Answer: Hi there,
looks like the detail of your question is missing, if I am off track feel free to pop up another question with detail in the ‘Details’ section.

It sounds like your son is doing ok, fussy eating is very common around 18 months as their taste buds can become quite sensitive. Keep offering him lots of variety of foods so you don’t get down to a ‘white food diet of pasta, rice, sausages, noodles and chips’, even if he doesn’t eat it all. The sandwich you have described is very nice, perhaps try offering it as a roll, in lebanese rolls, a frittata and so on. You can also use what he likes to mix in with foods he is unsure of.

Research suggests that at about 10 their extra sensitive taste buds begin to settle down. I snuck stuff into all sorts of meals, making it easier to go with it as I knew he has been getting healthy food albeit disguised. Most healthcare professionals will say that as long as your preschooler is gaining weight at his usual rate and is happy and healthy, he won’t starve himself. But as a parent this can be of little comfort.

This is my checklist of first off ideas:
1. Gently persist with offering the healthy stuff even if it is rejected.
2. Sneak in the good stuff where you can and thereby avoid the battlefield. Baking is a great way of doing this, if you have the time.
3. Involve your child in their food selection: allow them to gather food i.e. growing or picking vegetables in your own garden or choosing them at the supermarket, and involve them in the preparation of meals.
4. Always encourage your child to choose: they are more likely to eat a food they themselves have selected.
5. Use the foods they do eat as a basis for other food/meals that are more likely to be enjoyed. For example, if your child likes chips try making them with sweet potato.
6. Swap lunch and dinner; it may help make meal portions achievable (small but healthy). Discourage snack-eating too close to main meals as main meals tend to be more nutritious.
7. Make sure that milk or other fluids aren’t interfering with their appetite.
8. Try to set up a good meal-time routine. Meal-times should always be family-orientated and enjoyable. Don’t underestimate the importance of togetherness during meals for a child’s overall development. Children learn from us so be a good example.
9. Offer a healthy supper later on if dinner is rejected and your child complains of being hungry.
10. Repeat the mantra: ‘This, like all things in infancy and childhood, will pass’ and it will! Remember that food rejection is a normal behaviour for most toddlers and preschoolers.

Smoothies are a great way of adding food groups into a diet. You can add baby rice cereal for iron, ground nuts and seeds for fats and protein etc and so on. They are also a real treat for children as ice-blocks.

I have a tip sheet on fussy eating on Huggies that might have some pointers, the link is:
picky eating
http://huggies.com.au/BeingAParent/FeedingYourBaby/KidsHealthIssues/PickyEaters.asp

Also I think the Jessica Seinfeld book using purees is a good idea, but I reduce the sugar, use olive oil and don’t add salt, I also have a recipe book/manual based on my fussy foodie on my site (sneakys).

So I hope that gives you some ideas, keep offering the good stuff. Think also laterally, don’t forget things like baby rice cereal added into meals it is a good source of iron, things like pulses are a good alternative to vegies and also foods like goji berries are packed full of nutrition.

All the best and have a lovely Festive Season
Leanne