Picky eating toddler

[BarchesterTowels]

My 15 month old daughter used to be a great and adventurous eater, but lately she has narrowed her teatime diet down to white bread and occasionally yoghurt. She'll eat unlimited amounts of Mother's Pride, but previous favourites like tomato pasta, sweet potato or steamed veg get chucked on the floor. I know toddlers love their carbs, but it's getting ridiculous! The books tell you to keep offering and eventually they'll eat it, but at the moment it seems futile!

Lunchtime is less of a problem, strangely.

Is this just a phase? Anything I can do to persuade her to have something a little healthier for her tea? Any advice gratefully received.

No advice but we’re going through the same thing with our 16 months old. Weaning was the only trouble free thing with him and then he hit 14 months and now most things get chucked straight on the floor. Even things he used to love. It’s soul destroying. I have heard it’s a phase so really hoping it ends soon.

My dd was the same, like a switch flipped soon after 1y and she would only eat cheese, pasta and fruit.

The phase still hasn't ended and it's been nearly two years more.

I have no advice, we've done all the classic things like continuing to offer a large range of veg, offering her favourite things but with one or two different things added on (she eats around them), involving her in the cooking (she has child-safe cooking knives and can chop quite well!), always eating meals together, being relaxed about what she chooses to eat/chooses to leave, etc etc.

Still fussy.

Hopefully it’s a phase. My 22 month old has days like this. I just ignore it and don’t make a fuss if she doesn’t want to eat. I’ll then take the plate into the living room and pretend to eat it and then shes interested and wants some. For me, the thing that works is to not make a fuss and no pressure on them. Hope it passes soon, you’re doing great.

Ps because we offer her such a large range, there are some random things she'll happily eat like olives and capers. Which I think just goes to show how many foods we've tried...!

Ps again...

When I've felt really guilty or worried, I've read up on the Oslo diet. Basically they proved that deprived children can thrive on a basic diet of bread, cheese, milk, oranges and apples (it was a sort of public health experiment where they handed these out free to primary kids and the outcomes were very good).

When I read that, I was like thank god because basically that's all my dd will eat...!

Make sure the pressure is off and she does her own thing and soon she'll start eating those foods again. If she eats well at lunch maybe she's not that hungry.

Have you tried wholemeal bread or 50/50 instead of the pure white?

The books tell you to keep offering and eventually they'll eat it, but at the moment it seems futile
This is totally true in my experience but expect it to take years not weeks or even months. We started to see improvements with ours at 2.5-3.

My ds2 would only eat beige for years, despite his very adventurous brother who was brought up identically. I just kept offering. And cleaning the floor. He’s 27 now and a real foodie so it didn’t last forever!

best luck, it’s miserable and makes you feel like a failure. You really aren’t!

I could have written this word for word. My son is 3 in November and we've used all the same "strategies" and will continue to use them..... until whenever 🤷🏻‍♀️

He’s 27 now and a real foodie so it didn’t last forever!

Oh gosh I really, really hope my dd ends up this way. Dh and I really love our food, love cooking interesting things and eating foreign food etc. It's got me down how much dd makes us limit ourselves because we have to ensure there's something she'll eat on the table. If she's like this her whole life I can't imagine enjoying holidays with her.

My sister in law (who is totally lovely and fun to be around) is a very fussy eater, age 30. I've known her since she was about 16 and she was then and I remember thinking surely she'll grow out of it because she'll only eat chicken! She still only eats chicken pretty much...

Thanks. Yes the Mother's Pride reference was an exaggeration for comic effect, I make most of the bread myself and it's usually 50/50 wholemeal (and very low salt compared with supermarket stuff). But as far as DD is concerned, the whiter and less nutritious the better! 🙄

Update: well, DP was doing teatime this afternoon and she succeeded in getting little miss picky to eat broccoli, peas, mangetout AND green beans. 😂So what do I know.