2.5 year old diet

[milkyman]

My ds loves fruit - just wondered if this too much:

Today's food so far:

2 bananas
2 apples
1 Kiwi fruit
4 strawberries
Pasta, bolognese, cheese
Rice cakes
Sandwiches
Cornflakes, toast, shredded wheat

And it's only 2pm....

Seems a lot. In comparison my 3 year old today ate:

Breakfast 8.30am- omelette with beans and mushrooms

Lunch 2pm - grilled veg with chicken and 1/2 baked potato with sour cream.

Dinner will be around 8pm and will be salmon terriaki and rice . We very rarely snack, just odd ice cream in summer for example in park. I also personally wouldn't want them having that many refined carbs in one day ( cereal/ rice cake/ toast/ sandwiches/ pasta)

It does seem a lot, my 2.9 dd has had today:
Wholemeal toast with marmite
Fruit salad of Grapes, Blueberries and Raspberries
Cucumbers
Box of raisins
Tuna sandwich on wholemeal
Fish fingers, beans and potatoes for dinner

She has had milk and water throughout

DS is 2.7, he ate..
Milk and a Muller Strawberry Corner ( usually has an apple/toast/porridge)
Cheese Sandwich
Chocolate mini bite (friday after school treat with Big Bros, who scoffed loads with their friends!)
Currently having a childs bowl of pasta with home made pasta sauce.
Will probably have some milk later.

My DS loves fruit too, but it does sound like your Ds is grazing a little too much.

Pizza, pasta, baked potato, eggs, probably lots more but we aren't veggie.

Will you cook any meat? And will he eat any veggies or salad?

Pizza and pasta sauces are good for hiding veggies in as you know plus having a side salad.

If you make your own baked beans you can add veg.

Lentil or chickpea curry

I make a tomato/courgette/pepper mix, which if cooked for long enough goes jammy like ratatouille, this is nice on baked potatoes.

Don't feel bad op, no parent is perfect and it's definitely better to be giving him fruit than chocolate!

I allow my two (4.5 and almost 2) to eat as much as they like at mealtimes, they can have seconds and then I offer fruit and Greek yoghurt, after that sometimes DS will ask for an apple too. But we rarely have snacks, DS would sometimes ask for an apple in the middle of the afternoon and I give him that as I don't want to restrict food but don't want to actively encourage snacking.

As another poster said, snacks are things that we have for pleasure when we're out somewhere. DS will sometimes ask for chocolate when we're in the shop or paying for petrol (especially ATM as he's become used to having chocolate over Easter - shows what a slippery slope it can be!) but I tell him no and deal with moaning, and if he asks for some and I do have some in the house I tell him he can have it after dinner as we need to make sure we eat the food that helps out brain and body grow first.

My pair eat almost the same at the moment as DD must be having a crazy growth spurt, so a normal day for them would be:

Breakfast: porridge / weetabix with full fat milk and half a banana mashed in

Lunch: sandwich with two slices of wholemeal bread - always protein based, so usually egg mayo, tuna or chicken. I also mash in an avocado sometimes to reduce the amount of Mayo and up the protein. Or if they're at home it's beans on toast or French toast or scrambled egg & smoked salmon with toast. Then berries/pineapple/grapes/mango with Greek yoghurt.

Dinner: mostly always protein, like spaghetti Bol - I do think we eat too much pasta but it's something they love and eat. They love brocolli and peas so if we aren't having a tomato based dinner that I can pack veg into, I'll throw some brocolli or peas into the dinner.

I used to be veggie and have a preference for non animal protein - Greek yoghurt is great, as are baked beans, eggs, cheese and avocado.

Vegetable wise.... DS isn't a great lover of veg but I learnt my lesson with DD and have encouraged stuff like olives, pickles, gherkins etc which she seems to love ( though she may just be a strange girl!!) but stuff like that could be good to try.

Cous cous is a big favourite here. You can chop lots of things through it. Bean salad too (they are odd children!)

Avocado on toast is also good

Would he eat a veg lasagne?

Don't feel bad, what he's eating isn't awful there just seems to be a lot of it to me. Just seems like he mush be grazing constantly. DD doesn't have snacks between meals but that's because there never really seems to be an opportunity, she has breakfast then we go out, then lunch, then nap, then out again usually and then it's dinner time. She's never asked for a snack while out and about so I've never offered one!

Snacking on fruit is bad for teeth. Maybe you won't see the evidence now but it will affect him later on. I limit fruit to max 3 portions. If my DS is desperate for something in between meals, he gets carrot or cheese. I'm really paranoid about his teeth though.