16 month Old Diet non varied diet ?

Sheepdish1

Not overly worried but would love some advice in relation to feeding at this age!
My little guy eats a lot of food but only eats the following and wondering if this is is common for babies to eat such little variety:-

This is what he'll eat and but won't attempt anything else-

1) Apples, bananas, pears, melon, oranges, strawberries

2)Eggs, milk, Cheese, Greek or natural yogurt

3) Porridge, spagetti, TOAST

4) Hummus, cooked lentils

His diet doesn't deviate outside of this. have tried making things from Annabelle Karmen, plenty of different flavours and textures but it usually is thrown on the floor after all the effort :rolleyes::p

He hasn't eaten sweet biscuits, sweet yogurts, chocolate etc as I find it easier holding off on these for now so its not down to him wanting those instead. Of course if there is desert in Granny's given after a meal he will gladly much on apple pie, custard etc

He hasn't eaten meat, chicken or any fish in a few months now and seems to gag when he eats different textures.

This seemed to start happening when he discovered how delicious toast with butter is, he would eat a loaf of bread in a day if he could:D I wanted him to explore different textures and learn to bit and chew and since introducing toast a few months ago he's seems to have lost taste for veg and meat. He ate these a lot pureed in the past.

Any advice would be great! I hated being made eat dinner and have never eaten meet myself but think kids should have it when they are growing. Don't want him to build negative experiences with food with battles either as no one wins those

thanks

catrionanic

No advice really, but my guy us 22 months and also won't eat meat. Aside from some fish and sausages. He hates the texture. The only veg he will eat is sweetcorn, peas and spuds. So I've taken to making these mashed up baby dinners of meat, spuds and veg, sweetened with some butter, and he eats those. It doesn't solve the texture issue, but it gets meat into him.

I also give him pureed mixtures of fruit and veg, and smoothies with veg sneaked in. Just those ellas kitchen pouches - half a veg one mixed with half a fruit one. I introduce protein in other ways- lots of dairy, hummus, eggs. I am putting chia seeds in his yoghurt and fruit/veg purees too.

On my next baby, I am going to do baby led weaning from the start so that texture should hopefully be less of an issue

shesty

It's a tricky one to be honest.All you can do is keep trying.Now I admit, I am posting at a time where I am feeling particularly fed up with trying to get food into small humans who just won't eat anything/aren't interested (but come whinging 30 mins later that they are hungry and can they have grapes/apples/orange/raspberries...), so I am somewhat cynical......however.My second does not and has never liked the texture of chicken.She's 2.5.We persevere, I serve it up and at this point if she eats the veg etc around it, I run with that.My eldest (4.5) goes through a lot of phases, at the moment the only thing I seem able to get into her is shepherd's pie (naturally, the other one doesn't like shepherd's pie....).I kept telling myself I was mad to keep serving up dinners with veg etc that didn't get eaten til I read somewhere a chef saying to keep at it, eventually they don't see it as a complete dinner unless there's veg etc on the plate-that gave me renewed hope!!I have gone back to pureeing bolognese because they could spot a tiny piece of onion from 100miles away......

Two things anyway.Firstly for the first couple of years, they have a lot of teeth going on.It will put them on and off food a lot.Secondly-they will never starve themselves, and also, starvation works a treat!!!They are far more inclined to eat stuff put in front of them if it has been a good while since they last ate (currently practising that with my pair).Otherwise I'd say just persevere with it.There is a long road ahead on the food front......

Edit:Actually I am re-reading your post there.How old is he and how is his speech?You make an interesting point about chewing.They do need to chew to develop their cheek muscles for speech, and if he is seeming to gag on meat it may because the muscles haven't developed enough to manage it??In which case I would suggest definitely persevere, whether the food goes on the floor or not.But you haven't said what age he is, or does he eat finger foods, chewier stuff either?

fits

One of my two year old twins has never liked meat and I was beginning to worry about his iron levels. But all of a sudden he has started eating it in the last couple of weeks. Keep offering.

s4uv3

My 22 month old is getting more and more picky, but she will eat pasta all day. So some days for dinner what I do is take whatever we're having (stew, bolognese, chilli etc.) blend it up to mush in the nutribullet then mix it through pasta spirals. The spirals hold a surprising amount of food and she'll wolf it down. It's an easy way to get a proper meal inc. meat into her.
When I do this I'll blend up a few dinners worth and freeze them in little pots. Very handy when we're having something I don't want to give her (takeaway/pizza/hot curry etc). Then all you have to do is mix it through rice/pasta/spuds and you have a quick healthy dinner for her.