frustrated with 18 month old food choices

[Crazyone84]

We have a very confident, outgoing 18 month old. She has always loved her food and when I have cooked up dinner etc she has always preferred the more flavor over the bland stuff.

She will eat really well when you feed her and she is getting on with feeding herself nicely. However with picky food for lunches etc she will not eat much. She loves raspberries and will eat her body weight in these. You offer her strawberries, blueberry's, any form of carrot or cucumber and she licks or puts in her mouth, chews once and spits out.

She goes to minders 3 times a week and have lunch and dinner there and always seems to eat well.

Can anyone tell me how I get her to start eating more variety of foods? she has a sandwich/cracker lunch but I like her to have a warm dinner, idea on food I can send that not pasta based and won't take 100 utensils to prepare

It doesn't sound as though your daughter is doing too badly. Picking up the blueberries, cucumber etc and licking them is actually very good. The key is to place the food down and to make no comment on what she does or doesn't eat. That means no persuading her to try foods and no praise when she does try a new food (this is perceived as pressure). Make it a very stress free, calm environment at meal times and she will try things in her own time. Toddlers need lots of exposure to new foods before they accept them.

In terms of actual lunch ideas, here are some we do lots:

Eggs in a variety of ways-scrambled, boiled or omelette is quick and easy.

Beans on toast

Homemade veg soup (easy to cook a big pot and freeze portions)

Pancakes-savoury ones for lunch (cheese and tomato puree) or blueberry ones for breakfast or a snack. Make enough for some to pop in the microwave the next day.

Pitta pizzas-a bit of tomato puree and cheese, sweetcorn, onions, courgette etc.

Could it be that on the days she's home with you that she doesn't use as much energy so is reducing her food intake naturally?

I used to have an idea that they needed a hot meal each day but they really don't. Just send things to the CM that you know she'll eat and are easy.

@Alitlebitsleepy things you say make sense, I always sit directly in front of her when she eats and asks what she wants, maybe I don't want her feeling she's eating alone but maybe this is counter productive. Thank you. I'll try the more relaxed approach as at the minders she sits with everyone in a group and they all left to get on with it to a certain degree.

@PritiPatelsMaker I always make sure we are busy but I could never match 7 hours with 6+ other children to play and interact with. Thank you

I quite like the division of responsibility approach to food. It means I decide what to offer and when and DD decides whether to eat it and how much. Basically she can eat it or not (I would always include at least one thing I know she likes do know if she’s not eating she’s probably just not hungry)

I don’t really pass comment on her food other than to tell her the names of anything new / that were don’t have often and where possible make sure I’m eating at the same time, preferably the same thing.

She’s a lot more likely to try something if she sees me eating it or “steals” it from my plate (even if she has the exact same thing on hers)

I gave her some raspberries as a snack the other day for the first time in ages and she’d obviously forgotten about them so I ended up eating the first two and then she was happy to tuck in (she’ll eat her body weight in blueberries though!)

kids eat in colour on Instagram has good content and ideas on how to get little ones to eat.

In terms of stuff you can send to the child minders can you just save a portion of whatever your dinner was the night before? Then you’re not having to do extra cooking