Give me your best fool proof dinner for the fussiest of toddlers

[Miss.September]

DD simply will not eat dinner.

Well, she will eat chicken nuggets or fish fingers. Sigh.

But other than that, nope. She's stopped eating mashed potato. No pasta. No cous cous. Very little rice. She just isn't interested. She sits at the table and plays with her food. She doesn't get offered anything else other than what we give her. During the day, she grazes, but the only thing she eats of any value is weetbix or bananas. Her snacks consist of cruskits, LCMs, occasionally a box of sultanas, toast, cheese sandwich. She's also off yoghurt. Bland food.

We've tried hiding vegies in bolognaise sauce in the past. All that happened was she stopped eating bolognaise.

Tonight she asked for cous cous. I made it for her. I don't usually make things she asks for but I thought I'd try it. She didn't eat it.

So please share with me your most fool proof food ideas for your fussy toddlers. And I mean fussy!!!!!!! She's 2 years, 7 months and still got two molars coming.

From despairing mother of one.......

[Rivlas]

Let her graze all day on healthy food. It is pretty normal for them to go through a fussy faze.

As long as there is no bad food given don't worry. She will soon again be eating you out of house and home

[AnyDream]

She might be tired at meal times. Try feeding her sometime more substantial just after she's had a good sleep. And always include a tiny serve of something she won't eat on the same plate with something she does eat. They say it can take them seeing the food on their plate 15-20 times before it's familiar enough to eat.

[Ginger]

if my boys don't want dinner, then sometimes they'll just graze on fruit (bananas, strawberries, watermelon) and cruskits and cheese.
if you are looking for absolute foolproof (but not so healthy) then potato gems and little sausages always work here.

[~me~]

I make up a cold plate, it consists of there favourite cold meat, cheese and biscuits, sometimes I grate the cheese, boiled egg, raw carrot. They also like to eat meals with toothpicks
You could always try making lunch the main meal of the day?
You could try pizza muffins with toppings on top to look like a smilie face.

[Emma09]

Home made hamburgers? That way you can grate whatever you like in there eg zucchini, carrot (I have been know to cut up broccoli and hide it in there also)
Same for home made sausage rolls.
Meat loaf
frozen peas? It's still a veggie right?

[Mum2SweetCs]

home made pizzas

dd is soooooo fussy but she loves making the pizza base, seeing it expand, rolling it out and putting ham and cheese on it, unfort she doesnt eat veggies =(

[beckoes]

frozen peas? It's still a veggie right?

nothing wrong with frozen peas atall! better than fresh peas cause they are snap frozen and keep all the goodness in them!

DD wont eat dinner if she is too tired. cold platters go down well here too! Pizza. Make the base your self, super easy if you have a bread maker. Make the red sauce, tim tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, oregano and grate veggies into the sauce as your cooking it, carrot or capsicum, or anything really and then blend it so its smooth. then top with ham, pineapple and cheese. or other toppings. goes down a treat in this house!

edit...M21SB...you beat me too it.

[Novella]

My girls both love a cold platter with cut up cucumber, cheese, fruit, crackers etc. I have also stopped pushing dinner and made sure she eats well at lunch

My DD's do eat bolognaise with vegies but I have to grate the carrot and zuc and cook it for ages so it can't be detected lol

Scrambled eggs with frozen peas and corn mixed in with tiny toast triangles

Chicken enchilada's - my very very fussy almost 3 year old loves kidney beans not sure why but I cook a diced chicken breast then add a can of drained chick peas, a can of kidney beans, a jar of tomato salsa and taco seasoing, heat it up for 2 minutes the spoon onto tortillas sprinkle with cheese and roll up, then cook in the oven for approx 5 minutes to crisp up. Everyone enjoys these, not sure why my fussy child likes this in particular as its not bland?

I do a meatloaf wellington its like a giant sausage roll and I grate veggies and mix in with the sausage meat and beef mmince then wrap in puff pastry and cook for about 40 minutes, I serve it with steamed vegies which she often wont eat

and as MD said keep offering foods she doesn't eat as one day she will shock you and try it. My DD is 5 and after 3.5yrs of putting tomatoes on her plate she ate some tonight!

[MummyNaomi]

This probably sounds a bit silly, but what about if you got her eating different things by crumbing them? If she is a fish finger and nugget fan, she obviously likes things crumbed - could you make up some home made vege fingers and crumb them? I reckon you could google a recipe Maybe mince some chicken and mix them with grated carrot/zuchinni/any vege really and crumb them? And then gradually increase the vege ratio as she eats them (assuming she does)

[appletree]

Yum mummynaomi, I am hungry just reading that! Great idea!

What time are you doing dinner? I find any later than 5:30 and nothing gets eaten!

My fail safe recipes are bolognese, lasagne and sheppards pie. My DS is very fussy with food, I just can't work him out.

Other ideas I try include putting the kids meals into lunch boxes, this always gets eaten, or sometimes we sit outside for dinner to mix things up. We also try to eat together as much as possible and just let DS eat without giving him attention over it, I find he eats the most this way.

Good luck!

[Rouge]

My sticky chicken wings.

[*Twinkle*]

I also used to make a platter of assorted cold foods such as fruit, cruskits with Vegemite, sultanas, cheese, yogurt, Cheerios.


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[Miss.September]

Thanks everyone. Some great ideas here, hitting the supermarket tomorrow so will get some things for her.

Sararose - 3 1/2 years!!!! You are one patient mumma!

appletree - We try to have dinner between 5 and 6 ideally. She's in bed around 7.30. We generally eat together - if DH is still at work, I eat with DD. She can choose where she wants to sit - she has a little table and chairs, but she always chooses to have her dinner at the family dinner table.

[*Ang*]

Home made Chicken noodle soup - she will literally drink it out of the bowl.
Hard boiled eggs
Cucumber
Tuna Pasta

Anything else and we struggle too. DD2 automatically says "I don't like dinner" so I don't push anymore. Not worth the fight. She does have to sit at the dinner table with us and I still do give her a plate of food, her choice to eat it or not.

[Happy1]

My 3 yr old eats half as much as my 1 yr old!! He will eat plain boiled pasta spirals, spaghetti hoops/ numbers/ dinosaurs etc, fish fingers, cruskits, pear.... My husband does a great trick where he shouts out " shop's open" and "sells" little snacks which is a fool proof way of getting him to eat. It seems to change very day what he will and won't eat. I try to ask him what he wants (offer him 3 choices) and try and get it on the table by 1730.
We are in a holding pattern, not winning but not losing either. It doesn't help that DS2 eats everything offered to him and then some!!!
Good luck everyone else.

[Miss.September]

Tonight she ate about three pasta spirals, and then DH was able to bribe her without too much fuss to have a couple of mouthfuls of pasta and sauce.

Noticed she's been a bit grizzly over the last couple of days though, so I'm thinking that it's all related.

I did make her some icy poles - pureed some strawberries and added some juiced oranges and then froze them. She wasn't impressed until I ate one (they're not bad!), and then she wanted to finish the rest off. I haven't been able to crumb and bake anything yet, my oven element is gone and is now on order, so itching to get that back.

We'll keep trying and working through your suggestions. Thanks

[Butterfly Dawn]

soup. i make what the kids call bone soup. slow cooked pork bones in a basic veg stock and they'll drink the clear soup happily.
silly sandwiches - what crazy yummy stuff can she come up with. we have competition between the boys-.some stuff works other times it doesn't but its fun. I also feed fussy boy the lactation cookies as a treat-eats more raw then cooked but that's ok.

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