what does my kid eat?

Getting a toddler to eat can be a tricky thing. G refused to eat sweet potato (one of his favorite foods) for like a month. We stopped offering for a while, then decided to try it again. He gobbled it down like there had never been any problem.

Toddlers are weird like that.

Once G was starting to eat finger foods, we had quite a few battles where he was turning down pretty much everything. Quickly, we agreed that the food battles had to end. G would eat when he was hungry and not eat when he wasn't - there wasn't much we could do about it. We try to offer at least 3-5 foods, and if he makes it clear he doesn't want one, then we don't stress. We simply put it away and move onto the next food. No big deal.

I thought I'd write up a breakdown of what the kiddo eats. With lunch and dinner, we try to offer a veggie, a starch/grain, and a fruit. Sometimes we had some cheese or yogurt. He drinks 15-20 ounces of whole milk a day too, with one large sippy right when he wakes, another large sippy after lunch which he almost never finishes, and a little more after dinner.

For the record, G is hardly interested in sweets. He loves a chocolate bar or pudding, if you can get him to even try it. He might try what you offer but he rarely goes "mmm" and wants more.

We also haven't introduced peanut butter yet. We'll likely try it soon after he turns two.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with fruit mixed in
Wheat toast with regular or strawberry cream cheese or butter and natural preserves
Yogurt with fruit
Banana pancakes
Cheese omelete
Banana

Snacks:
Cheese
Wheat cheerios
Some kind of puff
Wheat goldfish or baby goldfish 

Lunch and Dinner:
Fruits:
Bananas
Strawberries
Grapes (in moderation)
Pears
Mango
Cantalope (he'll sometimes eat it)

Veggies/Beans:
Green beans with tomatoes
Almost any kind of bean, like kidney
Refried beans in a quesadilla
Black-eyed peas
Green peas
Sweet potato

Starches/Wheats:
Rice (once in a blue moon)
Graham crackers (with no honey)
Sweet potato
Tortillas
Whole wheat toast
Pasta
Cheese ravioli

Meat:
Meatballs
Meatloaf
Shredded chicken in a quesadilla

Overall, I'm pretty happy with his eating habits. We're slowly trying to introduce new foods to eat him to expand his palate. He's always been picky with textures, so he was slow to eat tougher foods. Even now, pears and such have to be really ripe before he'll touch them. He'll sometimes try things, like salad or mac and cheese, eat one or two bites, and then he's done. I can't for the life of me get him to eat a piece of quesadilla that's cut into a triangle - he likes it cut into little squares. Go figure!

I'm sure I'm missing something. I look forward to when I can just fix him a sandwich with a few sides for lunch. Right now, each "course" has to come one at a time. We've tried giving him a plate of different foods, and I think the sensory overload is too much for him. If he doesn't immediately want to eat it, he wants it off his plate.

Like I said, toddlers are weird like that.