what does your toddler eat?

[mollysmum82]

I'm in need of inspiration! And either reassurance that what I'm giving my toddler is okay...or ideas of what to do instead! She is refusing to eat almost everything I cook now but annoyingly enjoys "kids food" (which I previously had a passion against giving her but now feel grateful that she eats anything at all!)

This is her typical menu:

Breakfast- three or so bites of an apple and crumpets with vitalite spread (she's dairy allergic)

Lunch - a spoon or two of avocado, a few mouthfuls of ainsley harriott couscous, some ham/sliced chicken/smoked mackerel and the flesh of some grapes. A kinnerton dairy free dark choc lolly for pudd.

Snack - some raisin shredded wheat (usually 3 pieces) or some cheerios and raisins (spitting out the skins haha)

Tea - a salmon fishfinger, a chicken goujon, some toast with vitalite and some carrots and peas. A soya pudding with ground baby rice for pudd.

• 3 breastfeeds in the day and usually 2 or more at night.

Do you think this sounds horrific? I hate giving her so much processed/baked food but I don't know what else to do! I used to give her what we were having (spag bols, chicken curries, chilli con carne, casseroles all cooked from scratch) but now she completely refuses them. I think this may be my fault - in the past if she didn't eat what I'd cooked I would offer a perhaps less healthy alternative...but this was because the HV was putting pressure on me to get her weight up.

So am I a horrendous mum?! Or do others have to resort to this kind of food? Do you have any nutritious, home cooked tricks that toddlers will eat?

Or am I obsessing absout absolutely nothing?

Any ideas for dinners (lunch in particular) would be much appreciated. Many thanks

You aren't a horrendous mum! I have a very fussy 9yr old and a faddy 2yr old and have learned the hard way (in fact i worry i made my older daughters issues worse), that you just have to let them eat whatever they will sometimes.

Both my girls are smaller than average and I have had HV telling me to add cream and butter to their food, but it hasn't seemed to give them a growth spurt of any kind.

my dd's typical menu, if you want a comparison, is rice crispies and a cup of milk for breakfast. an egg or some hounous and 2 breadsticks and orange juice for lunch and 2 fishfingers and a tablespoonful of peas for dinner. She also has a yoghurt and salt free crisps as snacks and sometimes an animal bar as a treat.

That sounds fine to me.

My DS's menu at the moment is something along the lines of:

Breakfast -
porridge/readybrek with banana, glass of milk
or wholegrain toast, with marmite, or jam, or peanut butter, and milk

Snack -
A few slices of apple, rice snack things, cubes of cheese

Lunch -
homemade pizza (we made them together on english muffins today) with mushroom, ham, yellow pepper, cheese and tomato pasta sauce
More sticks of carrot and pepper and cucumber. (He likes crunchy things at the moment). With water.

This afternoon we'll probably have a kiwi and I expect he'll ask for one of those organix 'bars' - with milk.

Dinner, I'm planning to get him to help me cook a risotto from the cbeebies 'I can cook' as I find if he helps me to cook something he generally eats it more happily. He'll have a yoghurt for dessert most nights.

Um, other stuff we do that he likes -

Frittata, can pile lots of veges in with the egg, and he likes it being cut into fingers so if using the fork starts getting tiring he can resort to fingers without me being annoyed.

He likes pasta, especially if I remind him that spaghetti is Peppa and George's favourite just before serving.

Mini meatballs have been surprisingly successful - he calls them sausages and I just agree.

We did fish fingers with mashed potato and mixed frozen veg yesterday. We made cheesey muffins together for lunch and had with butter & marmite (for him) and homemade chutney (for me).

Risottos stick on the cutlery as well and he seems to like.

Baked beans on wholegrain with cheese are one of his favourites. I'm not thrilled by the salt & sugar content, but it's not an everyday thing and is an easy fallback on busy days.

Eggs - scrambled or in omelettes with added extras.

With an allergy, perhaps you could use an allergy-free cookbook (like this one and involve her a bit.

My boy goes through refusenik phases, but we don't tend to make something else. If he's really eaten nothing I might make a slice of toast for him but mostly I figure it's swings and roundabouts, if he doesn't eat much one day, he'll most likely eat a bit more the next.

I think you sound like you're doing fine.

today my dd (egg and dairy allergic ) has had:

breakfast: few raisins, plain soya yog mixed with fruit puree and some plum baby 4 grain porridge.

bf mid morn

lunch:1 slice toast with pure sunflower spread, 2 slices of apple chopped up and a baby organix gingerbread man.

bf

for dinner she will be having chicken,butternut squash and rice (she only has a tiny bowl of it) and prob a smooth soya yogurt for pudding.she drinks water with every meal as well.

Sounds fine to me, although I don't think kids need puddings twice a day, tbh. Give her a fruit instead, if you must.

DD is 21 mo and in a typical day eats:

Breakfast- porridge with milk, banana

Lunch- 2 eggs, half an avocado, slice of ham, slice of buttered toast, apple

Dinner- whatever we're having, so could be any roast meat plus veg or salmon pasta or chicken risotto etc. If I baked a cake she'll have a slice- but that's once or twice a week.

Snacks are fruit, cheese, sometimes biscuits that I made (shortbread), though that's rare.

She has 2-3 bfs a day.

She goes through periods of not eating much, I don't force her. So sometimes she'll almost nothing for dinner, but next day will eat a lot.

Thanks ever so much for your detailed replies - you've really reassured me! Its great to get some other ideas too! :)

I think that sounds fine tbh. They are so picky. My dd went through a phase of refusing everything I cooked despite having eaten it all previously nbo problem. We tried not to make a big deal out of and just said, ok, if you don't want it, don't eat it but there is not much else. Eventually she started eating again.

As for ideas, one of dd's favourites is Tuna Fish pie - so easy, tinned tuna mixed up in cheese sauce and topped with mash; also 'pizzas' made with English muffins; sweet & sour chicken (she usually leaves out the veg but lovees the pineapple in it. When I'm cooking I don't leave out anything just because she doesn't like it. I just tell her to pick it out. Sometimes she does and sometimes she eats it!

Hope this helps.