what do other 3 year olds eat?

[thirtysomething]

Mine only eats chips, fish fingers and bread. She absolutely refuses to eat or try any other foods and used to be such a good eater, would try anything! I'm completely out of inspiration for new recipes to try out - she does seem to like sausages and chicken but as I'm veggie I don't know how I'd judge the recipes I make if you see what I mean! ds will eat a slightly wider variety of foods (he's 5) but both of them are now refusing even pasta! I feel so rubbish just presenting them with fish fingers over and over again but they won't touch anything more imaginative!

I totally empathise with you.
I feel a have to justify myself when i say this( as ever)by saying i have tried MANY ,MANY foods, but my dd has a very limited diet. I have tried the ,"well if she's hungry she'll eat", attitude but nothing seems to encourage her to try any veg!
Is that all she'll eat, no yoghurts or eggs or anything like that?

It doesn't sound to bad though - fish is pretty good even when wrapped in breadcrumbs!

Does she eat any fruit?

Ds2 is 3 1/2 and has got really picky too. Tonight is the 2nd in a row where he hasn't eaten any dinner at all. He eats enough during the day that I'm not worried nutritionally, but it is very frustrating taken untouched plates down from the table.

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thirtysomething, i manage to get a little bit of carrot into her by cutting it into TINY peices and putting it into a little jar of pasta,(which is the only wet thing she'll eat)
Harman, i get that ALL the time, my dd(2.10) just looks and says "oh that's incustard(disgusting)

fishfingers on a daily basis is not very healthy as it is quite fatty! and not the right sort of fat.

I am well known to have strong views about this but my kids eat everything... they love their food (I know I am lucky) - however with the job I do I see many mums with their 2 to 4 year olds at tea time... all eat (IMO) appallingly limited diets and most mums complain about it but I can't say that I am surprise. Their child is offered a reasonable meal of nothing offensive like pasta and sausages or even pizza.... the child refuses.... she chucks it away and gives a pudding (an ice cream or some fruit). Sorry I don't work like that. My kids sometimes will say "I don't want this or that"... tough .... than there is nothing else.... believe me they eat it - I have NEVER forced them and on a few occasions they have left the table not eating parts of their dinner.... they were very hungry at next meal and knew I meant it. I know DH does the exact same thing so there is a great degree of consistency. I do not offer pudding of any kind if they refuse to eat.

While I think about it....

Does DD eat with you or are they done separately?
We are lucky in that DH gets home about 5:45, so we all eat together around 6. DSs have pretty much the same as us - they might have bread instead of potatoes for example. Stuff DS2 always eats are things like chicken fajitas which are messy and fun to eat and they both love curry ( very very mild as I am a wimp!). I always figured it would be easier to introduce new stuff if we are eating it as well.

Eating and cooking with kids is one good way to improve their interest in food.

I am very lucky in that my ds who is 4.5 loves his food. I never bothered with baby jars of food etc so I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. He has had home cooked food since he has been weaned. Both my husband and I love our food so he probably just takes after us. He eats everything we have. Tonight we had pasta with a tomato sauce with peppers, courgetts, carrots, oinons and mushrooms through it.He loves it. I must admit though if there is the odd thing he won't eat I am like pupice, I would never offer him a pudding as he would soon pick that up.

I have a friend whose daughter will hardly eat anything. There is nothing coming over her so I just tell my friend not to worry too much as she will maybe change and start eating loads soon. They are all different.

thanks for all your tips - believe me we have instituted the no pudding rule and it doesn't make much difference! i also find that if she's hungry from not eating her food and she then whines all afternoon till teatime because she wants a snack I'll often give in if I have a busy after-school schedule as I just can't cope with her being whiney at ds' swimming lesson for example! Does that make me a real cop-out! We all eat together but they refuse most of our meals as we tend to eat very low-fat and things like chilli and stir-fry and they don't like that sort of thing - my ds just went for months only really eating his breakfast when we just gave him whatever we were eating until he got so thin that we had to try a different approach! He's now a good little eater but will still only touch a few dishes - they both manage about 2 portions of fruit/veg a day and I really couldn't see how they'd ever be pursuaded to eat any more!

I have the same sort of problem too - dd1 is 3 and has a limited diet. We are also veggie, and are bringing up dds the same way as, like you thirtysomething, I'm not confident about cooking meat recipes. (They get homecooked meats if we are visiting friends/relatives.) We give them the Quorn stuff - have you tried it? Tescos also have their own brand of veggie nuggets especially for kids - dd1 loved them!

One way I've found of getting vegetables into dd1 is by adding them to mashed potatoes and telling her it's "special granny mash" or something like that. Still whinges about eating it, but she does. The latest thing with her is tomato ketchup - joy of joys she actually ate a lentil bake last night! It's very hard to know what to do to try and get them to eat different things - you have my sympathy!

Kando - yes, we are well aquainted with the joys of ketchup - dd is an addict but if she has it on her plate will eat it neat unfortunately! She will occasionally eat quorn sausages but not the mince or pieces. Both dd and ds will eat the Linda Mcartney veggie frozen sausages on a (very)good day...How do you make the lentil bake? Sounds like it's worth a try! My ds has just cone back from a friend's house where he had lamb chops for tea and loved them! I keep thinking I should just bite the bullet and cook meat for him then he will at least eat well - but I only fancy cooking free-range freedom type meat and it's very difficult to find in small amounts (and then only chicken and pork!)

my dd will only eat very little each day and has started making up for it by drinking a little milk each day for which I am grateful I have tried everything over the past 6 months a
including waiting for it it pass. She is not offered anything that I consider rubbish and not offered anything we do not eat and she will perhaps eat 1 potato and it will last her all day if I am lucky tonight she had 2 small potatoes and I mean small. I let her shop and choose she chooses nothing or then when we cook (even together) she still decides not to eat it just doesn't fancy it so eats nothing. we have tried encouragement in various forms but know that isn't the key either so live in the hope that one day she will eat and in the meantime she seems healthy enough although sometimes I worry that she looks peeky/pale.