18 month old fussy eating

[rosiebutterfly]

Would like to hear from similar stories to give me peace of mind, my little one is now 18 months old, we did weaning in stages by the book single green vegetables etc and continued to do so for months.
Up until about 13 months I would hand make all her food as time has gone on she is refusing all vegetables, anything that looks slightly different and new meal options I try to create she just won’t even try knocks my hand away.
The only thing I can get her to eat is cheese and beans jacket potato or fish fingers and beans and cheese and crackers.
she doesn’t even really like bread or eggs either.
i totally understand that toddlers can become fussy but I feel just a bit sad for her as I feel like she’s still so young to eat such limited food choices, I still try to put sweetcorn, peas cucumber etc on the side but she refuses to try over and over.
weirdly though at nursery she is eating things she’d never eat at home like rice and casseroles, so I’m a bit stumped why she won’t eat the same food at home. Any advice appreciated; she also will eat pizza but only the topping, it’s really hard as we’ve gone from really healthy loads of nutrients to the same foods which aren’t particularly healthy everyday apart from baked beans for fibre I guess, it’s tough as she also isn’t talking yet so can’t get any direction 😂

It's really normal but tricky, toddlers are naturally quite suspicious of new foods. The trick is to keep offering alongside foods they do like and if they don't try it don't make a big fuss. But don't stop offering either, 18 months is too young to genuinely not like food.
By knocking your hand away it sounds like you're still feeding her? She should be feeding herself mostly at 18m even if it's with her hands. Nobody likes being force fed so you might have more luck putting food in front of her and leaving her to it.
Eating the same food yourself at the same time as her is really important too, toddlers learn by copying their parents so if she sees you eating something she's far more likely to want to try it. You could even share a plate of chopped fruit and veg with her.

It is normal in my experience. My 1 year old won’t eat lots of things including eggs, potato and rice. My older child went through similar but now at 5 years old eats a good range of everything. I kept offering stuff she didn’t like or wouldn’t try in small amounts but leaned into giving the things she liked naturally like bread and cheese. It was a long game for sure.

I don’t get stressed about it with my second child because I’ve realised that I really can’t control what she eats, I can only provide decent options and accept what she is willing to try.

Sorry I didn’t give full picture yes she has her own fork and spoon but if new food she won’t go near it so I try give her a ‘taster’ if she sees it’s something new she grabs the plate immediately and tries to throw the whole thing on the floor

Ok thank you! I’m doing the unhelpful comparing and a lot of my friends who have similar age children have wide food groups that they will try etc need to stop comparing and hopefully it’s a phase

I honestly just think some children are better at this than others. I know I was a fussy eater as a child (but not as an adult now).

If you are interested I found this book helpful:
https://amzn.eu/d/7QuMAQy

I did not follow all the advice but it was reassuring and gave me ideas.

I think I'd try a two-pronged approach to currently-rejected foods. At meals, I'd meet her where she's at a bit more. She's at 'oh, ew, get that away from me!' (trying to throw it on the floor) and then, with the best intentions, you're bringing a bite near her mouth. Right now, I'd just try to get her to be happy with it existing on a separate plate near her and you eating it at the same table. When that's okay, try to move the plate closer, maybe then try it on her plate.

The second piece is I'd do some messy play with currently-rejected foods. Zero expectation to eat said food, but she'd still be touching and smelling it, which are little steps towards finding it acceptable to taste.

My dd was just like this. Like you did everything by the book and she would eat everything up until about 2 when she became super fussy and really was about 2.5yrs before she really improved. Check out S_rNutition on instagram, her name is Charlotte Stirling-Reid, she’s great for really practical advice I thought. It’s so frustrating when you make meals that go uneaten