Help. Toddler Dining Dramas!

[FlyingMama]

Hello,

This is my first post, really hoping for any supportive advice please :)

My son is 2yrs and 3 months old. Second child (big sister is 6). He is a happy active child, nursery twice per week, and development normal. Weaning went brilliantly, he would eat anything we gave, meat, pastas, potatoes, vegetables of any colour any consistency; his sister eats brilliantly too.

BUT that all seems to have stopped!! These past 5 months he has been refusing more and more foods, EVEN spagetti bolognese, yorkshires and roast potatoes....surely all children love those!!

Basically now he will pretty much only eat:

Toast
Chips
Shreddies
Sausages, burgers, nuggets, chicken breast
Fruit
Cucumber
Sweet corn
Yogurts
Cheese

But he used to eat rice meals, fish, pasta meals, roasts, jacket potatoes, broccoli, baked beans, peas, carrots, any sandwiches, soups, you name it...he ate it. He has rice cakes and raisins as snacks, but I've tried offering no snacks in the hope he's eat more dinners.

How can I get him to eat vegetables again, or even baked beans?! I would just like him to eat a more balanced diet again. Do others believe this is just a long phase or normal fussy eating?

Any tips or experiences gratefully received,

Thanks
Claire ??

[notadoctor]

My DD has also got less good at eating than when she was first weaned. I think it's fairly normal for toddlers as it's one of the few things in their life they have some control over!

We've found that letting her serve herself - putting the food on serving dishes and having her spoon it on to her own plate - has helped. Doing stuff like fajitas which she can fill at the table or pizza toast made with her choice of toppings has been popular too. We're also trying to get her more involved in cooking. The I Can Cook recipe book is good.

Personally I'd say try not to worry too much. Keep offering different kinds of healthy food and role modelling by eating well yourselves and hopefully it will be a phase that passes.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Agree that it sounds like a phase and just keep offering the things you want him to eat, if its spag Bol for everyone then he should get the same

Ignore the protests and don't offer alternatives. He'll realise soon enough that you aren't playing and he needs to eat

[BendyMum15]

My DS has a very limited diet despite eating everything we put in front of him when he first started on solid food. At 18 months that all changed when we had a very bad case of norovirus which put him off eating combined with the general I'm not eating phase.
He will be 3 in a couple of months and at the moment he seems to be getting worse.
IME the not giving him an alternative hasn't worked at all. He still won't eat and is just unbearable for the rest of the day because he is hungry.
Now he gets given a bowl of cereal if he doesn't eat as I would rather he eat something than nothing and be the grumpiest grizzliest toddler on the planet.
My sister was the same when she was a toddler and mum and dad just let her eat what she wanted (she was number 3 so they had tried all the tricks they knew) and eventually she got bored of pasta or cornflakes and started eating other food. Now she is nearly 24 and she eats pretty much everything. We tease her about her fussy ways.
TBH I shouldn't be surprised that my DS is so funny about food - he shares her birthday!