. I never eat leftovers as that was a bad habit of mine previously. Some of her convictions are vile tho eg she asked for beans on toast with cheese, stirred the cheese into the beans so it looked like sick then refused to eat it 🤢 needless to say that kind of thing is gone ASAP

Concoctions not convictions

My two, now 13 & 11, have always had whatever we were eating. Unless it was 'leftover' night & you got a choice

For recipes ideas try myfussylittle eater.

My kids lick the bowl
Neil's healthy meals
Mylovely little lunchbox

We want together so my DS (20 months) eats the same as us.

In the last week we've had spaghetti bol, chicken roast, chicken halloumi & chorizo kebabs with cous cous and salad, toad in the hole, chicken stir fry and last night we had pizza and salad.

I've given him the same as us since he was 10 months old, hes pretty good and likes most things.

He'll try and like most things, but don't get me wrong he also loves simple beans on toast and has his fussy moments

We eat* not want

I'm another whose toddler went from eating just about everything to suddenly just not. He was just under 2 and his favourite foods were fish pie, lamb stew and a roast. Now he likes chicken dippers

We had a roast today and he ate a most of a Yorkshire pudding, dry, he even refused the apple crumble and custard pudding.

We still offer him different foods but with no pressure. I hope he grows out of it soon though!

I've always given DD whatever we're having. I don't have time to cook multiple meals and it costs more.

It was good as it meant she tried lists foods including chilli, mild curries, pasta, different meats and seafood when older. I also think it's the reason she hasn't been a picky eater

My son eats what I eat or he has a hungry tum, I don’t have the time to plan and cook two balanced meals each meal time. He’ll generally eat anything, the only thing he genuinely doesn’t like is aubergine so I make sure it is in big chunks in a meal so he can pick it out easily.

We ate the same meals after DS was weaned. His was pureed to start but as a child, I was told to eat it, or go without. So I learned to cook, and DS is a chef.