What are your best toddler meals? Our little boy is 20 months old now and despite trying baby led weaning he’s not as interested in food as we are, or his age mates. He still breastfeeds , he craves it, and we’re happy to continue till he’s 2 at least.

When he’s ill he’s got no appetite/interest in food and it this week he’s had a cold and has dropped about 5% of his weight. He’s just started eating this evening so he’s on the mend. We’re seeing our GP tomorrow too.

So, tips on your best toddler meals?

Do s he like the “ella’s pouches”? We got a kit that let us make our own so we could experiment with flavours.

JnrOath loved cheesy pasta, ratatouille, Choosing plates (we laid out a selection of different foods for her to try e.g cold meat, carrots, raisins, cheese, toast). The ella’s cookbook is good.

Bare in mind that their tastes are quite different to yours, i believe kids are more sensitive to acidity and bitterness.

I found it easier when we didnt turn things into a battle, if she didnt eat something it shouldn’t get confrontational. We justt moved on.

Our boy is a picky bugger, always has been (now aged 3). If we’d let him he’d have just drunk milk (cows milk) instead of food. It’s been quite frustrating but we’ve persevered and kept offering different food and he’s getting better now. Foods he likes – mince and mashed potatos, macaroni cheese and fish (salmon). His wee sister is on the other hand a total monster – will eat anything, anywhere, but hardly drinks!

Have you heard of baby led weaning? Our youngest wasn’t interested in food for a while either… similar age I think but it was a while ago. I think we just gave him bits of food to play with: shepherds pie, soft carrot slices… he was so lazy he wouldn’t use a spoon and just ate it with his fingers… hasn’t help him back though. He has a great appetite now though (at 7) and eats and tries everything.

Good luck!

We’ve found the illusion of choice is a good idea for a 2.5 year old. So a few things on a plate means eating one while leaving others. For us anything wrapped in a tortilla is easily the best meal. e.g Fajitas. Bit of veg, some meat, sour cream and cheese. Toddler does the loading with a bit of supervision.

Rice is easily the worst. Conversely a friend has a 3 year old who loves plain white rice….

Spag Bol is a winner… Minimissvader (13 months) can’t eat it quick enough… Batch cook it and freezes well
500g beef mince
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
3 carrots, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
1 beef oxo ( with the amount of food made the amount of salt really is small)
1 tin of tomatoes + 1-2 tins of water
Couple of teaspoons of oregano

I cook it in a pressure cooker as it’s easier, mash when finished to a rough sauce, thicken with Bisto.
I have used this with spaghetti, cous cous, on jacket spud, on its own it’s a winner!

Thanks for the replies so far.

He’s very picky about textures in his mouth and really strangely isn’t a fan of any pureed or sweet food, ruling out Ellas pouches, fruit smoothees, mashed potato etc.

Will try a batch of your spag bol and some macaroni and cheese. He likes pasta.

Perseverance.. just keep on trying.
Adapt food he likes and make variations of it..

Our oldest loved mackerel on toast when he was 2. Breastfed til that age aswell.

We have a picky toddler who loves a good curry, makes me very proud. Well, fairly plain korma, but it’s a start.

Second the bolognese, possibly blended a bit to hide the veg if that’s a problem.

my oldest was right into broccoli
still is

Both ours loved food they could easily manhandle and manipulate (ie, make a right old mess with…).

Cut up fruit and veggies and let them explore and play. I think you have to try, try and keep trying and not give up because they turned down the first every carrot or courgette.

Home made peanut butter and kid size veggie dip pieces worked well. My kids ate anything that was on our plates (before entertaining anything that was in front of them on their plate). Curry, chilli, noodles.

My 5 year old will eat a sunday roast as long as there’s yorkshire pud for him to fill with veg spuds meat and gravy

keep at it.

Oh, and what they love this week will be yacky next week. And so the cycle goes.

Let them watch you eat and offer them bits of that food – you will find that they take to some surprising things. Our girls both love tuna after watching me eat some straight from the tin and wanted to try it.

He’s very picky about textures in his mouth

Does he have any other strange habits? Ie, strong sense of smell, finds clothes uncomfortable? Scares easily?

We have a 19 month old. We didn’t do baby-led weaning, just started at around 6 months with purees and just kept adding things from there. A lot of what she eats now is more or less what we eat, we tend to cook without salt then add it to ours later. Lots of indian stuff (she really likes dhokla), pilaf, tagine, pastas, etc.

She likes a little bowl of peas or sweetcorn, ever since she had the dexterity to pick them up. My wife makes little savoury muffins – carrot, courgette, sweet potato, spinach, etc – which also are good for them to play around with. Even little peanut butter sandwiches sometimes. But like any toddler, what she likes changes by the hour. Normally if we’re eating it she wants some though.

When she’s tired eating is more of a problem – fussier about textures, etc. Ended up moving lunch and dinner time forward so she’s not quite so tired by then and is much better.

Any any sort of cheesy pasta or cheesy eggs (chopped up omelet or frittata) always goes down well.

Ended up moving lunch and dinner time forward so she’s not quite so tired by then and is much better.

This with ours too. And don’t give them treats or let them snack between meals.

Similar to simon_g we tend to give our sprog what we’re having. Im sure sitting and eating at the same times (whenever possible) helps him be less picky…he tends to want what we have if we give him something different.

djambo jnr also love peas…keeps him entertained for hours if you empty a bowl onto his high chair tray!

as other have said he loves one thing for a couple of weeks then hates it, then loves it again. keep trying new things and retrying old things he’s previously turned his nose up at.

T

My little guy is 19 months, he would eat very little, would not have purees and rarely ate solids but by no means enough to sustain him. We would always try to get him to eat what we would and about six weeks ago it was as if he decided that he would eat, like a switch was turned on. Now he is a human hoover and will eat most things, we were very worried for a while because he refused to eat anything at all. We got plenty of (mostly unhelpful) from friends and family which made us worry even more. In the end we decided that he would eat when he was ready, and he did.

OK, bolognese made this afternoon and will test later. Also started some bacon and mushrooms for a fritata and quiche (he occasionally likes pastry). Also got some sausages for a stew this weekend, or maybe just bastardised sausage rolls!

He’s getting over his cold now and has eaten more today than yesterday so I’m certain he’s on the mend now. I also think we’ll try moving his meal times earlier and see how that’ll improve things.

Thanks longmover, thats what I’m hoping, that the penny will drop and he’ll just eat like a machine, we both do!