One thing that I have a hard time with is figuring out what to feed my 18 month old. I would love for her to eat at least some of the pyramid, but she doesn't seem to care about anything other than crackers and cheese. She is also my only child so I get worried that she's not getting enough nutrition because I don't know if this is normal. I've seen some parents that make their children's food into faces or pictures to try and get them to eat. What have been some successful meal items for your toddler? Do you, or have you taken the time to make it more presentable and fun to get them to eat?
My mother has a trick with toddlers. I used to see her do that to my nephews and nieces. She would boil beef with potatoes and green leafy vegetables. In a cup, she would mash the potato with the beef soup. That's the food for the toddler. When eaten voluntarily, she would then add the cabbage leaves in bits only so the toddler wouldn't mind. And for protein, she also gives bits of beef to the toddler. That's a nutritious food.
Try boiling cut up carrots and broccoli. My 12 month old loves it when it's soft and boiled. He'll eat anything though. I give him cubes of cheese, turkey meat, bananas, yogurt, etc. He also loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There's a lot of ideas, but try some new things. Look up online some recipes and ideas. Oatmeal might be another good one you could try. My baby boy likes oatmeal but he won't eat it all. My son wants what we eat so we feed it to him but try to keep it healthy. We can't add in food because they're too smart they always notice it.
I have 4 kids. This might be just me, but 18 months is getting into the realm of being able to make them eat what you want them to eat. Like, they are starting to get old enough to know better. At that age, I lined up the foods in order of preference and made them eat the stuff they like the least, first, when they are hungriest, and use the "good stuff" as bribery to eat the yucky stuff. Good stuff at that age has been things like cottage cheese and bananas. Also, by 18 months (even younger, really) my kids are eating whatever we eat. Either I puree it into mush and feed it to them on a spoon, or I cut it into very small pieces and let them eat it with their hands. I don't really do baby food any more at that point. My youngest is 12 months right now. She's by far my pickiest eater. It turns out, she really likes her food salted. So that's been a great discovery. Also, I bake a lot of healthy things into pancakes. It is just so super easy when we are in a rush to pop one in the toaster (or not) and then rip it up and give it to her on her tray while I'm preparing other foods. I've made chicken pancakes before. I mean, seriously. I'll blend up just about anything (cooked) and mix it with some milk, eggs, some flour or oatmeal, baking powder and a pinch of salt, and put it on the griddle. She's loved every single one of them... even the ones I personally couldn't stomach.
I used to make my own toddler food. I would mash potatoes, poach chicken, boil carrots and make a tasty dinner for my kids. I would make a large batch and freeze in containers. My kids always sat at the table with us while we had supper, inevitably they would want to try what we were eating. I didn't want to get into making food fun for my kids as they would expect this every time. I saw my sister in law cut the crust of bread for my nieces and followed suit for my son. He's twelve now and still won't eat crust. When my second son came along I refuse to cut the crust off sandwiches for him and he eats crust. I wouldn't worry too much about picky eaters, if kids are hungry enough they will eat what you serve.
You could try sneaking in the healthier ingredients into the tastier ones,and I believe this is applicable even for older kids or even adults who don't like vegetables, like I know squash goes really well with cheese so if the toddler likes cheese and crackers maybe you can consider putting in some squash purée. This also works very well for mac and cheese. I think carrots can work well this way too since those are very sweet especially when given some time to roast in the oven.
