Please assess my picky 2 year olds day of food

[TotallyCommitted]

Today my fussy two year old ate:

Breakfast - porridge with whole milk (plain)
Mango smoothie

Snack - packet of cheese veggie stick crisps and a box of raisins
But if crumpet with peanut butter

Lunch- salmon (ate a tiny bit), tortilla wrap, sweetcorn

Snack - choc ice and date and banana bar (refused apple slice with peanut butter)

Dinner- pasta with cheese (refused all the peas),
Yoghurt

Milk and cereal (weetabix) before bed.

I'm really struggling to get much fruit and veg in. Would appreciate any advice or anyone going through similar eating habits?

That’s seems like loads of food to me. It’s like 6 meals isn’t it?

Could you ‘hide’ some blueberries in the porridge and get them to find the ‘treasure’ ?
Can you give grapes or pomegranate instead of raisins ?
Have you tried mango fingers, strawberries, raspberries?
To be honest it’s a better diet than some. Just keep offering different things. If you eat it your little one might want to try it, or ‘share’.

I’ve got a fussy 2 year old too, but I’ve also got a 5 year old who barely ate anything at age 2, and now eats everything, so I am fairly confident that my 2 year old will similarly grow out of it! I’m pretty relaxed with the 2yo, but it can be frustrating.

Giving him a “picky” lunch has worked quite well, a kind of smorgasbord, some things I know he likes, some I know he doesn’t, but when he’s got a lot of choice then he’ll generally try things that he wouldn’t when presented with them on their own. So it’d be e.g. a couple of crackers, some cheese, some cucumber, carrot sticks, grapes/apple/satsuma, and a sandwich.

Also I don’t really give him snacks, so he’s more hungry at mealtimes. There are times when he eats almost nothing for tea, but I don’t sweat it (although the food waste really pisses me off!) It doesn’t seem to affect his sleep, and he’s growing normally, so I’m trusting that he’s getting what he needs. He does get a good multi vitamin too!

Just try not to make it a battle. Good luck!

Looks like your LO ate loads of good things and doesn't sound very fussy IMO. So I can understand if there was no room for peas at dinner. But if he was hungry later I would have offered the peas or an apple or a banana or even a small yoghurt rather than cereal and milk.
If you want more fruit/veg in his diet I would just remove some of the more 'treat' like options and offer fruit or vegetables instead - cuke and carrot sticks? cherry tomatoes? w/ or w/o humous?
I would not offer a choc ice except as a pudding after a good dinner well eaten.
Smoothies are empty calories - they don't have the same nutritional value as actual fruit. Because they have no roughage, the vitamins/nutrients are not very well absorbed into the body and they can cause a glucose spike just like a fizzy drink!
Cereal bars are nice too but can be very cake like. My girls like the organix ones but find these very filling.
Over all, I think you're doing very well for your LO. It took me a long time to learn with my DDs that they often just didn't have huge appetites because they were small creatures.
And PP has a point that bigger meals can mean fewer snacks.

You need to look at food over a week. I find giving veg when you are cooking dinner and they are bothering you for food really helps.

That's tons of food! My son was a nightmare at that age and wouldn't have eaten half of that!

1 day I isolation isn't necessarily giving the whole picture.

Some days I eat nothing but toast and butter, a ham sandwich and maybe pesto pasta.

Sounds crap.

But the next day I might be having porridge with berries, a salmon salad for lunch and chicken stir fry and noodles for dinner, with maybe yoghurt, an apple and some carrot sticks.

That's wildly more variety than my fussy eater (now 13 yr old) would eat. I'm not worried about DC at all.

Our of curiousity: what do YOU (OP) think would be an ideal day of his food. What do you see wrong with his food today?

Thanks for the replies.

Ideally I would like her to eat some whole fruit/ veg so apple slices, a banana, carrot sticks etc. Or even cooked peas with a meal.

I'd also like her to eat (small portions) of adult like meals eg. Cottage pie, spaghetti bolognaise etc. She eats lots of individual plain elements but they're not cohesive meals.

It's a better diet than my 3yo has. I would say it's a lot of snacks though - two things in the morning, two of an afternoon and supper. I found that reducing the snacks meant more lunch and dinner was eaten. I now only give a snack (1 item) if he complains of being hungry a few times or if I know lunch/dinner might be later than usual - today he had a morning snack (just a rice cake) as we weren't eating till after 1pm instead of his usual 12noon lunchtime.

@TotallyCommitted

Thanks for the replies.

Ideally I would like her to eat some whole fruit/ veg so apple slices, a banana, carrot sticks etc. Or even cooked peas with a meal.

I'd also like her to eat (small portions) of adult like meals eg. Cottage pie, spaghetti bolognaise etc. She eats lots of individual plain elements but they're not cohesive meals.

You just need to keep putting it on her plate. Along with stuff you know she'll eat. So for example, a bit of Bolognese alongside sweetcorn.

Can you tell us everything she had to eat for the last 5 days,? It will give a better picture

She's very close to your ideal OP. She eats a good variety of veg & fruit. The portions maybe tiny (smaller than you wanted) but she's only small.

The snacks are massive!

That seems like an awful lot of meals for a small child?

She is probably a full up, that is so much food and lots of carbs. I’d go for porridge with fruit on for breakfast, Cut up fruit or yoghurt for snack, veggie pasta for lunch & cottage pie or similar for dinner with jelly for pud.

DS is pretty good now but we used to add a lot of veg to pasta, sometimes blended into sauces. She eats a lot of carbs, could you add some veg there? Eg I also stick grated veg in muffins, pancakes etc. Avocado rather than just butter on toast or crumpets.

Does she “help” with food preparation at all? My DS is much happier to eat proper meals if he’s helped/watched me make them, partly because he’s proud and also I think partly because he knows what’s in it, so is less suspicious. We’ve got him to try/eat lots of stuff that way.

A good trick for increasing the nutrition of porridge is stirring in some ground almonds - it’s barely noticeable but adds protein and healthy fats.

Perhaps a bit heavy on the packaged snacks - I know my toddler would always choose the thing that came out of a packet rather than the “real food”. your child may have eaten more of the crumpet and apple slice if the sticks / bar wasn’t offered.

What type of day do they seem most hungry? I went through a phase of giving my daughter fish for breakfast because she would wolf down anything in the morning, then just more snack / cereal type meals later in the day as wasn’t that hungry then.

I only offer one snack usually - about 3pm.

Out of interest what did you eat OP. Kids need to learn from what they see around them. Modelling the behaviour that you want to see is a good strategy so eating together and having the same meals.