2 y/o DS is basically a vegetarian who doesn't eat veg

[champagnesupernova]

My DS was a brilliant eater until about 16 months.

I think that perhaps we missed a "texture" window as now he is VERY reluctant to try new things so we've fallen into bad habits of me relying on what I know he'll eat rather than trying him on something new that he'll turn his nose up. I think he's still too little (he's 2y 5m) to say "it's this or nothing"

I have realised that he's basically a Veggie (of his own choosing)

Pancakes
Pizza
Cheese sandwiches
Marmite
Pasta and pesto (which I usually manage to sneak some spinach into).He used to eat tomato sauce but he doesn't now.
Fish fingers (he used to eat home made goujons of chicken or turkey but now he spits them out.)

No fruit unless it's dried.

He used to eat fromage frais but not so interested in that any more and I got sick of throwing them away (or eating them myself )

I try not to give him too much between meals so he's really hungry and try too look at the bigger picture what he's eating over a whole week but it's getting really bad. Esp when we go to others' houses (and I hope that hte peer pressure will have a positive effect) and he just won't eat anything.

Any thoughts?
TIA

Bumping for daytime crowd

No advice but offering sympathy. I know what you mean about the texture thing though, DS won't eat ANY fruit (not even raisins ) or veg so I have to sneak fruit puree into his ready brek and cauliflower into mashed potato and that's all he has.

2years and 5 months is not too little imo to say you eat this or nothing.

I'm sure DS1 was this age if not younger when we did it we took his plate away and put it on the side in the kitchen then when he said he was hungry or looked in the copboard we just gave him the same plate back and said if you are hungry you will eat your tea. He soon got the message and now he will try anything.

If we introduce new food we always have things we know he likes as well so we gave him shepherds pie the other day but also gave him all the veggies we know he likes. When it's new food we say he has to try 3 mouthfuls before he can say he doesn't like it. When he says he doesn't like something which isn't very often I say but that's what superman eats so he can fly and that usually does the trick, if even this fails we know he probably really doen't like it but we always try him again in a few weeks.

Hope that helped.

Yes Jareth, that's what I do = but even then he becomes fussy about the fruit purees - now he won't eat the mango one only the blueberry (sigh)

His favourite thing ever used to be cauli and broccoli cheese. (sigh)
Thanks for the tips Rachel, I will try giving that a go.

We are at a much earlier stage with our DS (only 14months) but a similarly limited diet. Though he likes fruit and yogurt. I think most dieticians would say continue with the snacks but at set times. Certainly in my experience whether DS has a snack or not has no bearing on whether he eats tea/lunch and it means that over the course of the day his food intake is better. Does your DS drink milk?

I continue to offer the food we are having and very rarely he will surprise me and eat things. After 2 weeks of refusing a 'proper meal' he ate all my veg curry on saturday . It has taken me a while but it really is less of an issue for me now. Usually I have one meal a day where I offer him something I know he likes then the other meal will be my meal from the night before. That way there is no stressful meal prep involved immediately prior to it being rejected. I give him vitamin drops (which I know aren't ideal) but mean I worry less.

Sorry not a great deal of help as I haven't come out of the other side yet (if we ever do!!!). On a positive note it sounds like your DS eats lots of energy rich foods.

Just wanted to offer my sympathies. My just turned 3 year old has the exact same diet except peanut butter rather than marmite. He is fairly skinny but healthy apart from he did become slightly aneamic so we now put spatone in his water (which is vile, but he doesn't seem to notice!) I

In literally the past week my ds has started eating fishcakes (move on from fish fingers) cupcakes (i know this isn't good but trying anything new is a celebration when you have a child who won't try anything) and croissants (still bread but again, new)so hopefully he's improving.

I have to laugh, on holiday i was trying to convince him to try ice cream, but no!

My 16m dd eats ANYTHING, it's bizarre. Did your ds have reflux? just that anecdotally i've seen that children with diets like our children seem to favour dry bland food when they has reflux as a baby.

Just an idea, but in the book 'How to Eat' Nigella talks about a 'tasting plate'.
Basically you prepare a plate with a few teeny little portions of new foods, then give it to them and they have to try something from the plate before their main meal.