18 month old very resistant to food changes

[Triggles]

My 18mo DS is really resistant to new foods - or more accurately new food textures, maybe. It has been a bit of a struggle all the way through. It seemed to take forever to get him eating chunkier textured foods after he started eating pureed. I've been trying to move him into table foods for months, but he sometimes will just refuse after a bite or two, but if it's chopped up more, then he'll give in and eat it. He seems to be a weird mixture of "nope, only want it in small pieces" and "here, I'll stick the whole piece of toast in my mouth and gag/choke on it". Anyone else have this problem?

My 3.5 year old is still a bit like this. As a baby he would eat anything he was given but then became more of a fussy eater when he got to the toddler stage. He is getting better now but still turns his nose up if something new is on his plate. One thing that helped us was sitting to eat together at the table and all having the same food. we never used to do this -used to feed ds and then we'd eat later when he was in bed. He eats a lot better with us at the table. If I want to get him to try something new I put a small bit of new stuff on his plate along with other stuff I know he likes. He never eats the new stuff at first but will look at it and pick it up. Then next time I try it he may taste a small bit before declaring that he doesn't like it and eventually after several attempts he starts to eat a new food. There are a couple of things I have never been able to get him to eat though and I guess he just really doesn't like these things so I stopped trying with them for a while.

We do sometimes eat later due to our work schedules. Maybe that will help. I'll try that, thanks. He does sometimes try it, but it seems to take a lot of exposure to it and encouragement. I think it's just that DD would eat anything and everything she was given without fuss, and this is such a different thing for us to deal with. Thanks.