Fussy/picky 2yr old lunch ideas

[dolallymum]

My 2yr old is going through a fussy and picky stage with her eating, and I'm struggling for ideas to give her for lunch.
Please can I have some suggestions?
Currently can manage to get her to eat fruit loaf with jam and soft cheese on crackers.
Thank you in advance.

Your 2 year old sounds like my 2 year old.

Current success is
scrambled egg with ketchup
toasted muffin with banana
peanut butter sandwich
marmite rice cakes and raisins
dry blueberry wheats

Pretty much fail at everything else.

You've got to love them! Mine eats:
Cream cheese or houmous sandwiches with either grated carrot or cucumber
Fresh tomato soup (shop bought only)
Plain omelette
Scrambled egg
Cheese, chunks only

I offer him a bit of what I'm having which is how he progressed to omelette and tomato soup but stopped there.

I'm just letting him get on with it really. Dinner's even worse, generally pasta with an orange sauce but I can get quite a bit into an orange sauce so I'm not too stressed nutritionally. Apparently they only need tiny amounts to get the nutrients they need, there is a good book called 'my child won't eat' by Carlos Gonzalez which you might find useful/reassuring.

Thank you for your responses.
It has become quite frustrating, but think that's more me putting too much pressure on myself.
Thank you for the book recommendation, I'll have a look for it.

Tortilla wraps rolled up tightly and sliced to make pinwheels are enjoyed as are breadsticks dipped in peanut butter, mini cheese toasties (on milk loaf bread) and love heart eggy bread. I also get away with a mashed banana in a cup with a torn up slice of bread (crusts removed) soaked in milk (my Dad used to feed me with this.

Pasta salad
Mashed banana with yogurt
Pitta pizzas
Rice and ham
Bread sticks and cream cheese

The problem with fussy eaters is that they are all fussy in their own infuriating individual way. I had two of them, and they never agreed with each other about what was acceptable, let alone with most of the suggestions on here.

I mainly tried slightly extending their range by offering things similar to what they already ate, or going in completely the opposite direction and offering them strongly tasting, very different stuff - sometimes they surprised me. They have got a lot better with age, so patience, persistence and not letting it become too big a deal are all important. I did my best to avoid mealtime battles or resorting to bribery.

I've started a new feature on my blog called toddler treats. I'd love it if you could comment with your ideas?

munchiesandmunchkins.com/2013/03/25/toddler-treats/

Could you try having her help out making the food? My DD is 2 and 3 months and when she's going through a fussy stage sometimes all it takes is plonking her on the kitchen side and even if she does nothing except pass me the butter for her sandwich, she usually eats it due to being dead chuffed that she made it (either that, or she thinks I'm trying to poison her when she can't see what I'm cooking!) :)

I usually give DS2 (2 next week) a buffet lunch of sorts - 1 cream cracker, 1 cheese cracker, some ham, some cheese, some cucumber/tomato (which get ignored ), sausage roll/pork pie/whatever else we have in plus about 5 of my crisps (quavers/wotsits). He usually eats most of this, then a banana for pudding.

Dinner is usually a cooked meal - pasta, fish pie, casserole, anything really- with a fromage frais/rice pudding & fruit for pudding.

Snacks can be raisins, fruit flakes, plain biscuit (digestive/malted milk etc), dried apricots, breadsticks, Easter egg .

Thanks so much everyone.
Today we have tried the idea of banana wrapped in a tortilla wrap with peanut butter, as suggested on munchiesandmunchkins blog.
She wasn't keen on the wraps themselves but enjoyed unwrapping them and eating the banana and peanut butter inside.
Now what to try tomorrow??

My dd used to like bits dinner. Basically it was a bit of all sorts of stuff. Things like a bit of bread, bit of cooked meat, bit of cheese, vegetables. Anything really.

Just give lots of things in tiny amounts.

One thing that really helped when outer did was really fussy was cutting down the portion size too.

think it's a 2yo thing - dd2 is getting fussier by the hour
she will eat:
eggy bread
pittas stuffed with felafels
fresh pasta (but only one flavour from one supermarket - buttered fresh pasta is quicker to serve up than a sandwich
baked spud, tuna and sweetcorn
quesadillas
cheese on toast with heinz hoops - won't win any gourmet/nutrition awards but is my favourite ever lunch