Share your top tips for toddler meals and snacks with Organix: you could win £100 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We've been asked by baby and toddler food brand Organix to find out your top tips and advice for feeding toddlers throughout the day both at meal times and snack times (please think about main meals and snacks for each question).

So we'd like you to think about your toddling child aged approx 1 to 3 years (or think back if yours are now older) and share....

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?
~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?
~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?
~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?

Share your thoughts, tips and advice on this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher for Love2Shop.

Please note your tips and comments may be used elsewhere by Organix.

Thanks,

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?

addicted to yoghurt! loved cheese strings, and liked fish fingers and chicken nugget type meals and loves eggs.

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?
breakfast at around 6.30, snack at 9.30, lunch anywhere between 11.30 and 1.00. snack 3.00, dinner 5.00 and snack before bed

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?
i don't like offering anything with sugar especially after lunchtime as dd is already quite a hyper child and doesn't sleep well. i don't give her any processed drinks, usually just water thats diluted a little bit, or milk. i like giving her eggs every day as I know they are full of good nutrition and will fill her up and don't have any junk or sugar so im happy to give an egg based meal every day. i also like mixing organix fruit in with her yoghurt as i know then she is getting some fruit every day. i don't like her eating the whole pot at once because sometimes it can give her loose bowels and im worried about the sugar content, but im happy if she spaces it out with yoghurt over the day as this means she gets her protein in as well.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?
~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?

arranging the food in a pretty manner eg food cut up into chunks arranged in a line or a circle, using different dishes in a variety of colours and designs so they think its new and exciting, having dinner with your toddler so they are interested in what you are eating too and see an example of you eating your dinner. talking about food with a new perspective - eg 'the broccoli are like big trees, are you going to eat the trees! really helps' it has surprised me how much my dd actually CAN eat when she wants too - usually its little and often but in different surroundings such as out for dinner or with friends, she can eat so much more, also it surprises me how much she can eat if she has been very active all day!

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?
He loves pasta, gnocchi, prawns, salmon, eggs, fruit and yoghurts. Oh and chocolate if he can get it! He is not at all keen on tomato or cheese sauces (but does like ketchup and cheese as it comes), rice of any kind and red meats.

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?
Milk first thing; breakfast about 8 am - (fruit (berries / grapes / banana) while he waits for his porridge or dippy egg and toast ); raisins or a plain biscuit about 10-1030; lunch between 1145 and 1230 (picnic style of sandwiches, fruit, popcorn, cheese cubes, houmous etc or homemade pizza or frittata; milk about 330; dinner at 1700-1730 of pasta with prawns or whatever we are havng; milk before bed.

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?
I try to offer a variety and of anything we night have in the house. We don't buy ready prepared foods in general and so try to avoid salty, fatty or processed foods. Only limits are really the health guidelines like when to give honey etc. i find that offering new foods often works best when he is with friends or we are out at somewhere like softplay as he is less focussed on what he is having to eat.
Both my boys do have, and enjoy, organic type snacks including carrot stick crisps and rice cakes, which I find especially useful when we are out and about and for when friends are having 'real' crisps and biscuits as I feel they are a better choice for odd occasions.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?
Always let him try our foods if different from his or he asks, eating with him whenever we can, getting inspiration from other mums and dads, praising him for eating well, ignoring fussiness or refusal (this is easier said then done!), not being surprised when a previous favourite is absolutely refused. I have weaned his younger brother later(by 6weeks or so) and he already seems a better and braver eater, far less wary of texture than my first born.
,
~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?
His varying appetite, from day to day. Some things he unexpectedly loves (smoked salmon, olives) vesus things I love and assumed he would too but refuses (cheesy pasta and tomato based dishes). How much pleasure I get when he eats well and I know he is getting a healthy balanced diet.

What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?
She loves anything containing mash potato or cheese but hates the textures of root vegetables
~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?
3 set meal times which are fairly the same time each day
~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?
Didn't offer anything containing too much sugar until aged 1
~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?
Vary the food every day to make meal times an exciting suprise
~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?
The amount of new things that she is willing to try

What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?

My daughter loves melon, fruit and most vegetables but getting her to try a piece of beef is like hell on earth (unless you hide it within other foods lol)

What's your toddler's daily food routine like?
We wake up and she has breakfast, a mid morning snack, dinner, a afternoon snack, tea and then a supper snack. We go for the little and often approach, as she struggles to eat lots in one sitting. With water and juice as she goes too.

Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?
I try to offer her as much as possible, but I allow her to feed herself, so that she can pick up when she's full. I also like to let her try as many new things as possible...but we also have the good ol' favourite Lasagne to fall back on if all else fails.

What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?
Let them eat similar meals, if you can't get them to eat the same meals. Let them help you cook the meals, my daughter loves eating 'Livvy's' meals :) If all else fails shape it like a smiley face

What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?
We have never struggled to get her to eat fruit and vegetables...she loves them...she picks them over sweets

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?

Fruit is a big favourite, at the moment DS (2) loves to eat clementines, apples, grapes and nectarines. I'm finding it tricky to get DS to enjoy vegetables at the moment, I think possibly it's the texture of things eg mushrooms, courgettes. Kidney beans and baked beans are very popular with DS. Potatoes of any sort (baked potatoes, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes), rice, pasta and spaghetti are all enjoyed.

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?

DS eats breakfast and lunch with me, and dinner on his own as it's too early for me to eat dinner at 4! He also has snacks in the morning and afternoon.

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?

We have a rule of only letting DS eat chips when we are eating out as I think he would try to insist on chips every day otherwise! I try to avoid anything too salty or too sugary for him.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?

Offer different things, and try not to get upset when it is rejected. Try to make food colourful and let the toddlers get involved in making it.

~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?

I offered him some ice-cream as a treat and he preferred rice cakes - very strange! Also he loves to eat bread rolls, but he won't eat them with butter on. Also that he enjoys spicy food and chilli con carne is his favourite dinner.

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?

Loves fruit, plain yoghurt, toast, eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, strong cheese, pasta, potatoes, chicken, salmon, mince-based meals, peas, carrots and green beans. And funnily enough, cake, biscuits and rusks.

Doesn't like raw peppers, mushrooms or courgettes, and can spot them hidden in any food at a hundred paces.

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?

Breakfast at 8ish (omlette/scrambled eggs/yoghurt/toast)
Snack at 10ish (fruit)
Lunch at 12ish (picnic-type food often - ham, cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, cream cheese on bread, fruit/yoghurt for dessert)
Snack at 3ish after nap
Dinner at 5 (whatever we're having, always homemade hot meal in the evening)

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?

I try to offer healthy choices, not too much sugar/salt, and I try to give her a decent variety of stuff. Not always possible, and grandparents give her completely different food crap, which she also will happily eat.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?

Eat together, make mealtimes a sociable, fun time. Talk to them about things other than food during meals. Don't stress if they don't eat everything, and don't withhold pudding (make it healthy) if they haven't eaten all their main course.

~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?

She will happily eat things that are far less sugary/salty than what we're used to, and that we all eat more healthily as a result! Spelt pancakes with unsweetened berries are a really sweet treat for DD.

She's also perfectly capable of self-regulating her food intake. I don't need to force food down her - if she's not hungry anymore, she won't eat anything else, even if there's only one mouthful left. But that's ok. If she's hungry, she will let me know.

I always ate with my toddler and the same sort of foods if I could. Babies learn by emulating but they have dislikes like anyone.
Don't make a bi deal of it and just relax and enjoy this special family time.

When our children were toddlers - now aged 5 and 4 - we gave them snacks of fruit, both fresh and dried, homemade biscuits or cakes and breadsticks. Since they've become older, I stopped buying breadsticks because they kept asking for them and I felt that it wasn't healthy. They both have similar tastes although our 4yr old is generally more adventurous but really doesn't like strong chocolate food.
Our 5 yr old didn't like blueberries as a toddler but does now - which is a shame because there is less for me!!!
One great snack I make now is the BBC Good Food energy nuggets recipe which is balls of pureed dried fruit rolled in dessicated coconut. Our DC (and us) love these and they make a great healthy sweet treat. They can't get enough of them!

I meant to say that we don't give junk food like crisps and chocolate as snacks, unless they have received them from a party etc. Also, I tend to give them a snack mid morning (but not always) and mid afternoon (they normally ask at this time.)

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?

Pasta, cheese, fruit, veg - I was very lucky in that they would eat pretty much anything.

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?

I think it was pretty straightforward. Cereal when getting up, fruit and toast mid morning, something bread based for lunch including a protein source and some salad, mid afternoon snack of biscuit and fruit, dinner was something hot, with plenty of veg, a protein source, followed by a yogurt and some fruit. Water available all day. Other drinks only occasionally.

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?

I didn't offer spicy foods, but nor did I go for "toddler snacks". Normal biscuits, pasta, fruit etc was fine.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?

Keep it varied and interesting, don't get stuck in a rut (for example, but always getting the same yogurts or type of bread) to avoid them becoming rigid, always offer fruit and veg, don't make treats forbidden, lead by example.

~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?

Things like sushi have gone down surprisingly well!

My toddler loves carrot sticks and cucumber dipped in hummus. All types of fruit and some surprised such as olives (even the bitter ones that I wont eat) beans, peas, pasta, sweetcorn.

Dislikes radishes, onions and cooked mushrooms (loves raw mushrooms).

A trick my mum used when feeding us as kids. When cooking pasta e.g penne, she would add a single fusilli or different shaped pasta to the pot. This was the treasure and we would take great pleasure in eating our food to see who had the lucky treasure.

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?

The only major food tantrums we've had were due to odd texture, DD won't eat anything like couscous & isn't keen on rice. She prefers things she can pick up as a piece, eg potato wedges, pitta bread, vegetable sticks etc. She loves bananas & tomatoes, & will steal them off the shop counter if she gets the chance!

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?

Breakfast is usually cereal, we've just discovered she likes shredded wheat, so probably that or porridge, plus fruit. Lunch would be rice cakes & butter, & cheese/tomatoes/cucumber. Sometimes a sandwich or leftover pasta or a slice of homemade cheese & vegetable pizza. Dinner could be curry, or pasta with peas, salmon & cream cheese, or fish finger with homemade potato wedges & baked beans, or spaghetti bolognaise. Most things are homemade but not all. She sometimes has a snack mid afternoon as we generally eat late due to work/college. This would generally be banana, cut up apple/pear or a small orange, occasionally a small plain biscuit.

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?

She doesn't have chocolate as a regular thing & we don't give sweet cereal. I don't have a sweet tooth, DH does, & he has high cholesterol & a filling in almost every tooth. I've got low cholesterol & 1 filling. I don't think it's a coincidence & I don't want to encourage DD to want sweet food more than necessary.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?

We've found that the number one tip for getting a toddler to be interested in food is to be interested yourself! DD has always been much more likely to want the food from our plates, so much so that sometimes we've deliberately kept some aside for her on our plates, to cool, with no salt etc & cut up as appropriate. We get her to eat what we want, she thinks she's getting some of mummy & daddy's food, everyone wins.

~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?

She likes very strong favours & has done since she was very young. Eg cherry tomatoes stolen straight off the plant, curry (would eat a normal 'adult' strength korma at 12 months), olives, very dark chocolate, goats cheese etc.

~ What sort of foods did your toddler especially enjoy? What didn't go down so well?
Blueberries, grapes, organix bars, breadsticks, cheese

~ What's your toddler's daily food routine like?
Weetabix (x3), snack, dinner (sandwiches etc), snack, tea (pasta is a favourite)

~ Why do you choose to offer (or not) certain foods - and when do you offer them?
I do offer a variety of healthy and less healthy foods. I don't want to 'ban' unhealthy things as I think that just backfires. All things in moderation. Fruit is something I try to offer a lot.

~ What are your top tips to other parents in keeping your toddler interested at mealtimes or with food in general?
Get them involved in 'helping' prepare it!

~ What, if anything, has surprised you when it comes to feeding your toddler?
They like fruit more than I do (not that I let on about that).

Thanks for all the comments: excellent tips!

Am pleased to say MrsMarigold wins a £100 Love2Shop voucher from Organix. Well done!