17m old wont eat meat!

[Nickname1234567]

Hi all, my 17 month old has never been great with food, hes allways liked his food pureed, and he is very very picky dispite me trying him with absolutely everything since he was weaned. When he was weaned i gave him everything meat and lots of vegetables and he seemed ok with it up untill he was around 14 months, he just wont eat meat anymore, and is generally really fussy with all food, he only really likes bland food. The only food he will eat at the moment are cheese sandwiches, rice, baked potatoes, beans, cheese flatbreads, buiscuits and crackers, dried fruits and cereals, and yogurts and fruit. He will eat some veg but aslong as it is disgused in food. I still cook a home cooked meal with meat and veg every day and put it in front of him he just picks it up and throws it, if i try to feed it him he pulls it all out of his mouth throws it and cries to get out of the highchair. I havent gave up with it, i end up throwing away meals every single day, but i dont want to stop trying just incase he may try it, but now he is wasting so much food, and i really hate it. He wont touch meat anymore despite him eating it since he has been weaned. He hates meat, along with pasta, he is physically sick when it comes to pasta. I really dont know what to do here but i have asked my health visitor and she just brushed it off. Does any one know of any alternatives to meat that i could try to make sure he is getting his vitamins/proteins that he is losing out on?

Cheese, eggs, peanut butter?

He eats lots of cheese. Hates eggs :( but will sometimes have peanut butter, will pick some up later. Thanks :-)

My 3 year old has always been exactly the same. We eventually got him eating pasta at around age 2 by buying Paw Patrol pasta. Seriously . Eats all pasta now.

Still won't eat meat though, except fish fingers, minced meat (like spag bol) or chicken dipper/nuggets because we told him they're goat, not chicken with me day when he was pretending to be a troll from a book, who eats goat.

Kids are mad.

My 7 year old has never eaten meat. Just doesn't like the taste/texture despite trying it numerous times over the years.

I don't see it as a problem at all, especially as we are all being encouraged to eat less red and processed meat. There are plenty of other foods out there to maintain a healthy balanced diet.

DD didn't eat meat for years. Still not fussed. She loves peanut butter and hummus, and she used to eat Greek yoghurt a lot.

Kids don't need anywhere near as much protein as MN would have you believe. I think it's a gram for every kg of their weight. So if your child weighs about 11kg, they'll get about 11g protein from a slice of wholewheat bread with peanut butter on top, and that's enough.

Forgot to say that we bulk meals up with lentils a lot. All pasta sauces for instance.

Raise him veggie, easy :)

I wouldn't worry too much at this stage - my daughter would eat anything as a weaning baby, gradually tapering down to a fairly short list of acceptable food as a fussy toddler. She is now a more adventurous 3 year old and will eat most things at nursery if not for me!

So as not to waste too much food, could you keep offering him things from your leftovers, instead of making things just for him? Waste drives me bonkers but seems unavoidable at this age!