Toddler suddenly won't eat

[bloodyhellKen22]

Please help! I'm so stressed!

My toddler mostly had home made from the time she started having solids. She occasionally had some fish fingers but always with broccoli/green beans etc. when I was younger, my mum and dad always gave us lots of processed things and I've always been a bit of a beige food lover so I wanted to make it different for my DD. Up until two or three weeks ago, she'd eat Shepards pie, curry, salmon, noodles, eggs etc, but now she won't touch it.
She had a cold and went off her food and now she refuses to eat anything other than toast, bananas, breaded stuff like fish fingers and waffles or chips or some kind of potato 😩. I know in the grand scheme of life it isn't a huge thing, but I really want her to have a good relationship with food. Even her appetite is low now. For example, yesterday she ate hardly anything so I thought she'd be hungry this morning - nope. Just a couple of bits of toast and that's it.
She drinks plenty of water, has milk in the morning with multi vitamin. I don't want mealtimes to be awful, and I also want her to feel full, but I'm also at a loss on what to give her as she only wants to eat crap at the moment!

Just to add she'd 17m.

Hi, my DD suffers with sensory processing disorder / ASD and is extremely sensory with food and as a result has a very restricted diet to the point the only thing she eats now is a jam sandwich. I sympathise the frustration of your child dropping foods and refusing. Theres many different reasons that could be causing the fussy eating, from just having a phase, being unwell or there may be an underlying issue. I guess only time will tell!

but for me I was always advised by HCP to serve what they will eat. We’ve always taken the fed is best approach. We would serve DD what we know she will eat and offer a small amount of another food out of her comfort on the plate too. Also serving pudding alongside dinner and not making a massive deal about what isn’t eaten. Just take the food away without comment if it’s not eaten. We find not bringing attention to what’s on the plate good and just let DD explore if she wants to. You could also try letting your DD serve up her food at the table (putting all the food on the table and allowing DD to choose)

but main thing is don’t stress too much. With eating it’s one of those where you have to pick your battles. As long as she’s having the multi vitamins and the milk which she is she should be okay as long as she’s eating something

Thank you so much @Wondered26 for taking the time to reply. Very helpful.

Serve what she will eat and include one extra thing each time. Make it into a face on her plate - peas in a row for the mouth etc.

She'll get there, just let her get her equilibrium back, and don't make a big thing of it.

I found having something myself, and NOT giving mine any, made them curious and indignant. My ds always wanted what I was eating. 😊