C.W.
Hello there!
Do not give up on your dream of feeding your child healthy things.
A long time ago I read somewhere that children need to "see" a new food on their plate 5-8 times before they even consider trying it.
Just make that broccoli, the carrots, the salad, mashed potatoes and put a very small portions of everything onto his plate.
At 14 months you can put everything you eat onto his plate. He should have a wide variety of foods already.
You can still make him his grilled cheese, but start making the portion smaller and smaller, add the veggies, in a couple of weeks, once he is used to seeing "other" colors on his plate, suggest he'd "try" one of them. If he does take a nibble - make a big deal and praise him. He might even be surprised that the green stuff is not even so bad. And he will love the praise!!!
I think most parents make too big of a deal about food. They fear that their children will starve to death if they don't eat constantly. Fact is that a normal child's natural instinct will not allow that.
Cut out all that snacking especially sugary things like fruit bars, those are really dessert not meals. Offer:
7:00 a good breakfast, ( that could be yogurt, whole wheat bread and jam, pb, some fruit, a bit of juice...)
10:00 a small portion of fruit ( 6 grapes or 4 pieces of melon or 3 strawberries...keep it simple and fresh. ), and a bit of crackers (no more than 10 fishies ), Don't give him more crackers until the fruit is gone.
12:00 lunch ( e.g pasta, peas and corn with a tiny bit of chicken or a 1/2 slice of whole wheat bread with some deli chicken and a couple of baby carrots)
2:30 again some fruit and crackers and then
5:00 whatever you have, plus a small grilled cheese of course.
Don't feed in between these meals. He MUST get a bit hungry before the next meal. :)
Oh I hope I did not overwhelm you with this novel I am writing but I had a picky eater ( my first born ) until I read this somewhere. I was so worried - I did not want to raise my child with unhealthy eating habits. I knew that being open and relaxed about food was the best gift I could give my child.
This was the best advice ever. I just started to offer different foods and downsized the stuff I knew he ate, I also started making for example grilled cheese with whole wheat bread. and not everyday. and offered other healthy foods. Once he got hungry and I was not looking. He ate.
:)
I have 4 children now, the youngest is 19 months, and all of them have favorite veggies, eat salad and are even open to try "funky" things like ratatuille or vegetarian lasagne (lol). Its so much fun!
good luck!
-C.