when you have one child that doesn't eat....

[sleeplessinderbyshire]

DD2 is 20 weeks and very enthusiastic about mealtimes so I have started letting her have tiny tastes of fruit (eg gnawing on banan/pear aka BLW) and also some spoonfuls of mashed banana.

My DD1 was always difficult (although OKish from 7-8 months) and now is a nightmare (3yrs old and v similar to most of the kids on the "resistant eaters" thread)

I am desperate to avoid similar with DD2 and have read and read til I am almost going mad with info overload. Is it reasonable to think they are totally different people, wean as normal (mix of mush and fingerfoods being my chosen way this time rather than pure BLW) try to avoid DD1 screaming "yucky she won't like it mummy, what if it hurts her" and other such negative stuff and hope that she will be less challenging or do these things tend to recur in subseq=uent children?

They are different people. I didn't have a difficult eater until DC4 (Arrrrgggh!!!).

Only thing is, I would try to lean on your DD1 to keep her opinions about certain foods to herself. So she's not to comment on what other people do or don't eat. She's entitled to like & dislike what she likes & dislikes, and same for the baby & rest of the household, for that matter. You don't want the DD2 picking up the prejudices of the DD1 about certain foodstuffs.

Agree, I would work on dd1 and not worry too much about dd2 at the moment. If dd1 is complaining and refusing, just don't react or get drawn on conversations about the food. You have my sympathy though, our dd was very fussy at that age and its taken a lot of work to crack it. At least she was my last.