Help me feed the fussiest toddler in the world.

[farendofafart]

This is a list of everything she will eat:

Chips
Potatoes
Yorkshire pudding
Pasta (no sauce must have ever looked in it's direction, never mind touched it)
Bread (with butter, jam, honey, nutella)
Cheese
Sausages
Fish fingers
Chicken nuggets
Milk
Cream
Yoghurt
Bananas
Apples
Grapes
Strawberries
Corn on the cob (not kernels de-cobbed)
Cereal (but never porridge)
Cereal bars
Cake
Biscuits
Crisps
Ice cream
Tomato ketchup

In summary - refined white carbs, processed meats, milk and milk products, sugary fatty junk food, some fruit and one vegetable (does corn on the cob even count as a vegetable?)

I really really want her to eat better than this. I offer her normal food at every evening meal but she point blank refuses to touch it.

She is 2.5. Attempts to coerce her to eat meet with "no thanks", " I don't like it" (despite not trying it) or tears and tantrums. I can't force it down her. What do I do?

Could you offer her something new with the promise of something she likes afterwards - that might get her used to new flavours and tastes? What kind of things do you have in mind?

My 1 year old will eat fish, roast beef, ham, chicken, eggs, cereal, toast/bread, crackers,soup, natural yogurt most veg & fruit although isn't keen on potatoes. If she becomes a bit fussy I add a few things into an omelette then put it into stops and she'll usually eat it. I don't offer her anything processed at the moment but I'm sure at some point I will.

Those are good ideas but she has absolutely no concept of delayed gratification yet so the promising something nice trick just confuses and upsets her at the moment.

She won't eat eggs so omelettes won't work.

Could you speak to your health visitor they might have some ideas? My SIL had a similar problem with her DS who would only eat soup and bread. I remember her having to remove that completely and only offer other things it was a hard few days but eventually when he realised he wasn't getting soup and bread he began to eat other things.

I second Griffo.
Essentially, DC will eat when they are hungry. I had this with DC1 who would only eat mush and a very few things like raisins and rusks. We had several very difficult days of 'You only want your drink? You don't want the pieces of apple/the toast/the cold meat/whatever DH and I are eating? That's fine, let's get you down then.' Cue running of to play, and returning half an hour late to whinge hungrily around my feet and be told, sorry, darling, you have to wait till the next meal.

Re eggs, does she eat pancakes? Would she believe an omelette was a 'special pancake'?

And if all that doesn't work, take heart: I have known DC be phenomenally fussy eaters, and turn into adults who eat most things.

MehsMum is absolutely right. Put it in front of them, take it away.

My Dcs both had shorter lists than these as toddlers. They were both fit and healthy children, and they are now strapping healthy adults with reasonably broad tastes and one is even a vegetarian.

I feel your pain though - what I didn't realise is that ds especially just had a tiny appetite and an above-averagely sensitive palate. He still does. trying to stuff a terrible two with food they don't like when they're not hungry is never going to end well for you.

Later on we had a deal that he had to try something but if he didn't like It there were no repercussions and if he did we didn't make a huge song and dance about it, just a bit of gentle pleasure. It helped quite a lot from the age of about six.

Check out the Mealtime Hostage blog and Ellyn Satter's Division of Responsibility to help your daughter expand her repertoire at her own pace.

If it helps, I'm very jealous of your list. My 2.5yo won't eat any fruit or veg except prepackaged fruit purees or fruit juice. He will only set three safe hot foods (sausages, meatballs or potato products) and won't eat pasta, rice or anything with a sauce. Despite this, we're getting results with the Ellyn Satter approach and he is becoming more willing to try new foods :)

Sounds like quite a sweet tooth... what about other very sweet vegetables eg roasted sweet potato, roasted butternut squash, roasted carrots? If she likes cheese, try mixing avocado with cream cheese and spreading it on toast? Or will she not even try things if she doesn't recognise it...?

I have found that in the buggy on the way somewhere works quite well to get less favoured foods down i.e. take some bits of cooked veg in a pot and offer them at snack time in the buggy. DD is sufficiently bored/peckish that she will probably eat it and she is also more likely to accept nothing else is available since we're not at home.

This isn't exactly encouraging but my sister was a very fussy eater and I'm afraid she still is... like Purple's DS I think she just has a much stronger sense of taste and has never been that bothered by not eating much. Starving her never worked, she would literally get to the point of fainting with hunger rather than eat something she didn't want. On the other hand I was quite fussy (I ate "single foods" but nothing mixed/no sauces) but grew out of it in my teens.

Gosh that's not the best diet. Are you offering normal family meals, then she refuses and you provide her with the processed stuff instead?

I would probably offer her your family meal and then totally ignore how much she eats or doesn't eat. Pass no comment and instead chat about the day or read her a book.

I would not replace the sausages, chips, nuggets, fish fingers, biscuits, cake, crisps and tomato ketchup once they are used up. If eventually you don't stock processed foods in your freezer, they won't be a fall back option. I've never stocked them and so they are simply not a part of my children's food repertoire. They still have processed foods at friends houses or at birthday parties.

I would possibly start by making vagulely similar food - so cod and jacket potato, fish pie, cottage pie. Ensure all pasta, bread etc is wholemeal also