2yo just doesn't seem to want to eat

[TB9]

Yes, I understand that it is being watered down, but if he gets an 8oz serving in a day between two servings he is still getting 1.5tsp more sugar in just those 2 servings of pediasure than he should be getting all day.  He may be snacking all daybecause he is basically getting water+sugar as his first meal in the am, yk?  I know I snack all day when I have started out the day with a sugary breakfast.

My apologies re the bombay mix!  When I looked up bombay mix it definitely was not what you are describing, lol.  It was packaged snack mix that seemed to be white rice flour based and looked like it didnt have a single good ingredient   What you are describing doesnt seem that bad, the recipes I found have chickpea flour as a base instead of rice flour, and bonus if it is fresh without preservatives

It took a little while for dd to start eating better...she was definitely getting too much sugar for breakfast and snack times, so it took her brain a little while to adjust to the idea of a less sugary breakfast and no goodies for snack time.  Kinda like her tastebuds needed time to adjust, if that makes sense?  I just got to the point where I realized foods that should have been special treats once a week (or even less frequently!) had become staples.

[delancepants]

Just out of interest, all you mums with kids who eat healthy diets - what do healthy foods do your LOs eat?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Tbh I cannot remember exactly the things they were eating at that age, but I just don't keep really unhealthy stuff in the house much so it is not an option. Currently they eat a bit of things from every food group - they have their favs and things they hate and I respect that so long as they actually taste something before dismissing it! The other night I made ham & split pea soup and although they gave it a weird look they tried it and loved it. DD2 is harder work to get to try new things, some stuff has taken months of offering/tasting before she finally ate it, but I always kept putting the stuff out and not offering alternatives (she is gluten free though so her meals are sometimes slightly different than ours!).

[TB9]

For an example, this is what we ate yesterday:
Breakfast: toast, scrambled eggs, banana (for dd2 and I); Rice Krispies cereal with milk, banana, scrambled egg (for dd1)
Snack: Fruit bar and applesauce
Lunch: Hummus with pitas and carrot sticks (dd2 just eats the hummus mostly, lol)
Snack: cheese and crackers
Dinner: Chicken chili, salt free corn chips, and avocado

DD1 used to eat eggo waffles for breakfast (basically premade toaster waffles) with syrup or jam.  I stopped buying them when I realized she was eating them too often and asking for them everyday.  Snacktime she used to eat soft banana bread tyoe cookiesm or other sweet food for both snacks.  I stopped buying the banana bread cookies, and let her have a sweeter snack in the am or pm, but not both.  I also used to buy a pudding cup for myself that was dairy free, and tasted like really sweet lemon merengue pie (I have a massive sweet tooth) but dh and dd1 discovered them and I had to stop buying them becauss she was asking for them  most nights after dinner.

I definitely notice dd1 snacking less during the day when she gets a good breakfast with protein in it.  DD2 needs to have a scrambled egg for breakfast, if it isnt on her tray she will eat nothing!  And since I have started making dd1 an egg in the am too I have noticed that she doesnt snack as much though the day.

I know most of your food choices will depend on what you have available in your area.  Everyone has those challenges, its just different challenges depending on where you live.  But for basic meal planning, I try to include 3 food groups in every meal, and 2 food groups in every snack.  It makes it much easier for me to pick things for the girls to eat through the day to do it that way.

I think if you start his day differently, you may notice that the rest of the day goes better eating wise.  And if not, well, at least you have gotten off to a decent start   You said that your dh is on the smaller side, and the morning wakes may be due to the 1-0 transition, so it is very possible that he doesnt need the pediasure at all.  I dont see the harm in reducing the amount he takes and eventually cut it out at that am wakeup and see if you can get him eating better at least in the morning, yk?  I totally understand the worry, but I think pediasure should be a short term thing, not a long term solution (regardless of how the company markets it!)

[creations]

These are the foods DS eats:
aubergine, courgette, asparagus, green beans, carrots, peas, sweetcorn (loose, corn on cob and baby corn), beetroot, turnip, celeriac, swede, parsnip, butternut squash, rocket, lettuce and salad leaves, onion, cucumber, tomato (plum, cherry, beef, canned, sun dried), sweet peppers (red, yellow, orange, not green), sweet potato, white potato, olives, mushrooms, leeks, long stemmed broccoli
chick peas (and hummus), borloti beans, pinto beans, flagilot beans, red kidney beans (and bean dips), lentils
eggs, turkey, chicken, lamb, pork, beef (we don't serve beef at home and rarely lamb or pork)
salmon (fresh home made into fish fingers in a crumb), rainbow trout (home made fish fingers), canned tuna, mackerel (fresh oven baked or fried, smoked, canned), herring, sprats, mussels, prawns, smoked salmon pate (home made), chicken liver pate, deli pate
cream cheese, garlic roule, cheddar, brie, Gorgonzola, st agure, Parmesan, mozzarella, natural unsweetened yoghurt, cream, cows milk
pasta variety of shapes, noodles, bread, crumpets, pancakes (home made sugar free), pitta bread, tortilla wrap, naan, chapati/paratha, poppadom, flat bread pizza, baguette, bread sticks, variety of crackers (both white and whole grain), pastry (eg home made pie or tart, occasionally something from the bakery like a sausage roll or cheese pasty), yorkshire pudding, stuffing, muffins (home made sugar free made with things like carrots, sweet potato, banana, dried fruit), oaty chews (home made sugar free, oats and fruits made into a snack bar), home baked cakes (sugar free), occasionally a shop bought desert/trifle/cheesecake/fruitcake/scone
dried fruit (sultanas, apple, apricot, prune, fig, occasionally cranberries but they are sweetened)
fresh fruit apple, pear, banana, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, plums, blueberries,  mandarin/clementine/satsuma, peach, apricot, melon (any variety), mango, kiwi, grapes (red, black, green)
herbs and spices, salad dressing (eg olive oil with white wine vinegar and garlic), 2 or 3 times per week a half teaspoon of condiments such as tom ketchup, mayo, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, sweet pickle or brown sauce, a variety of home made sauces such as gravy, pasta sauce, curry, stew, cheese sauce etc, rarely jam (shop bought, sugar and artificial sweetener free),
He has a shop bought biscuit or two (like a fig roll made of figs and pastry) less than once per week. He has a piece or two of chocolate about twice per year, never eats sweets ever, less than once per month eats a few crisps (would be at a birthday party or special picnic outing), at the few birthday parties he has been to he's had jelly, ice cream and cake.

Hmmm...I think that's most of it.

He won't eat mashed potato or rice - these things he is offered and refuses, once in a while he will ask for a taste and still not like it, he has never liked mashed food or rice, ever.
He doesn't like green peppers, butter beans, short stemmed broccoli, cauliflower - these things I can ask him to eat a bite and he will but I don't push it as it is a sincere dislike.
He likes a variety of nuts but I very rarely offer nuts (only 2 or 3 nuts and less than once per month) as it results in diarrhoea, however I do add coconut, ground almonds, flaked almonds and peanut butter in cooking which appears not to have a negative effect.  He is fine for example if I make naan with ground almonds and sultanas mixed through or cake or pancakes with ground almonds.
A year ago the range of meat and fish would not have been as extensive but it was something I was constantly aiming to increase.  He ate egg every morning for breakfast because that's how I worked out how to get protein into him. From 6 months to 2yo+ I made a lot of bean burgers, fritters, felafel, lentil patties type things (back then he refused anything made of kidney bean, he'd try it and spit out clearly not liking the taste or texture, but many other beans went down well, it was trial and error to discover which were acceptable and which spices he preferred) and experimented every week with fish and fish fingers.

Well, depending on your personal diet and beliefs about food types this may or may not be a list of healthy foods which is what you asked for, but it's what we eat, it's what DS eats.

[delancepants]

Thanks Tinkerbell99, that's really helpful.  Yes you're right about the first meal being sugar/water, I hadn't thought of it like that, I guess I've been too tired / busy, my poor old brain doesn't work too well these days!  Well yes the gathia/besan papdi aren't quite as bad as the bombay mix we get at home but it is still deep fried, so major negative point there.  You're right about the pediasure, he has slept much better the last couple of nights since capping his nap and I think maybe he doesn't need it at all.  I'm not ready to go cold turkey, it's not fair to everyone else in the family to subject them to the disturbance, but I can still proceed with watering it down and who knows he may even be off it quicker that way!!  I have started and now he's eating much better at breakfast.  Still picky of course, that will take longer to break, but I did manage to get mango/banana/milk ice pops into him this morning - hooray!  The first sign of real fruit in ages and dairy too!

Wow, creations how did you manage to get your DS to eat such a wide range of healthy foods!!  You must be supermum!  I joke, but actually DS1 ate very healthily before we moved to India.  He had never eaten even a mouthful of chocolate, sweets, crisps or any junk before our first visit to India.  Once DS2 came along and we moved here everything went downhill.  It's the fact that neither of them will try new foods that really bugs me, because it's difficult to increase their range of healthy foods when they won't even try things. 

I'm very encouraged by everyone's feedback and I'm just going to get rid of the junk from the house as much as possible.  If it's not here they can't eat it.

MasynSpencerElliotte - how do you get your kids to try new things?  Mine are very bad at it and even when I'm offering them something delicious that they loved last year and telling them how yummy it is, like mango for example, they still won't take it!!  My general policy when we were back in ireland was to never have junk in the house, but here I have to keep some for visitors and the maids.  Chocolate is not one of those things though (it started as bribery for DS1 to eat healthy foods at dinner, and it worked for a while, but now he seems to be getting better at eating the healthier stuff anyway) and we've just run out, so I've decided not to buy any more.

[TB9]

To get my kids to try new things I just have to ask dd1 to try it once, and if she doesnt like it then she doesnt have to eat it.  She will take a taste, and if she doesnt like it we dont make a big deal about it and she just eats the rest of the food available at the meal.  If dh and i like the food then i will often make it again, and ask dd1 to try it each time we eat it with the hopes she will like it.  DD2 also will try, but she is much pickier in what she likes...I have been offering banana at breakfast for her at least 3x per week for about 6months now...and she is FINALLY starting to take bites from the whole banana, but will not eat it if I cut up pieces for her, lol. 

Just keep offering, it can take some time, but they will start trying different things!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

DD1 will always take a taste when asked (even just to lick something) but with DD2 for a while we would give her very tiny portions of her favourites from what I had cooked for that meal and when she wanted more we would say "if you taste xyz, then you can have more". Again even if she just licked it that was fine (key being the favourite food was something reasonably healthy!).

[Buttonbobs]

We've used the same process as Heidi with our DD and I would recommend it - after 2 years of eating solids and having broccoli 2 times a week (it's DH's favourite) And refusing to eat more than lick a bit, she ate a whole floret and then said "more broccoli please mummy"...I was astounded.

My advice is offer and try not to worry if it's eaten or not. Good luck

[creations]

Like others I just keep giving DS foods he doesn't like alongside foods he does like and eventually it becomes familiar enough to try a bite if asked. I don't always ask him to try a bite of something totally new that he has never seen before if he doesn't look interested but often he'll just ask what it is and give it a try.
There are things I tried so many times, broccoli was one, he just wouldn't have it at all, I always made sure he had other green vegetables that he would eat on his plate to compensate.  Then one day DP bought long stemmed broccoli and DS refused, I cut the flower head off and asked him to try it, told him it's a bit like asparagus, he ate the full stem and took another serving. It turned out it was just the texture of the flower head he couldn't cope with.  More time passed and he will now eat the flower head too (although still doesn't much enjoy it like he does other food).
There are many things I've told DS are 'like' something else, perhaps the funniest was after he'd had a couple of crisps at a party I gave him highly seasoned (not with salt though) and well roasted crunchy chicken skin and told him "it's like wet crisps" - wet crisps!  anyway he ate it. now I know most people throw the skin away but this really was my 'in' he never ate chicken, barely a bite anyway, so over time I left more and more bits of the actual chicken on his skin and now he eats chicken without the skin.  A gradual process.  It took a lot of effort to get DS eating a decent amount of protein, with many surprises along the way.
He also likes to dip and that was a good way to try new things or eat more of something.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Dips are a great way to get veg in DD1, she will try most things with a bit of dip. DD2 not so much. There are things thay have tasted that they outright refuse, which after at least a taste I let go because after all there are things I have tried that I wont touch with a ten foot pole!

[delancepants]

Wow, my kids will mostly just refuse even to taste new things.  Completely the opposite to DH and I, we’re quite adventurous, so we find it quite frustrating when they won’t even try.  We don’t make a big deal out of it though, we’re just hoping in  time that they’ll follow our role model in terms of eating. 
Creations that is a brilliant tip about the wet crisps, I used it the other day with DS1, I told him the chickpeas on his plate tasted like chickpeas in ketchup (which essentially they were, homemade tomato sauce) and he actually deigned to take a bite!!  He didn’t eat any more but at least he tried it and without me even asking him to! 
Yeah I found dips were great when DS1 was small, I used to make my own homemade ones.  I don’t really like to use the readymade dips here as they’re so loaded with salt and additives.  We have a few which aren’t so bad, but DS2 just wants the dip without the food and just licks it off the food or sticks his fingers in it and licks them off.  Sigh.
I’ve had a few successes over the last few days though, the mango banana milk ice lollies have gone down a treat with both kids which is great.  They’ve both been coping with the withdrawal of junk easier than I expected and I’ve been forging ahead with reducing the pediasure.  DS1 is now eating much better at breakfast but the rest of the day can be hit and miss.  Luckily his sleep doesn’t seem to have been affected so far.  I also offered a ‘snack pot’ dinner tonight, where I placed out various little pots of healthy stuff and the kids picked out what they wanted.  It went down a treat with DS1.
I started reading the Deceptively Delicious thread, but so far it just seems to be a discussion about the book, but there haven’t been many tips in the thread.  I don’t think I can afford the book right at the moment – can anyone tell me if it’s worth reading on in that thread – are there useful tips in there or is it just more discussion of the book?

[weaver]

Don't know about the thread, sorry, but have to say well done, sounds like you are taking the bull by the horns!

As for DS2 just wanting the dip etc, that really is normal, crazy two year old behaviour.  Just grab your patience in both hands and offer it again tomorrow. 

[TB9]

So glad things are improving!  Well done 

My ped said that the appetite of toddlers is like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down.  I certainly found it to be true with dd1!  Some days she really did only get one good meal a day.  Now she generally gets two good meals in, and one meal is not so great, I try not to fight it and just go with it.  If you keep offering he will eat if he is hungry 

[creations]

Sounds like you are determined

With the dips, is it possible to make things like hummus, guacamole (avocado), baba ganush (aubergine), red kidney bean dip etc so that what he dips into is a really 'good' dip?  I'm more thinking easy version of the 'real' thing though to save you too much work as it's a lot to do to follow a full recipe for only a tiny bit to be used as a dip.  It wouldn't matter then if he wanted just the dip.
Cream cheese is a great dip on it's own, if you stir it to slacken it off or add a drop of milk.
Also I can give mine just lemon juice to dip in, ha ha, he thinks it's special

I haven't read the thread you refer to, I actually did do a little hiding of food (sweet potato muffins, bean and vegi burgers) as he needed a 'snack' the size of lunch when he was younger and we were out and about and I didn't want it all to be fruit, making my own fish fingers also proved to be highly successful in the long term (not a quick fix though) but mostly I believe in hiding as little as possible.

What about shaped food? Would your LO go for food faces or animals for instance?  Again, I am not all that keen on making everything into a massive chore to shape it all for kids to eat, but most kids tend to love it.  Could be worth looking into?

Do you want to list some of the staple foods you can buy locally or list some of your family meals and see if we have any ideas to make them more toddler friendly?  I'm aware we could be advising this recipe or that and the ingredients may not be available.