Right I would quite like to expand my 2 year olds limited diet, all suggestions welcome

[rookiemater]

He is normal height and weight and fairly active, but since about 14mths on I have found it nigh on impossible to add new foodstuffs to the list of things he will eat.

Currently he has :
Breakfast - Weetabix, rice crispies or toast sometimes with a smoothie
Lunch/Dinner/Snacks - At CMs will eat everything and anything at ours, toast, cheese, most bread related things i.e. potato scones, muffines, pizza, chicken nuggets, fish fingers, chips, raw carrot(sometimes), most fruit, anything rubbishy such as chocolate or crisps - but he gets these very infrequenty, cooked pasta with nothing on it, M&S nice rice and sometimes their spag bol.

He will not eat homemade spaghetti bolognaise, or indeed any other home made dish although he used to love macaroni cheese, eggs or any vegetables. I have tried putting different things on his plate to acclimitise him to them, but he just very politely hands them back to me.

I'm not too traumatised by the refusing food bit, I know he is trying to assert his independence and he isn't keen on things requiring cutlery so I'm trying to remain unstressed and ride it out. I would just like some helpful suggestions about how to sneak in more food types gradually, and what I should go for.

Thanks

Wishing chair my DD of 16 months is exactly the same no mixed up foods probably since 10 months took a while for us to realise. DD is addicted to pasta normally with pesto but after 9 months of putting rice (plain of course) on her plate she has finally started eating it. Plain, no sauce and no mixing up - very common. No point fighting against it. Give something they love (even if its pasta every evening) with new food and eventually (it can take months) they may try it and even like it. I dont agree with starve them to submition people - doesnt work if you are BFing your toddler.

Sorry - not read the whole thread but dp mashes cabbage and/or carrot into mash and throws in cheese as well - it's a whole hidden meal inside a bit of mash!

Ds's tend to get what we eat, whether they like it or not, apart from 1 evening meal a week which is their choice and is ALWAYS fishfingers and chips!

If it's a meal I know they're going to hate, I'll do them some baked beans, as I find if they start eating, they'll generally have bits of the other food.

But whatever they eat/don't eat, we've learned not to make a fuss, but just let them leave the table (no treats if they haven't eaten well, obviously) and that's that. Much easier than daily battles...

rookie this is exactly like my dd. Up until age 1 she would eat anyhting and everything lentil casserole, spinach and butterbean pasat etc etc. Now she's the fussiest madam ever (although eats everything at nursery). She won't even eat pasta and it's only in the past week she's bothered eating baked beans!

It's doing my head in!! Neither me nor dh are fussy and we're always stuck as to what to do as some meals she literally eats nothing. Up until now our saving grace has been fruit but now she turns her nose up at grapes and starwberries ( previously firm favourites) too! She'd quite happily eat bread and bread based products all day tbh. I console myself that she usually stocks up on breakfast (weetabix or porridge with chopped dried fruit in)and this is nutritious.

Don't you just love 'em!

dd1 from 2 - 3 AWFUL. We called it the white year (retrospectively) humous, bread, pasta, chips, cheese.

And now she eats everything. Really. EVERYTHING.

I got a juicer, and would stick carrot juice in with her orange juice.

If we were eating something she didn't like, we'd have it and offer it to her and if she refused I'd give her something dull like weetabix.

Well lunch was not the huge success I had hoped it would be. DS rejected the M&S chicken teddies ( even as I type I'm anticipating scorn for giving my child these) so clearly wasn't going to eat the slice of tomato, egg and carrot that I put on his plate.

I have tried making our own pizza as well, probably would have been more successful if I had let the dough rise . See thats the other thing, I'm not a gourmet chef and things i cook tend not to turn out very well and then if they get rejected , arrghh.

Must go DS shouting about something.

Said it before and I'll say it again, bog standard Tomato Passata (sieved tomatoes - so one of your 5 a day) makes great kid-friendly ketchup. They can have as much as they want if you get the no salt version - and it's cheap! You can decant into a squeezy bottle if you like .

CHICKEN TEDIES??!!! [obliging]

well we are trying sweet potato and cheese fritters tonight, thanks Brangelina, with peanut butter on top so recognisable as something he likes, so I will see how that goes.

Lennygrr, is your DD now eating normally, am scared by Brangelina saying that DS will be like this for the next 12 years ?

Oh Umlellala great tip about the passata, DS loves ketchup.

Rookie,I would never deprive a child of food or force them to eat. If they don't eat at one meal, take the food away and next meal start with a new slate.

I really wouldn't show your worry (which is unfounded)or get wound up.

I am sorry,I shall have to leave thread now before I say something very rude (as is my forte) about your M &S chicken teddies)

Let a and a suffice.

My kids are bloody fussy eaters by nature.
Difference is that they are never pandered to. I just smile pleasantly and say 'Oh good,there's more for me then.'

Rookie - yes she hit three (just before really) and started going for it. Seriously, she will try everything. There are things she doesn't like (mushrooms, seedy bread) but she eats exactly the same as we do (bar chillies!). Just have faith - you don't eat a really limited diet and neither will she.

And I gave my dd1 chicken teddies too (they're ORGANIC!) Don't worry about it. There will always be some paragon of virtue who simply eats EVERYTHING, dahling, doncha know. Prob the same ones who sleep through the night, never watch telly, and so on and on and on... zzzzz.....

Thanks lennygrr, I shall go for a combined approach of trying to give new things but hoping that DS grows out of it as well. The sweetpotato fritters went down better than expected, i.e. he ate one big bite of them and looked like he had been tricked and wanted to spit it out, but didn't.

DD does not like her food mixed, or too much at once, she is 21 months and been like this for a while, likes her food in seperate sections of plates too, although we dont make a point of doing this dileberately, but if the food is seperate we will not mix it up (ie mash, meat and carrots, but wont try t seperate mixture of curry!). She also seems to be put off by too much on her plate at once, better to give her a small amount and refill her bowl/plate.

Could he be teething? DD went through a long period of not really wanting anything, even though she ate loads before, anthing and everything, then her molars all came through at once, and her apetite came back.

Does he eat any meat? Does he get enough iron?

Some times a very simple item will do the trick with mine.

If you make him pasta (macaroni), might you also add a hard boiled egg chopped up, maybe with some grated cheese, and some chopped ham? Mine loves this.

How about trying to give him some frankfurters, he can either hold one in his hand or it can be chopped.
Or, you can give it like a hotdog, with ketchup

A fried egg, chopped, he can eat with a fork.
Scrambled eggs, easy fingerfood, or with a fork.

Ligth snack of cherry tomaotes, cubed cheese, pineapple chunks and cucumber chunks.

For a yummy Iron boost: Redcurrants sprinkled with sugar, custard on top.

sorry rookie - HE!

totally agree with pavlov about the small amount offered and then more, big plates of food always seemed to freak dd1 out.

Good Luck!

Quick update for anyone interested.

Poor DS had vomiting bug last night involving three duvet cover changes, poor wee mite although seemed right as rain today. DH stayed home with him. I think we will postpone new foods for a couple of days.....

well DD1 has taken herself to bed after refusing to touch her pasta & bolognese. But she wanted a "snack" like pitta and cheese. I said no. she tantrumed and went to bed saying she was TOO TIRED FOR ANYTHING.

so i let her go...
am expecting a 3am wake up "i'm hungry"
GRRRR

she just turned 4 btw.

was it the right thing to do or should i have given her the pitta, wholemeal if that makes a difference!