what does your 16mth eat?

[milkyman]

Just interested because my ds is going off lots of foods at the mo and I need some inspiration!

Favourites here at the moment are:

Scrambled eggs, with anything added eg cheese and ham
Pesto pasta
Marmite on toast
Most casseroles
Lentils (eg as a ragu with pasta or rice)
Satsumas
Stir fry, with a tiny bit of soy sauce and ketchup
Plain popcorn

He especially enjoys things he can spear with his new-found fork skills :)

This week my dd of this age has eaten scrambled egg, cheese and cucumber sandwiches, pasta with plain chicken and green beans, fish pie with a creamy sauce, minted lamb meatballs in a tomato and cinnamon sauce with chopped apricot, and fishfingers with peas! She also loves beef goulash with rice, and pasta with anything. She is, However, a machine when it comes to food...

Oh she also loves pears and satsumas this week although this is new, she's never been that into fruit apart from bananas.

my 17 month old is a bit reluctant to try new foods but, at the moment, is generally ok.
She eats:
most cereals
pasta in any form with any sauce
fish pie
peas, carrots, green beans, sweetcorn
veg curry
chilli
stew, casserole
beans
fruit
corned beef hash
potatoes in any form
fish fingers

She won't eat:
sausages
chicken
meatballs
spinach
sandwiches, pizza, toast or bread in any form - a bloody nightmare when packing a picnic

DS is 18 months, so a bit older, but his current favourites are: home made fish pie with peas and carrots. Tuna and broccoli pasta bake (broccoli practically minced so he can't pick it out though, because he will if he can! ). Roast chicken and veg, especially roast parsnips. Spag bol. Lentil soup (I tear up bread and put it in until it makes a mushy mess, looks disgusting but he loves it!). Scrambled egg and beans. Hummus. Any fruit! Chocolate cake at my Dad's birthday party!

My 16 month old also seem to have gone off lots of foods. She's eating very little .

They mainly had what we had. It's pretty normal for them to get more fussy at this age. What do you do when food is refused?

This week mine ate (17 months today)

Meatballs in a vegetable and tomato sauce with whole wheat spaghetti
Mild chicken curry with chickpeas and spinach with brown rice
Vegetable lasagne
Fish fillet, new potatoes and peas
Eggy bread
A variety of sandwiches
Scrambled eggs

They are yet to refuse anything I have offered them, we are waiting for food fussiness to kick in soon.

Anything really. She's a bit of a Hoover.

Doesn't seem too keen on potato of any form but other than that I haven't known her refuse anything

This week she has had: spag Bol and garlic bread, chicken casserole plus veg, sarnies, tuna pasta, hunters chicken, lasagne, corned beef hash she will have a Sunday lunch on Sunday and probably toasties for tea and I'm thinking of doing a curry tomorrow

Anything! Everything! But she did shock me by gobbling most of my very spicy curry on Monday.

I have a potato hater too Mrsanti!

Lots of things, OP, some favourites not already mentioned are tofu (in chunks in stir fry or curries), avocado, aubergine pasta (roast the aubergine in chunks til v soft, mix with chopped tomatoes and dried herbs), most fish - she scoffed some of my fresh tuna the other day.

She has been through phases of eating little but I've realised she prefers 'proper' food with spices and seasoning to plain stuff, and she likes it when I have the same thing at the same time.

18 month old's favourites:

• Bircher muesli
• Rice pudding
• Boiled eggs
• Bread with spreadable cheese
• Cheese cubes or grated cheese
• Pasta (preferably plain )
• Meatballs
• Chicken
• Peas
• Sweet corn
• Kidney beans / chilli
• Broccoli
• Banana
• Grapes (sliced)

We're a simple meals family...

Bananas
Cocktail sausages
All kinds of pasta
Rice
Bread
Noodles
Yoghurt

Basically any kind of carb and an extremely restricted selection of vegetable matter and meat!

Picky

Thanks all, v interesting! Do people tend to give homemade food or shop bought e.g. shop bought pesto? I spend ages making stuff from scratch but he refuses it! He also lives pasta, omlettes and any fruit but never vegetables unless they are hidden. Also loves bread and my homemade rice pudfing and sconrs!!

Most of our stuff is homemade but I draw the line at pesto, mayo and ketchup.

I can and do cook from scratch - curries, soups, chillis, stews and casseroles etc but am damned if I'm going to do this for every meal (lunch and tea 4x a week) so yes, they also get shop bought stuff such as ready meals, tinned foods, frozen items e.g. mini pizzas, potato letters, frozen mash etc. Ds is also partial to bbq sauce which he has on beans or spaghetti.

I cook from scratch apart from fishfingers, sausages and pesto. Our DD eats earlier than my DH gets home from work (at 5ish) so she tends to have a leftover portion of whatever we had the night before. If it's the weekend we try to eat together at 5 if possible. That way, I've not cooked her anything special and if it's rejected then I don't feel bad!
Does your DS feed himself or do you feed him? My DD refuses to be helped at the moment and will shake her head if I try, so maybe stick a couple of spoons in the food and then do the washing up or something, don't watch him - he might eat it, and even let you stick a few spoonfuls in! It might be an independence thing as much as food refusal.

I buy pesto too - it's a useful 'store cupboard' ingredient and I sometimes add it to toasted sandwiches and other things. I did make some once, but it was too much hassle and didn't keep well, so didn't bother again!

The only veggies DS will eat 'plain' are sweet corn, red pepper, and peas....hence lots of casseroles and stir frys, which he usually wolfs down!

I agree about the independence thing - DS usually has a spoon and a fork, and I have a spoon too, to 'help'. He has learnt to say 'no' recently and likes testing it out at mealtimes! Also, while I am getting food ready I usually give him a little something he really likes - eg a marmite rice cake or a cube of cheese, which seems to whet his appetite a bit, then the bowl of food in front of him is less daunting / less of a big deal. And often the 'ignore' approach works too!

Most meat - lamb, chicken, beef, bacon, pork, sausages
Curries
Chilli
Liver
Faggots
Coley
Cod
Mackeral
Most fruit
Potato
Yams
Plantain
Green banana
Butternut squash
Rice
Carrots

I make things like curry - lots of different kinds - chilli, shepherds pie, cottage pie, grilled chicken and veg, steak and veg, lamb chops, jerk chicken, roasts etc.

He's deeply suspicious of sweetcorn, pepper, beans, peas and broccoli. So I make a spicy vegetable creamy soup which he loves so I get them in him that way. Tons of garam marsala needed though.

Everything is homemade but I'm a SAHM which helps. I make loads per cooking session so there's always something leftover for tomorrow's lunch or dinner.