A couple of things come to mind from my experience with DS. At some point (could have been around 18 months too) he had a phase of needing all food 'tested for poison' as we jokingly called it. YK how court jester tasted the King's food before the King ate? Well that was me with DS. Not that he would eat *everything* but things he had previously not questioned he refused until I showed him clearly that Mummy and Daddy had exactly the same food on our plates and that I had taken a piece of each food from DS's plate to test it. Each item I announced something like "Mmm, tastes good, no poison there, you can eat it". I wondered at the time if a developmental leap had brought greater knowledge of danger, a LO who is becoming more independent in some areas would naturally be at greater risk (of for instance picking inedible berries from a bush) so it makes sense to have greater caution and make sure Mummy has checked the food. Your example of the scrambled eggs being wanted only after you began eating them reminded me of this.
WRT accepting food that has previously been rejected - yes lots and lots of things here. The thing with continuing to offer is that it becomes visually normal and recognizable on the plate, and if you don't keep offering it will instead look like something foreign on the plate. Offer but don't always expect it to be eaten. If you don't offer they don't have a chance to try it a little and eventually like it.
A biggy here was not eating meat, I could just about meet his protein need with bean burgers/fritters, humus, pate, but otherwise it was an occasional sausage or fish finger (shop bought, decent quality but not home made as he refused them). Over a long period of time he gradually learned to eat home made fish fingers and will now eat certain fish without the crumb coating too (sprats, mussels, smoked mackerel, prawns - not bland white fish), and constantly offering a small piece of meat on his plate has led to now where he will eat a cube of meat or sometimes a small slice of something. Had a shock one day when he was given a taste of slow cooked lamb shank in a currant gravy and he just kept asking for more, and more and more...he ate almost a full shank on his own! So yes it can happen in slow steps and to my surprise in great big shocking leaps.
Some things I've done
- he would eat asparagus and green beans but wouldn't touch broccoli. Couldn't bare it. Eventually tried a long stem broccoli and cut the flowering head off and told him "this is broccoli stem it's a bit like asparagus" - bingo he ate the stem. More time later he will not eat the flowering head although I see his nose wrinkle, he doesn't like the texture at all but eats it because Daddy told him it's like dinosaurs eating tree tops.
- he had potato crisps a couple of times at birthday parties and loved them (of course!), next time we had a roast chicken I heavily seasoned the skin with white pepper, garlic powder, herbs etc and offered him a piece of crunchy skin, I told him "this is called chicken skin, it's a bit like wet crisps" he tried it, ate it, loved it, asked for more. From there I gave it to him each time we had chicken until eventually I left bits of meat stuck to it and a small portion of meat by the side. Gradually he ate it. From there, "here is turkey meat, it's a bit like chicken".
- he spontaneously liked olives after seeing DP and I eat them many times. Whenever he asked for one I told him it wasn't grapes, he'd try it and spit it out pretty shocked then one day when I told him it wasn't grape he said "yes it's olive, I want one", ate it, said yum and ever since I've had to limit him or he'd eat them all!
- DS eats a really wide variety of foods, however he still detests cauliflower (with a passion); I never make scrambled egg because I know he loathes it, I make him omelet; he hates mashed potato, rice, cous cous (there's a pattern of disliking the texture of bitty things); he's only eaten soup a handful of times; there must be many others which I can't think of right now.
I don't consider him fussy because he eats from all the food groups, a wide variety of fruit and veg and joins in all family meals, but other people may consider him hugely fussy because of his likes/dislikes especially over texture.
