Fussy eating 2 1/2 year old

[EnidClowes]

Having a nightmare with my lovely DD every dinner time. I keep making nice dinners and our tasty left overs but she's will eat very few meals. She declares 'I not like that mummy' if I ask her what it is she can always tell me so she knows what it is and will bit try it.

I know I need to not make another meal that I know she'll eat (fish fingers, mash potatoes, toast) as an alternative but I always cave. I'm worried that she's not getting enough nutrients. We eat fish but not meat so try and pack in protein in other forms (inc fish, dairy, lentils, pulses etc) but it's driving me mad. She also has vitamins everyday.

I know I need to be tough and I know that once second DC arrives (she doesn't know yet so it's not in reaction to pregnancy etc) there'll be no choice to be this fussy but aaargh it's hard.
Tell me is definitely a phase - waaaaah!

My 2.5yo dd is also pretty fussy (will spend ages picking out the bits of dinner she doesn't like and trying to hand them to me - 'don't like potato, mummy eat it'...!). I figure she'll grow out of it eventually so I'm trying to use snacks/pudding to ensure a balanced diet - so if she refuses the sandwich at lunchtime and just eats fruit, her afternoon snack might be breadsticks and cheese, if she refuses the vegetables at dinner then pudding will be fruit etc. Then I know I don't need to worry so much. She's not nearly so fussy with snacks fortunately.

Oh and I don't do alternative dinners - but do try to make sure there's at least one bit of dinner she might eat. If we have a dinner we haven't tried before that's the exception, if she doesn't like it she can have a sandwich or something.

I make mine separate meals for their tea (makes sense as my food is too much for them eg onions and garlic give them wind etc) but we all eat together and the same for breakfast and lunch. So mealtimes are not constantly a battle.
I figure that when I was young, mum gave us stuff like fishfingers, beans on toast, jacket potatoes etc etc. nothing grand and now as an adult I eat a range of foods. So I figure why put ds through having to eat what I like now? (I remember being given spicy food as a kid and finding it absolutely disgusting - to the extent I hid it in plant pots - but now I love a curry). I occasionally let ds try something new - branching out from foods he likes and sometimes he surprises me.

Can you compromise - not make her a separate meal, but if you're having root veg and lentils for eg. then mash hers up a bit and put it on toast. Might work? I have to make 3 suppers essentially - ds1 had severe feeding difficulties as a baby (feeding tubes and subsequent milk refusal / eating phobia) so will only eat dry textured things like chicken nuggets and waffles, my dh works quite late so I usually eat with him and make our supper when the kids go to bed, and dd2 is 9 1/2 months and mostly eating homemade cubes of food from the freezer or things like mashed avocado. I cannot wait for the day we might actually be able to manage all eating the same food, at the same time! (Probably when ds1 is 30...)

Thank you all. I think a little compromise where I put something she definitely likes on the plate so I know she'll eat but not a whole extra meal is the way forward.
I also think like creatures says I probably ate like that too and now eat a range of foods. DH is very much of the opinion that she's 2 so it's obviously an annoying toddler thing!
Thank you, you've given me some ideas (and some hope!)
mummy I hope your mealtimes become easier soon!