I always find it handy and interesting to read meal posts from other blogging mummas, particularly as toddlers seem to have a constantly changing palate that guarantees as soon as you've figured it out and mastered the art of sneaky vegetables, it shifts again and all the favourites are out the window.

I blogged months ago in September (http://goldcoastmumma.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/healthy-eating-for-little-people.html) about our healthy eating options for E so I thought I could follow up with what is working now and what are the necessary accessories in our house for meals.

Overall Ethan eats a pretty healthy diet and I do put a lot of thought into his meals and the choices we make with regards to his food. Its really important to me in this day of convenience and poor diet to instill a love of flavour and good fresh food in him with the hope of him developing a healthy balanced attitude towards food. I have never been one for diets (I'm just not that disciplined) and nor is Scott. We both enjoy almost everything in moderation and neither of us are huge sweets fans. We go through stages where a packet of chocolate biscuits can stay in our pantry untouched for months. Cheese would be our one big weakness and we love every kind available.

With what I believe is our own balanced attitude towards food, we plan Ethan's meals with consideration to everyday/all the time foods, sometimes foods and special occasion/treat foods. A few examples of what we practice:

• We don't keep or have sweet biscuits at home (unless I have been baking) but my mum gives him Tiny Teddies or hundreds & thousands biscuits once a week when she has him. 
• We go out for breakfast or morning or afternoon tea once a fortnight and on this occasion E is allowed to share my chocolate thickshake ... we often put it in a small cup for him to have his own. We often find that while he enjoys the treat, he loses interest after a few sips.
• We don't eat jam generally and if its in the house, its for baking but my mother or mother in law will often give him a small piece of toast etc. that he enjoys.
• We will share hot chips with him if out for lunch or dinner (maybe once a fortnight).
• If we are out for dinner for a celebration and have dessert, we will share a few bites of ice cream with E.

We are not completely rigid about sugar etc as this possibly makes us seem but while I don't want to deprive Ethan of foods, I want him to understand the difference between everyday, sometimes and treats.

Ethan still suffers quite strongly from his silent acid reflux and while the Losec keeps it at bay for the most part, acidic foods are still likely to aggravate it and cause a flare up. For this reason we still keep his food relatively plain with no tomato based sauces or additives and minimal citrus and yoghurts. Scott and I traditionally eat a diet heavy in tomatoes so we've reduced that significantly so save on having to cook two meals a night in some instances.

E eats 3 meals a day and usually 2 snacks depending on his nap length and its timing.

Our day starts at 6am on average so E eats breakfast at 6:30/7:45am. A typical breakfast is a piece of fruit, usually a pear if in season otherwise it might be mango, blueberries or kiwi fruit (a huge hit) followed by a piece of raisin toast or vegemite or peanut butter toast and then a weetbix mixed with full cream milk and a mashed lady finger banana. He almost always eats the lot give or take a few slices of pear or mouthfuls of weetbix. On the weekend breakfast might include homemade pancakes with mashed banana, an omelette with mushroom ham and cheese or french toast. I'm looking to start E on breakfast smoothies too this month for those fussy mornings when he won't eat much and plan on trying out the blueberry, banana and fine spinach combo first - will let you know how it goes.

Morning tea is served around 9:30/10am and as I mentioned, due to his reflux, we limit yoghurt to a children's squeeze pouch every second day. We stick to vanilla as it tends to be the lowest in sugar. Other morning tea foods include watermelon, apple, cheese sticks or rounds, children's rice wheels, a couple of pretzels, dried apples or apricots, sultanas, sweet muffins or muesli slice if we have been baking - Scott made banana cinnamon sultana muffins this week.

Hopefully nap time is around 11/11:30am in which case lunch is 1:30/1:45pm and if at home, it will be a vegemite or peanut butter sandwich cut into fun shapes, a cheese toastie, a couple of mini quiches (see my recipes page), a homemade chicken sausage roll or a tin of tuna and some crackers followed by fresh fruit - he can't get enough of his fruit.


We serve up afternoon tea around 3:30pm and given E eats dinner around 5:15pm, we keep it light with a cracker and some of what he didn't have for morning tea (dried fruit, fresh fruit etc).

Dinner ... Scott and I have been trying to be more organised so that we can eat together around 3 times a week as a family ... this means stretching Ethan's dinner out to 5:30/6pm and us eating up to 90 minutes earlier than usual but it is nice to start this tradition of eating together and socialising after a day of work. Ethan prefers dinner at 5:15pm and tends to get a little temperamental if we veer to far off this schedule he has set in which case I always have frozen portions of food in the freezer. A normal dinner for E is a handful of steamed veg (a combination of 3 - peas, corn, carrot, broccoli, beans, cauli), some plain pasta shapes (I buy the dinosaur shapes for fun) which is hit and miss with him and a meat portion. The meat portion lately might be a fresh crumbed chicken tenderloin or bbq marinated rump skewer from our butcher, a pan fried lamb cutlet or lemon/garlic marinated piece of white fish, two chipolatas or two homemade mini rissoles packed with grated veg. This month I'm trying him on tuna mornay (making a batch tonight) so will be sure to post that recipe if its a hit. Dinners are always finished with his beloved favourite food of all, frozen mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) - I just buy whichever type is on special that week, rinse them frozen in a cup to thaw slightly and serve. He loves the cold treat and will scoff as many as I will allow him, meticulously selecting first the blueberries then the raspberries and finally the blackberries.

I will note, we vary our bread each week from wholemeal, grain, rye and a little white thrown in all from the local bakery and E is not a fan of pasta or rice in any form (boiled, sauced, fried style) much to my shock and we don't eat a lot of potato so I trust he gets his good carbs from his bread and cereal intake. Not every night is perfect though... I also keep some chicken breast dinosaur shapes and crumbed vegetable sticks in the freezer as backup for when supplies are low and I haven't made it to the shops.

To keep meals relatively clean, comfortable and descending in to all out chaos, these are some of my must have products - many we have used from when E started solids:

• Tiny diner mat - these are absolutely brilliant and a must have for all parents. We use one at home at every meal and have another that goes wherever we do. Especially handy when out and the restaurant/cafe highchair has no tray or is pretty grotty looking.
• Boon bowl - a great size, not too deep, it attaches to the table and has a decent lip to catch spills. We are especially appreciating the lip now E self-feeds.
• Cutlery - we love the Boon set as the heads are flexible so great for bubs starting to self feed and learning how to angle the sppon/fork into their mouth as you can direct it before they start. We also have the small Hungry Caterpillar set and sometimes the only way we can get E to eat is by giving him cutlery.
• Plastic cutters for fruit and sandwich shapes along with large Target sandwich cutters - I try to make meals fun for Ethan by cutting his sandwiches, fruit, cheese etc into shapes and I do up little bento style lunch boxes for his kindy days. He really responds well to the shaped food with squeals of delight ... last week we had watermelon stars and he picked them up holding them high and sung 'twinkle twinkle'! It was the cutest ever. Cheese in car shaped got a similarly popular reaction with him brrrmming them along his place mat. Things like this take a couple of extra minutes of prep but the reward is well worth it ... a smiling toddler and an empty plate.
• Mocka highchair - I've spoken about this one before I'm sure. The Stokke and Leander were a little out of our price range originally but I loved the concept of having bub at the table and its multi-function. It looks great, E is happy enough in it and this one is under $100.
• Splat mat - a must have under the highchair from day dot of starting solids! We got ours from Aldi for about $10. 
• Ikea Antilop chair - my mum got this one for us and we keep it on our deck outside for when we BBQ or entertain. Its handy having two chairs for if one of my nieces is over and this one is as easy as they come to wipe clean or hose off.
• Mocka table and chairs  this was one of E's Christmas presents that I bought earlier in the year on sale. I love its simplicity, it takes up relatively little space and includes backed chairs. E eats at a table like this at kindy and at my mum's house so we are starting his snack times here at home and encouraging him to sit there for other activities like drawing. We've tried dinner and lunch there but so far its been a fail as he will eat a bite then get up and roam then peck again. Side note, my mum has a gorgeous solid heavy wooden pine set that is so sturdy but it just didn't work in our house.
• Smock bibs - another must have for starting solids and beyond. They save having to bath baby after every meal and are great when you're out and don't want to have to change bub out of a ruined outfit after the meal. 

Its a constant game that keeps you on your toes, thinking up new ways to get good food into growing babes. I find snacks/morning and afternoon tea can be the biggest challenge but are a great opportunity to sneak certain foods into their diets as they are mostly well rested and happy to experiment at these times.

E eats a lot of fruit with his breakfast (at around 7/7:30am) ... a standard breakfast for him is a sliced pear, a sliced and cored kiwi fruit followed by 1 weetbix softened in a cup or so of A2 milk (warmed in our Nespresso aeroccino) with half a mashed Lady Finger banana.

Snacks and or morning tea around 9:30am will usually include a handful of blueberries, a chopped nectarine, some grapes ... whatever fruit I have on hand along with a handful of seeds (sunflower, pepita) and a cheesestick.

Afternoon tea I like to make a little more substantial as he will eat lunch at 12ish after his morning nap and given he has completely refused his afternoon sleep for the past week, its a long time until dinner at 5:30pm. My go to options at the moment in this case are:

• Mini veggie muffins spread with hommus - packed with any grated veggies I have on hand, a little grated cheese and even some finely chopped mushroom.
• Mini quiches - these are a huge hit and never get refused so I always make a huge batch and freeze them in little portions for lunches on the go. Ham, cheese and shallots is the favoured combination but spinach & fetta are popular too. I don't follow a recipe as such but the base is 5 eggs, a cup of thickened cream and a half cup of milk. You can also use a few layers of filo pastry for a base if you like - use a Tupperware scone cutter to cut the pastry.
• Vegemite & cheese puffs are the hit of the moment - this is an old WW recipe I used to make for weekend snacks as a kid (without the vegemite) and I thought to try them while flicking through my well used Beautiful Biscuits Book and realising I had a few sheets of puff pastry to use up. Super easy, just slice the sheet half and then into 1.5/2cm strips. Twist/plait 2 strips, brush with vegemite, sprinkly with a mix of grated cheddar & parmesan, top with a dusting of paprika and into the oven (180c) until golden. Even my husband is a big fan of these for lunchbox snacks.
• Crudites (red capsicum, carrot & cucumber strips) with tzatzikki, cream cheese or hommus are getting gobbled up at the moment.
• Homemade muesli slice with apricots, sultanas, cranberries, chia seeds and coconut made with a little maple syrup and no sugar.

I also keep some sultanas, sakata rice crackers, Little Quackers strawberry crackers and these little multi seed rounds we get from Aldi on hand to keep in our nappy bag so I don't get caught out for those times when hunger strikes or we are delayed for mealtimes.

Ethan's dinners are still a little limited by his reflux and we avoid anything tomato based so bolognaise and the like are out unfortunately. He mostly has a small piece of meat (chicken drumstick, homemade meatballs made with grated veg beef mince & a little sausage mince, chippolatas, lightly marinated lemon fish fillets, poached chicken tenderloins, grilled lamb cutlets, lamb fillet, strip of porterhouse) and either steamed pasta spirals, carrot, broccoli and carrot or mashed sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot, peas and chopped spinach. I freeze small portions of slow cooked casserole like beef stroganoff too and if we are disorganised for any reason, that, a veggie omelette with some grated cheese always goes down well or a boiled egg in place of the meat portion.

Dessert is every second night and almost always a squeezy banana or strawberry yoghurt or his other favourite food - a handful of mixed frozen berries lightly thawed on their own or mixed through some unsweetened apple puree.

I hope to get away with avoiding sugary treats or foods for as long as possible in the home. I know my dad, MiL and sister sneak him a spoonful of ice cream or a sliver of jam on toast occasionally which I'm ok with as I figure he won't associate them with regular foods if he doesn't get them at home (fingers crossed).

What are your go to toddler dinners and snacks as I'm always looking to expand my repetoire and keep the boy interested in good food?

Ethan cut his first teeth with the bottom 2 coming through in January of this year (6/7 months). It was not my favourite part of breast feeding as he was keen to test those chompers out at any opportunity on anything that was put in his mouth, including my poor nipples. Indeed it got so bad with him actually breaking the skin several times and drawing blood that I seriously considered weaning. 

Each time he bit down early on, I would try not to react (scream) and pull him off, look firmly at him, say no and put him down and end the feed. This would lead to hysterical crying and a very hard to calm baby more often than not. Instead, I found it worked better for me to be hyper-vigilant (after getting so lazy and not having to pay any attention to the actual process since the early days) and ensure he was latched and feeding properly and if not, to take him off before he had the chance to start playing and clamp down. A little persistence with this and thankfully the biting ended.

From those first 2 teeth, the top 2 followed very quickly and then the others just seem to keep coming. At 1 he has some 8 teeth and right now is cutting the first of his top 2 and bottom 2 molars ... yep, that's right, 4 molars at once! 

Now I don't think we have had too hard a time with teething up until now ... but honestly, E is such a bad sleeper anyway, who would know... but OH MY GOODNESS, these molars are giving us hell! Not since our early days of reflux have we seen E react with such pain. He has gone right off his food, only taking cold fruits and anything pureed or very soft (boiled eggs are a good one) and he is having fits of pain involving arching and writhing where he won't calm until we get panadol or nurofen into him and even then it takes a lot of soothing. Unfortunately the worst of this is happening at 3/4am EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

Needless to say, Scott and I are shattered with exhaustion at the moment and its a real struggle to get up and get going in the morning. The worst part though is watching E go through this pain ... I checked inside his mouth yesterday and you can see the whites have started to cut through - I imagine it must be awfully painful. 

Here are my tips for teeth and teething:

Very early on, my mother gave us a Playgro pack featuring baby toothbrush and gum massagers (the one pictured) and suggested starting E on a routine of brushing his teeth... as in from 6/8 weeks. I did think it was a little silly but we just incorporated it at bath time and he loved clamping down on those massagers when he was cutting his teeth. Fast forward to 6/7 months and he happily started brushing his own teeth in the bath. I keep a brush for him in our holder too and every morning when I brush my teeth, he joins me and does his. We only use the brush and water but will look at starting him on a low fluoride paste soon. Its never too early to start good habits I guess and I'm really grateful my mother set us up for this. I hear you can also start just using a wet face washer on gums and new teeth too.

When food refusal happens, get creative to get the good stuff into them - E this week had finely chopped carrots and noodles mixed in baby fruit gel and mini veg muffins packed with zucchini, mushroom, carrot & cheese then spread with hommus. I make big batches of baby-friendly pumpkin soup and freeze it in cubes then add a defrosted cube to his steamed veg &/or pasta &/or meat if he wont take it sometimes due to texture or taste. We also have our go to banana and strawberries very finely chopped in apple puree refrigerated and boiled eggs - especially good when you can't get any meat into them.

Teething toys are mostly a waste of time in our experience ... we have them all from the Nuby long lasting keys, Sophie giraffe to the dummy shaped ones. Best I found for soothing sore gums was a good old wet face washer kept in the freezer and the Nuby nibbler filled with cold melon or pear.


Teething gels can be good but need regular application. We have the Hylands gel and it seems to give some relief but only lasts a short time. I have heard good things about the Hylands teething tabs (dis-solvable under the tongue) but we haven't tried them and I also have the Brauers Teething Relief Remedy but haven't seen much response if any to it.

Keep panadol and nurofen on hand... its especially handy at 4am and it really does give relief where nothing else does. Ethan unfortunately has suddenly decided he doesn't like medicine though (after a year of easily and happily lapping up his reflux meds) so getting 6-8ml of panadol into him is quite the battle, especially as he is quite big and strong now. To combat this, I either have to tip him up on my lap and put the dropper towards the back of his mouth or wrap him in a towel/blanket to pin his arms and legs then get it into the side of his mouth.

Remember, it only lasts a short while ... well around 2 years but that's not long in the scheme of things and then you have to figure out what the going rate is for the Tooth Fairy!