As for veggies, my daughter LOVES them, peas especially, but my son won’t eat anything green. He used to be great and eat all veggies, but I ordered peas for him once on a hospital menu and that was it for green going in his mouth. He was 18 months old then, 3 years now, and he only has green if I sneak it in/hide it. Sad. I’m hoping that the girl doesn’t turn on me too.

We have found a local burger chain that does a nice chicken strip. They claim everything is local and organic and I’m choosing to believe them, hoping that my head isn’t in the sand. And since we go out maybe once every two or three months I really try to lighten up about it. Except the trans fats, because those never ever leave your body. At least that’s what my husband says. And he’s a computer programmer so he should know about trans fats, right? ;-)

We go out with her for dinner occasionally, and if it’s not one of those “hell with it, let’s get a pizza” nights, we go to a place with a kid menu. And kid menus are kinda gross. But! I kill for a few quiet moments in a restaurant so I indulge her grilled cheese and french fry moment and roll with it. I save the “try this scallop! It’s delicious!” stuff for at home.

I’m pretty lucky; she tries things (when she’s hungry) and when she picks, its on the fruit/veggies. She claims broccoli is one of her favorites. So again, I indulge the occasional fry. I know I do.

I look forward to them having more adventuresome palates. One day, hopefully we’ll be a family of 4 eating sushi together!

in truth, I wish their diet had less wheat and sugar. I blame their father. HAH!

Anyhow, they do make pretty good choices when offered many selections. And treats….well, I say give them.

“and christ in a handbag”.

i’ve never heard that one, but i am still giggling.

yes, i would say a majority of kids live off of sugar and pre-packaged meals.

mine are vegetarian but i’m the most boring vegetarian ever so our diets are alot of cheese, eggs, beans, mexican, italian, soupls, fruit, peas/broccoli (the two greens they like) and salads. i get lazy and fix frozen pizzas often too. i think the worst thing about my kids diets is how repetitive it is. i’m not a cook, to say the least.

my rule has been that i would never eat anything that i wouldn’t feel good giving my kids. which means they get way more nibbles of dark chocolate than i ever would have wanted them to. :)

it also means there are no sodas in our house, our chips consist of pretzels and salt-n-pepper kettle chips (mmmmmm!). and we occasionally buy ice cream.

but, what our diet needs is more VARIETY. i’d love ideas on that!

oh, and “mek”: my daughter cries for oatmeal for every.single.meal.

At home, we try to avoid using processed ingredients and boxed food. So, we have pizza once a week, but Daddy made the crust, and Mommy made the sauce (and, soon, the cheese!). Like some other commenters, we are in the land of toddler food choices, so some days it is all about the blueberries and some days she can’t even look at a blueberry. Last week she cried for oatmeal for dinner, not the favorite chicken I’d actually made.

The “keep offering it” idea kills me with those “20 offers before its okay” statistics. But, every once in a while it works. Once, she stood up in her chair, pointed to a tomato in her dad’s salad and said, “I want that!” She got it. Last weekend at a party, she ate most of the guacamole. She hasn’t touched an avocado in about a year.

Toddler eating combined with choices out there…maybe not a losing battle, but a totally frustrating one! You’re not alone!

As an aside, my mom was forbidden many treats and never had pop growing up so we had A LOT of pop growing up. I have zero interest in drinking it now. Not that I’m advocating balls-out pop consumptio for kids, I’m just sort of backing up the “forbidden fruit” hypothesis that commenters before me put out there. I think letting them have junk now and then makes them less likely to overindulge in the future.

At home, we don’t buy white pasta or white bread, no pop, ice cream only at birthdays, etc. etc.

Easily-available junk food is a reality. Best thing you can do is let him have some, on particular occasions, and explain that it is a “sometimes food”.