How to change my dd from a "yellow food" eater to a healthy one?!?

[Tagz269]

I would like some help and advice on my dd's feeding habits.
She is a very fussy eater and has never finished a whole plate of food. I have tried in the past to give her a variety of foods but she just won't eat them. So I have given up in all aspects and only give her food she likes. She is 18 months and is at that stage where she knows what she likes and dislikes. At this present moment she is eating fish fingers, potato waffle and peas. And surprise surprise has only really eaten the waffle and a few peas and a little fish finger.
I want to get her out of this habit of only eating 'yellow foods' such as chips, fish fingers etc and want her to eat healthy veg etc but she literally turns her nose up at anything new or chucks on the floor for the dog...... Its bad saying this but in the end I just give her what she wants just to get her to eat something!!
Has anyone been through/going thorough this? And how have you broken out of it?
Any advice would be appreciated.
From a frustrated Mum

Have you read "My child won't eat" by Carlos Gonzalez (think that's the author)? It is often recommended on here for fussy eaters.

My approach to this would be to continue to offer the familiar foods, with one new addition on the plate each meal. I would add the new addition, say carrots, for many meals. I wouldn't worry if it gets ignored, chucked, etc. Just leave her to it and don't mention the extra item. If possible, eat the same food yourself, not making a big deal out of it, just eating it without comment.

Give a daily multivitamin, if you aren't already.

Keep a food diary for a week to see what she has eaten, it might be surprising. She presumably eats something other than fish fingers for breakfast etc.

I have a fussy child too, and I tend to do a lunch that he likes/will eat and then dinner that I like. He will usually find at least one thing on the plate for dinner that he will eat though.

I know it is tempting to just fill them up with something in the hope that they will sleep though! Up until about 2.5 I would always give fruit and yoghurt as a pudding so I knew he'd eaten something. I think it is important to still keep offering a variety of foods even if they refuse it.

Thanks for you replies.
For breakfast is either cereal/ toast
Mid morning is a banana
Lunch is usually a sandwich mainly consisting of cheese as she does not like Ham and some cucumber
The fish fingers she at yesterday was for lunchtime
Dinner is my main problem. But I do give her pears Whig she eats and apples- which she sometimes eats. She loves raisins also which she gobbles up.
I will look at that book as this seems like an on going battle at the moment.
I just don't want her to end up like my niece who is probably the fussiest kid out there! For dinner all she eats is plain pasta with butter and sometimes cheese and she doesn't eat anything else.....

My DD1 (now 4yo) was terribly fussy for the first few years of eating and I despaired that she would spend her life eating just fish fingers or sausages, but it does get better and they do get more adventurous. Does she eat any better when with other, less fussy, children? That's been a key to getting DD1 to eat better - the power of peer pressure!

We've also ended up getting her to like some bizarre foods just by talking about their names - e.g. baby button mushrooms (because they're 'baby') and sugar snap peas.

I definitely agree with the idea of putting new foods on familiar plates - you can alter the balance of that gradually, so you're putting majority familiar food on the plate with one new one, until eventually it's majority 'new' food with just one or two familiar items to reassure her.

It's great that she likes fruit and nutritious foods like cereal, so focus on the positives to save yourself from getting too despondent.

It will get better, believe me! Now, table manners, that's another issue entirely....

Oh I hope it does get better.
It's funny because the other day I gave her a chunk of tomato and she loved it. Now she won't touch it!!
Just tried red sweet pepper, she ate the bit I gave her and won't try again.....
She doesn't really eat around other children but when she does she's ok I guess.
This is the most stressful part!!