I'll join you if you'll have me :) .. DS is 2.3 and until a few months ago ate quite a wide variety of stuff, and more importantly was willing to try new things. I BLWd him, and was a smug mum (internally tutting at a mum friend who was struggling to get her rake thin DS to even try anything else but carrots and apple and a bit of dark choc). Now his list of acceptable foods seems to get shorter by the day. I literally do not know whether he will eat one food from one day to the next, which makes cooking a nightmare. Also, am on a diet myself and DH does not tend to eat with us, which makes it even harder to have a shared experience, which I know doesn't help (also I resent having to bin all of DS's uneaten food so end up picking at it despite my diet).
DS has not got an aversion to mess or textures, but will only have mush/liquids in certain ways. He does eat lots of varieties of sweets and choc (except for dark), as well as any crisp flavour under the sun, and would probably like to exist on them given half a chance. He is normal weight and height (although on the skinnier and shorter side) and does not seem to be unhealthy so I'm trying to be more relaxed with his eating and not cook anything too complicated should it be refused (it's so true about the emotional investment thing..).
DS was always quite whingy and unsettled (still has issues with sleep) and learned to walk and talk later than his peers (although I am pretty sure he is still within a normalish range). He is quite challenging to handle even when he's rested and not hungry, but when hungry he is an absolute nightmare, so I try to get regular snacks into him (even if it means chocolate or a lolly while shopping if healthier alternatives such as dried berries, nuts, breadsticks and such are refused). He will sometimes astound me by refusing sweets, though, which I would have never done as a child (almost never got any sweets at all, so grew up to crave them).
He will reliably and almost always eat:
Raisins,
Sweets, chocolate, crisps
Juice of any kind
Many smoothies (especially Innocent)
Chips (prefers the thin kind)
Plain pasta or pasta with grated cheese (parmesan) or pesto
strawberries
organix or similar crunchy corn snacks
nuts or dried fuit with yoghurt coating
thomas yoghurts
mini cheddars or similar
watermelon (if nice and sweet)
broccoli
cucumber (chews, but mostly spits out rest.. I really hate that!)
Ice cream of any kind (apart from choc mini milks which he has recently started to refuse - they are vile though!)
biscuits and cakes with colourful icing
will often/sometimes eat:
apple
pear
blueberries
raspberries
fish fingers
potato smiley faces
nuts
seeds
ravioli
raw carrot (most of the time chews and spits, again I hate it.. anyone else's kid do this? Sometimes it seems to be because his mouth is too full, but other times he just seems to get bored with it while eating it, or then having extracted the juice, spits out the 'rubbish')
cauliflower
fresh peas (uncooked)
dried fruit such as goji berries
hummous (waitrose only)
breadsticks
home made oven chips
ready brek with honey
some dry cereal (rice crispie shapes, etc)
fruit sticks such as school bars
fruits stars and flakes
boiled egg quartered
will occasionally eat:
bread with hummous, butter, honey or cream cheese
grapes (sometimes spits out after chewing)
mandarin (spits out skin after sucking out juice)
cherry tomatoes
mashed potato
ketchup
other dips than hummous
plain biscuits or cake
pasties
cream crackers
frankfurters (although this seems to be dropping off the list now :( )
liver patee (ditto)
He seems to like his food lukewarm or cold.. is scared of anything too warm, which makes eating out an ordeal (cafes and restaurants have to serve their food piping hot and DS gets frustrated and tantrums if he is hungry and can't eat)..
So, as you can see, even though the lists look long, he does not really eat any other meals apart from fish fingers with chips and pesto pasta (will not touch pizza or almost anything meaty) and varies hugely from one day to the next. He eats with a fork and spoon, but can get frustrated if not succeeding and will often refuse help. I have given into him in that I only seat him to the table to eat once or twice a day, otherwise he eats in front of the telly. Not ideal, but he seems to be distracted enough to eat a bit more that way. He gets vitamins and probiotics in pills every day but will not touch omega 3 supplements (to be fair, they do taste absolutely horrible). He does not have his final molars, so don't know whether that affects his chewing.. did anyone's DC start to eat better once all their teeth were in?
I was always a pretty good eater, but if there is a genetic element to all this it could be from DH (he was a skinny wee lad who wasn't that bothered with food until his late teens when he also shot up in height. BTW he has a funny anecdote from when he was in primary school in the 70s his teachers told the whole class to clap and cheer if he went for seconds in the cafeteria in order to encourage him to eat more - needless to say it didn't; he only took seconds when there was choc pudding on offer).
Phew.. Sorry for the length of this! It was good to get it out! it's frustrating isn't it. I certainly feel humbled, if not a little bitter and enraged, with my non-sleeping non-eating toddler..