My baby was a really good eater. We did baby led weaning with her and she ate loads. My now toddler isn’t a good eater. Since she turned 18 months old her eating has changed so much.

We all eat together as a family and she is served whatever we’re eating. But where she used to try everything on her plate (except broccoli) she now only eats beige food. Bread. Cheese. Pasta. Weetabix. She does it a lot of fruit and always is trying to steal bananas from the fruit bowl. But where has my good eater gone?

It’s really disheartening to see her just eat the beige bits on her plate. And things she used to eat like chicken aren’t being touched anymore. I try really hard not to show my emotions at the table. I was such a fussy child/teen/adult and I desperately don’t want that for her.

At meal times I’ve found just letting her get on with it the best for us. She eats with a fork or spoon and sometimes her hands. I don’t talk about food at all and just keep conversations about other things. I don’t want to make a thing out of her not eating. I’m going to give a couple of things a try.

Grazing Trays

I’ve started laying out a plate of bits she can graze on while in the living room playing. She can go to it whenever she wants and pick whatever she feels like eating. This is instead of snacks and I won’t worry if she doesn’t want much lunch afterwards. I won’t do this every day, it’s more for days where I know we’ll be at home for awhile.

Each tray will have a mix of things she likes and doesn’t like/hasn’t tried. Some of the foods we’re using are: cucumber, carrot sticks, hummus, blueberries, sliced apples, rice cakes, raisins, chopped kiwi, cheese cubes, strawberries and shreddies.

Messy Play

I’m going to try more messy play that includes food items, especially veggies. I wonder if playing with the foods will make her get used to the texture of them. For me texture is one of the big reasons why I don’t like something.

Growing Vegetables

We’re growing some of our own veggies at the moment. Eleanor helped sow the seeds and she’s been watering them. Once they’re growing I hope she can help me pick them. We talk about how they’re growing and I show her them every day. We have courgettes, tomatoes, spinach, rocket and salad leaves so far.

Cooking Together

Where I can I want to let Eleanor help me cook. It’s hard as we cook a lot on the hob, but I thought she can help me with measuring ingredients and move chopped veggies into the pan. We often bake together so this is just an extension of that.

Do you have any fussy eating tips?