My Picky Eater

This is how a picky eater eats!

Day 1
Lunch - Rice noodles with sliced pork, carrots, cabbage & fish cake
Toddler's reaction - NO CARROT, NO xxx (referring to fish cake), NO MEAT. She ends up eating mostly plain noodles

Dinner - Chicken Stew with carrots & potatoes
Toddler's reaction - NO MEAT, NO POTATOES. She eat plain rice & carrots only.

Day 2
Lunch - Shephard's pie (contains butternut pumpkin, peas, minced pork & potatoes)
Toddler's reaction - loves every bit of it.

Dinner - Pan fried teriyaki salmon + stir fry asparagus
Todller's reaction - NO RICE. She eats 2 slices of salmon which is really a lot for a toddler her age and all the asparagus

Day 3
Lunch - Shephard's pie
Toddler's reaction - digs at the potatoes & peas, and refuses everything else

Dinner - Meat balls stewed with chinese cabbage & carrots
Toddler's reaction - NO CARROT. Digs at the meat balls for a good 10 mins then decides she likes them after all. Digs at the cabbage then realises its quite yummy after all.

Day 4
Dinner - Fried beancurd stewed with butternut pumpkin, sliced pork
Toddler's reaction - NO THIS IS NOT CARROT (when I tried to trick her into eating the butternut pumpkin). Nibbles her beancurd for like 5 minutes, pokes at it for another 5 minutes, takes me some coaxing and persuading....and voila, she decides it's quite yummy and then can't stop eating loads and loads of it, including the meat

Day 5
Dinner - Fried beancurd stewed with carrots, sliced pork
Toddler's reaction - Stares at her bowl for 5 minutes, sniffs at her food....then decides, ok...tonight's dinner is acceptable. Loves the beancurd, rejects the pork and does not finish her rice

Day 6
Dinner - Chicken stew with potatos & carrots
Toddler's reaction - Loves every bit of it

BTW, in all the above scenarios, the rice portion is about 3-4 baby soup spoons only (that is if she finishes it). It's really tough feeding a picky eater, I can never predict what she wants to eat. The husband thinks I give her too many choices, but i've tried just putting only 1 item in the bowl just so she has no choice. Trust me, she would rather eat plain rice or not eat at all. So how can I as a mother have the heart to not give her choices?

On the flipside, she's finishing her milk much faster these days, which is a positive offset of the picky eating. I guess I can't win it all. I just hope & pray that this picky eating is just a phase which will go away soon.