Toddler Fail-safe Foods

That's about the time my daughter started doing that, too. She used to happily eat whatever we put on her plate. She's a bit more finicky now. However, I find that at a meal if I give her two or three things on her plate, she'll pick one and eat all of that. If she's still hungry, she'll typically try #2. She may or may not eat much of it.

Also, about that time she started wanting to eat with a spoon or fork. Loading up a spoon or fork with the food and allowing her to put it in her mouth also helps.

Just keep offering him a variety of foods. He will eat when he's hungry, especially since he's been such a good eater up until now. It's not that he doesn't like the food any more, he's just experimenting with control in this area.

Edit: It will make a difference - are you feeding him baby food or regular food that you eat? If you're still on baby food, sounds like it's time to move to feeding him whatever you're eating. Check out Baby Led Weaning if you're not sure how to prepare it.

Blueberries, cantalope, yogurt w/granola sprinkled in, mashed potatos, avocados, kiwi, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, eggs(scambled or sunny-side up), cut-up cheese and lunchmeat, pretty much any and all fruits and steamed veggies(broccoli, cauliflower beans etc). Sometimes I buy the vegitarian hamburgers, sausage and chicken patties and warm them up and cut up real small. Bite-sized pasta(i use corkscrew and cut them in half) with a little butter and parmasean or dab of spagh. sauce for flavor. I also buy whole-grain waffles & pancakes to have on hand for my 9yr. old 's breakfast, and have found my son really likes those cut up small w/a dab of sugar free syrup. Just keep giving him a variety of tastes, textures and colors. And re-introduce the ones he doesn't like at a later time. Just because they don't like something now doesn't mean they will not like it forever. At this age unless there is an allergy they can have pretty much anything an adult can have now, just have to cut it small.

Are you doing regular table food or still baby food? I assume regular but wanted to ask!

I would think soft noodles he can pick up (maybe with a small amount of marinara sauce to dip in) along with meatballs and pieces of a cheese stick would be good (my kids love this meal).

If everything is getting thrown to the floor, it may just be a phase...or are you giving him a reaction? He may just be doing it to get your goat! Next time, take the plate, tray, etc away and say nicely "Okay I guess you are not hungry now." or "All done? Okay!"

I liked the Gerber or Wal-Mart brand of the puffs (the differen flavors and types - crackers, biscuits, etc).

If you want him to get some fruit/veggies but he won't eat them - try V8 Fusion juice but water it down (if you like to do that).

My kids love cantaloupe, grapes (which you'll have to cut obviously!). What about warmed up ham and diced into pieces? Different types of cereal?

At this age it's all about texture. My kids at this age only like mac & cheese, hot doges cut into tiny pieces, meatballs/meatloaf also in tiny pieces. For veggies I would just put non-cooked but defrosted veggies on their trays - peas, carrots, zucchini. We'd also cut cheese into little cubes. Cheerios were also a big deal too.

Depends on the kid- mine would eat ANYTHING with BBQ sauce (and has STILL has to be watched so he doesn't drink the BBQ sauce out of the bottle)

At that age everything was always better if it was off my plate too-- for a long time I didn't even bother fixing him his own plate, just put extra food on mine and let him sit on my lap.

They can be annoyingly inconsistent too-- the same mac n cheese that was the best ever 2 days ago is "Yucky" now while the fried rice they wouldn't eat yesterday is inhaled....

And weird too, at that age I made some home made BBQ beans and got WAY to heavy handed with the garlic, I could barely choke them down. Isaac ate and ate and ate, I couldn't BELIEVE how much of it he ate. And like a fool I let him eat all he wanted and spent the next day changing diapers!

Remember that his growth is slowing down too--- they don't grow nearly as much between 1 and 2 as between 0 and 1, so it takes less fuel! Your job is to put healthy food in front of him, his is to decide how much (if any) to eat.

It's been 10 years since I last had a toddler, but when my son was that age, he just ate what we ate at meals. No special toddler foods. Are you feeding him at family mealtimes and giving him what everyone else is eating? My son wanted whatever we had, which meant lunchmeat and cheese sandwiches with Dh at lunchtime, our lasagna, meatloaf or chicken cutlets at dinnertime with whatever side dishes we ate. At breakfast, he wanted whatever his older sister had.