What will your 3 year olds eat??

[getoffnow]

DS is driving me mad - meals he will willing consume are now down to burgers, spag bol and chicken nuggets, toast and cheese sandwiches.

He's not misbehaving, he just genuinely doesn't seem to like anything else right now

He hates eggs, and 'fresh' meat

PLEASE give me something else that might go down well

Burritos? You can make the filling with stuff he likes (when our DDs were young it was mince, baked beans, peppers and carrots, with a hint of spice). Then let him use from other additions like lettuce, cheese, salsa etc to put in his wrap as well.

My 3 year olds (and indeed at any age from weaning upwards) are what we were eating with very few exceptions. If they didn't like it, they went without.
I don't understand this 'will only eat X, Y, Z'. No child will starve themselves. If they don't eat it, don't make a fuss but don't offer an alternative either. Obviously if you know they aren't so keen on (for example) the bolognese sauce but love spaghetti, serve more pasta than sauce. Put cheese / garlic bread out for them to help themselves.

Serve small portions so they're not overwhelmed- they can always have seconds. Praise all tastes of new foods and don't withhold any part of the meal (including a planned pudding) if other food remains uneaten, but equally don't make something different that wasn't on the menu.

I find "unmade" meals work better, so instead of making a bolognese sauce with lots of veg in it, and serving on top of spaghetti with cheese on top, I make a plainer bolognese, separate veg, some grated cheese, some pasta, and then they can "build their own"

Yeah deconstructed meals work well. A roast type meal always goes down well as everything in that is separate. Salads with jacket potato. The only sauce-based meal my 3yo likes is curry (bizarrely). Meat is largely disliked unless breaded so fish fingers and chicken fingers are OK but plain chicken and fish are not. I have found the more I get the 3yo involved in preparing the meal, the more likely he is to eat it so he helps chop veg and crack eggs so will then have an omelette for lunch, for example.

With my first child I was incredibly aware of what he would and wouldn’t eat and was always coming up with new ideas and tricks to get him to eat more. I’m sure all the attention and focus on food made it worse. Both of us looking at him when he ate, commenting on his mouthfuls.

With child number 5 I couldn’t tell you what she likes and dislikes. She is served dinner and she eats it or she doesn’t, most often she eats it. She won’t go hungry. I know it’s head but try and relax around food. Serve food you see yourself cooking for the next 10+ years.

Sausages and mash
Pizza
Fish fingers
Pizza
Cheese pancakes
Pizza
Jacket potato and beans
Pizza
Macaroni cheese
Pizza
Yorkshire puddings and roast chicken
Pizza

I think I forgot to mention that my 3yo loves pizza.

Tacos! Mine loved putting his own fillings in and adding cheese.

Pitta pizzas, again he loved putting his own toppings on. Quick lunch just whack pittas in grill, some tomato purée and toppings.

Smoothies, he sits on side and chucks in fruit and blend

Jacket potatoes with various toppings.

If he doesn't eat something I don't make a big deal I just offer it repeatedly and don't give up. Never make separate meals we all eat the same. Get him involved in cooking as much as possible

Thank you everyone

concerned - he's not being stubborn about it, he just doesn't like a lot of options. He will eat it but he's not enjoying it. I wouldn't just serve something up and insist he eats it, just as I wouldn't for my husband or myself.

@getoffnow

Thank you everyone

concerned - he's not being stubborn about it, he just doesn't like a lot of options. He will eat it but he's not enjoying it. I wouldn't just serve something up and insist he eats it, just as I wouldn't for my husband or myself.

The thing is - children do naturally prefer easy / junk food (don't we all!) and most children wouldn't choose to like other foods if they had the option of burgers / pizza / nuggets / beans / whatever. Remove these options and he will learn to like other foods. And it is a case of learning to like them - it takes at least 11 tastes of the same thing before children will generally begin to like a new flavour. I wouldn't suggest giving him something you know he doesn't like for lots of consecutive days but don't let his chosen foods become the norm either. On the days when it's likely to be a less preferred food, make sure he's really hungry (have a very active day, reduce afternoon snacks etc). Have him eat with you so he can see you're eating it, or if you eat separately do it when he's around and encourage him to try a bit of yours. But best if all the family eats the same food at the same time.

Mine loves a pizza, so I add sweetcorn and cherry tomatos to it. Once it’s cooked I pushed some cold roast chicken ( from the previous day/s) into the tomato sauce so he can’t see it 🙄. But it’s the only way to get him to each chicken. I’ve also made my own pizza before and blended lots of veg into the tomato base sauce but that’s more effort!!

Those who say a child will never starve have never had a fussy child. I have two who will only eat beige food, one who will anything except beige and one who is both. All four raised exactly the same. I learned very quickly that the beigers will starve themselves until the next morning when they can fill up on beige toast and beige cereal then have lunch of beige sandwiches, beige crisps, etc. I've given up with them and give them beige, and me and the others have a wide variety of meals. There are bigger battles to be had.
At 3 the beige preferences has definitely shown up.

Mine isn’t as old as yours but also has a limited selection.
She won’t eat anything homemade )with lots of love and effort) with a sauce but she will happily devour every sauce-based toddler tray meal I’ve ever offered her. Yes I’m bitter.

She also moves chicken nuggets and generally breaded things, so as yours will have chicken nuggets too maybe things along the lines of fishfingers, fishcakes, breaded smooshed up vegetables, breaded mozzarella, breaded anything?