how to get my dd to try different foods?

[maxmissie]

Would just like some advice please - my dd is 16 months and is a relatively good eater. However sometimes she will refuse to try something new but happily go on to eat a yogurt or banana, which we give her to make sure she doesn't go hungry. However I don't want to get into a situation when she's older where she thinks "I don't have to eat this as I'll get something else anyway."

I'm confused about a few things though...

If she doesn't eat or try her main course, how long should we carry on giving her an alternative or pudding? Part of me thinks she is too young to understand the concept of 'not trying/eating your dinner means you don't get anything else'. I don't want to make dinner times into a battle ground and I think that as long as she eats something then that's all that matters at this age. However at some point she will be able to understand the idea of trying things before saying she doesn't like them.

If she doesn't eat her dinner I don't want her to be hungry, as the fact that she will then eat something else (even if it's not particularly exciting) indicates that she is hungry. Giving her something else kind of goes against what I want to achieve though! I guess one option is to ensure that the pudding is boring, e.g. yogurt or fruit and that once she's had that there isn't anything else.

Is this a healthy approach to take to encouraging her to try different things, without making a huge deal out of it and ensuring that she eats something? Is she too young to try this yet? If anyone has any alternative suggestions that would be great too.

My DD is 18months, I know that you have to keep offering the same food quite a few times before they will accept it. I tend to give DD weetabix if she refuses dinner, but if you persivere then she will eventually try the new food. I finally got my DDto eat a mouthful of tuna mayo sandwich today have been offering on and off for months! She seems to be more up for trying food if I'm eating it

DS is 3.5, and this is still kind of a thing for us. He went through a long period where he would really only eat the carb bit of any given meal. We kept offering the whole meal. If he really didn't want to eat any of it, we wouldn't make a thing of it, and let him have yogurt or fruit if he seemed hungry. He's a pretty good eater now, but sometimes he will still decide that he doesn't want any more main, but wants fruit. I tend to be okay with that, unless I think he's really taking the mick. Sometimes I make him have a couple of teaspoons of whatever he's refusing, just so he's tried it.

However, close friends of ours are really strict about meals. If their kids don't finish most of their tea, they get nothing else to eat. I think this may be partly because their kids really like fruit, and would have just fruit at every meal iyswim. Their kids don't eat particularly better or worse than ds. So I think just do whatever feels right to you.

IME. I would say she is a bit young yet. Having said that, I made lots of mistakes with DS1 about food and he is Mr Picky of PickyLand - he has only just started trying new foods and he is nearly 7.

I think, to be honest, as long as you always offer them healthy stuff, then if they only will eat bananas or yogurt or whatever, then that's better than only eating jaffa cakes

I tend to out lots of things on a plate and leave it there. With my older ones (5 and 6) I tell them hey have to try a bit befofe they get pudding or whatever but with DS3 (21m) he doesn't understand that so I just out it there and if he eats it, fine. If he doesn't, that's fine too but I don't give pudding if he hasn't eaten a sizeable amount of dinner as I assume he's not hungry

that would be put rather than "out" - I'm always doing that

Thanks everyone for your advice, I think she's a bit young to not give her something if she doesn't eat her dinner and as she only has relatively unexciting and healthy puddings then I'm not too worried. Think that when she's a bit older and is able to understand better I'll be a bit stricter and ensure that she at least tries things before getting something else!