Food/snack ideas for fussy toddler

[sharkstale]

I have a very picky 15 month old and I've got no idea what to feed him anymore!
He'll mostly only eat fruit or beige foods but even that can be hit or miss. He used to eat everything but will reject most foods now.. some days he'll barely eat anything.
I'm just putting an online grocery shop together and I honestly don't even know what to buy anymore. Can I have some ideas thrown my way please, thank you.

My DD was very similar, a great eater to start with then had phases of refusing foods she usually loved. Often coinciding with teething, illness or just a general development leap!

What beige food will he eat? I think we survived mainly on bananas, yogurt and fish fingers for a while, and those were sometimes hit and miss 😂 with a lot of oaty bars thrown in for good measure. It passed though, she's now 2 and is a good eater again so hopefully this is a phase for you too! Other things to try if you haven't already - baked beans and toast, cereal, cheese. All relatively plain but good for protein/fibre. Perhaps hiding veg in a spag bol if he'll tolerate that? I know it's difficult with a fussy eater though, if I think of any more I'll come back!

Just to add, babybels have always gone down well as a snack. And frubes

@Bims2019 thank you! Any ideas atm will help, so I'll add some babybels in the shop!

Sounds similar to what he's eating atm tbh - yogurts and fruits are the only real guarantees, he likes the oaty bars/flapjacks, and half the time he'll have a croissant. He's off fish fingers, any type of fish, chicken or pasta so dinners are really hard work right now. He does still like beans though. I'm glad to hear it's not uncommon though as it's so different to my daughter, I don't remember her having these picky phases!

You may have already done this, but have you tried getting shaped cutters from Amazon or similar? I have sets of large (sandwich-sized) and small (about 2p coin-sized) cutters in various shapes. You can use them for all sorts - sandwiches, toast, pancakes, veg (sliced cucumbers, carrots, aubergine etc), fruit (pineapple, kiwi, apple etc), cheese, chicken, etc. They may turn their nose up at a normal sandwich, but a dinosaur sandwich?? 🤣

Using cutters is a really good idea. Can I also ask how much milk he’s having each day and which type?

I agree with the above post about using different shape cutters.
Smoothies are the easiest way I’ve found to get a variety of food in - I use frozen fruit, plus some fresh fruit, a bit of spinach and some flax seeds.
Greek yogurt is a good snack - sometimes I mix flaxseeds in, or fruit like blueberries or strawberries. Or if my toddler is in a really fussy faze then I’ll just do Greek yogurt mixed with a flavoured yogurt, so he thinks he’s just getting a tasty strawberry flavoured yogurt.

If he likes beans and cheese then you can sneak some egg in there too for extra nutrients. I’ll do jacket potato, beans and cheese. Scramble an egg and mix some of it into the beans. Once it’s mixed into the potato and covered with cheese they can’t see that there’s egg in there.

I’ve also found that serving a tiny amount of dinner helps my toddler to be more likely to at least try it. So he’ll always have whatever we’re having for dinner, but maybe just a tablespoon sized portion on his plate. He might not eat much of it, but I’ll serve it with stuff he likes eg garlic bread, chunks of cheese, sliced pepper. He seems more likely to actually try a mouthful like that, rather than having just a bowl of bolognese put infront of him.

He still breastfeeds, I couldn't tell you how much but a good few in 24 hrs.

Is he night weaned @sharkstale? If not, you might want to look at doing that first to see if his appetite for solids improves.

Dr Jay Gordon’s night weaning method is very gentle. We found that night feeds naturally decreased once they were in their own rooms though, so we did that first.

Does he also get a BF before breakfast? If so you might find he eats more if you take him straight to breakfast and offer a cup of milk alongside. My DH used to take them down for breakfast at this age whilst I had a shower and got ready. My DH is an early riser though so it worked well for us.

I've tried smoothies but he just looked at them, scrunched his face up and refused 😂 most foods get the face scrunch atm. He seems to be getting funny about wet/mushy etc textures atm, like with pasta which he used to love!

He doesn't eat jacket potato anymore either, but I have found I can sometimes get away with hiding things in beans, I'll just have to use that as my go to method for a while.

The tiny portion thing doesn't work either 😂 nothings really working atm. I spoke to the health visitor and she told me to start refusing breastfeeds to make him more hungry, but that didn't work either so I've stopped refusing as at least through milk he's getting nutrients etc.

He's not night weaned no, he's never been a good sleeper and has always had a lot of comfort feeds through the night, however, he's recently dropped to one nap a day and only tends to wake for one feed a night now. He does still feed when he wakes in the morning, we co-sleep so he sort of jumps on me before I'm even awake 😂 I've tried to stop that recently and get straight up with him, he'll regularly have a yogurt and fruit, occasionally he'll have some toast or something but not reliably. He used to have porridge or weetabix with banana but won't eat that anymore, I'm going to try again with that though as at least it's a substantial breakfast.

Dropping to one feed a night is a good result. Have you thought about moving him yet?

I have thought about it now that his night sleep has improved, I think now would be a good time, so we've bought his own toddler bed but haven't tried him in it yet. After half term, I'll start putting him in it for naps to get him used to it and go from there. I'll miss co-sleeping though I have to be honest, so I think that's putting me off trying, but I know now is a good time to try so have to just go for it.