Ideas for my 18 month year old?

meritaten

Toonie has just posted most of what I came back to say!
Don't make mealtimes a 'battleground' - you WONT win! as toonie says offer the meal you want them to eat and also give them something they like. Let them get on with it. if they don't eat it remove it without comment. I used to let mine snack on fruit or raw veg, or even a bowl of cereal, but wouldn't make another meal.
of course my kids went through 'phases' where they wouldn't eat certain things. most kids do. relax about food - kids rarely starve themselves!
you say you don't know much about cooking - lots of help and great easy recipes on this board.

Kayalana99

Thanks for your replies, sorry I didn't come back my internet died on Monday afternoon for over 24 hours and I have only been able to access it on my partners iPhone so I've been pretty stressed out with it as I need it for my business.

I had a thought of perhaps cutting the ham into really small pieces and not putting a full slice in...perhaps a quarter...perhaps he might eat the ham then and I could start building it up slowly..will try that in the morning!! :-)

I joined the grocery challenge and saw the recipe list ...wow to say the least.

I attempted to do Broccoli + bacon pasta bake but the sauce went horribly wrong and I had some cheese sauce bisto in the cupboard so I used that instead but I messed that up as well as I didn't make it thick enough... *sign* it wasn't to bad though...bacon made it as its amazing no matter what you do with it. (Who doesn't love bacon :P...oh wait my son chucked that on floor as well....)

Floozie wrote: »

Have you tried doing jellies with fruit in them to get some vitamin C in his diet? You could do a red jelly (raspberry) with some raspberries smuggled into it, an orange jelly with some tinned mandarin oranges smuggled into it or a lime or lemon jelly with some pineapple chunks smuggled into it.

Great idea that one! I really need to get fruit into his diet. Thank you, as for the carrot mash def for the future but he won't eat mash tried many times as we have it a lot I guess he just doesn't like the look of anything new!!!

It really annoys me that I didn't try harder when he was younger as he used to eat anything and everything so I was thinking I had all time in the world to get him to try new things and one day he just stopped and has never gone back since....

Toonie wrote: »

You mentioned sweet potato, mine love sweet potato chips. Peel and slice into thick chips and cook in the oven with a splash of oil. They're ready in about 25 minutes and you can put carrots in in long chunks as well.

Thank you very much for this and your advice (I have taken it on board if you look at yesterdays meal :-) ), assuming they are still in date I will do this for his tea tonight I think we are having pork chops so I can perhaps do him some fishfingers and peas with his and I can blend some down for my youngest as well! ....Lets hope they are in date still...

Gigervamp wrote: »

One nursery food that I loved as a kid, made for my own kids and still make today when I want some comfort food, is "Nest".

A dollop of mash in the middle of the plate. Make a little indentation in the middle.
Boil an egg, peel and pop in the indentation.
Surround the mash with some baked beans and grated cheese.
And there you have a nest!
I would then take great pleasure in mashing it all up together with a dollop of ketchup.

Lovely idea - perhaps when he is a bit older I can only imagine the mess he would make with that and ATM he wouldn't eat all that....but hey....I might make it for myself....

Toonie

As far as root vegetables go...I wouldn't be overly concerned about dates on them. They are best before dates anyway and generally overly cautious. As long as the vegetable is still relatively firm, it's fine. If not firm...use for soups. I have bendy veg soup around once a fortnight as there is always something that gets pushed to the back of the drawer or shelf.

Toonie

Oh...and don't beat yourself up over things. Several years ago I looked after twins (aged 2) whose only knowledge of vegetables was a handful of frozen veg microwaved until a soggy mess. Of course, they wouldn't touch it. What I discovered over the following 4 months (it was a short term job) was that they loved the crunch of vegetables but it was slow, hard work. Something they really enjoyed doing was helping me plant some vegetables. They also loved planting cress and we did bean sprouts too. There is a thread on here about sprouting seeds https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/134746 . They grow really quickly and are lovely to nibble on.