Also same as Leash here! There's only one thing which Oskar seems to consistantly not like and that's quiche or eggs such as scrambled etc. Elijah, he eats pretty much everything. They both eat stuff with curry (mild) and well whatever we're eating they get. We all eat together as a family every night.
DD eats what we eat generally, and we try and eat as a family (not so easy with a BF'ing baby and a hubby who might work late some nights). I also don't force the cutlery - I figure table manners will come eventually! If she starts messing around, eg throwing food or deliberately dropping it on the floor, we take it away, if she asks for it back, we ask her if she will eat nicely, and if she says yes, she gets it back - the first few times we did this, she would still mess about when she got it back, so we would keep taking it away until she got the picture and now we only have to do it the once.
Like Leasha, we have taken the tray off her highchair and pushed it up to the table, and I've bought her a special placemat (just a cheapie from Ikea). When she's had enough, she has to ask to get out of her highchair.
We also don't force an amount she has to eat. Some days, it seems like she might have eaten nothing all day. we generally still give yoghurt even if she only eats a little, but thats because I know that she isn't holding out on eating her food to get youghurt, iykwim. At bedtime, she'll still generally get a biscuit and milk, but this is late enough not for her to associate not eating at tea to get the biscuit.
I also read DD's mood - if she's tired, not her self, etc then I'll give her something I know she'll eat, even if thats baked beans or a peanut butter sandwich.
I think once you get past the idea in your own head that they have to eat X amount per day or else they're not getting all their nutrition needs, it helps you relax and just go with it, so there's no more battles. If you were to see a nutrition about their food intake, they would take a picture over a week or more, not just one day, because it would average out over that period.
I do the same as everyone else, the kids eat what i eat everynight. unless its something very spicy.
I figure kids will NOT starve themselves and will eat how much they feel like eating some nights it may be the whole plate but other nights it may be only 2 or 3 bites!
Oh yeah, I second what SammyRo said. When you think about 'daily intakes' for toddlers, and very young children, they average it out over a week. So they say over the course of a week, does your child eat so many servings of vegetables, fruit, protein etc. Because somenights they will just not eat, and other nights they'll eat two or three times what their 'daily' intake is KWIM. It takes a nbit of the stress out if you think like that, because there isn't that thought that you have to make them eat a certain amount each and every night.
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