How can I get him to eat more dinner???

Ethan is about 20 months old. He eats a massive breakfast, good-sized lunch (sometimes) but a small dinner.

I offer him lots - veges & meat but he just eat much.

I also need advice for getting him to eat more variety.

At the moment the only time he will attempt to have a good dinner is when he has chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, (sometimes) sausages and chips.

He won't even try to touch veges!!

SMALL DINNER: Is it affecting his sleep? If not I would just be inclined to offer him more veges etc at lunch time and allow him to eat a small dinner.

Otherwise maybe try giving him dinner earlier (maybe he's too tired to eat by dinner time) or later (incase he's just not hungry enough).

Another option would be to introduce supper after dinner/bath etc. He could have cheese & crackers, fruity slice, veges and dip or something similar before brushing his teeth and heading off to bed.

VEGES & MEAT:I wouldn't worry about the veges as long as he is still eating plenty of fruit. If you are worried you could try hiding veges in stuff he likes: try making pumpkin muffins, corn fritters, vege frittata.

Michaela would have been 20 mo when she went off meat too. I came on here, spoke to my mum & MIL and read a few books on toddler meals - got lots of advice - and basically in the end I stopped offering it to her regularly. We stopped eating meat during the week for awhile and we now only have meat a couple of times a week and she usually eats it all.

She is still a very healthy girl, I was just trying too hard to ensure she got stuff from all the food groups everyday.

Toddlers are actually more intune with their bodies than you or I and what they eat evens itself out over time. You might find one week he can't get enough of cereals and the next week he wants heaps of cheese and yoghurt - he knows what his body needs as he hasn't been reprogrammed yet. So as long as you're offering a healthy diet without fatty foods and sweets to tempt him then he will choose what's right for him.

big breakfast and small dinner is fine. my older boy has only now just started eating dinner again after going off it when younger...

Zaara is a small portion eater, and eats small breakfast, small lunch and a ok dinner. She loves her carrot and potato! and like your guys loves nuggets and chips etc....how ever we only give it to her 1 a week on the weekend.

I use to hide meat in Zaara's food as she didnt like meat at one stage. Like potato cakes and meat in the middle. Or Potato, tuna and other vege cakes etc.

Sorry not much help here....toddlers are just fussy eaters they do come aound tho!!

Something is affecting his sleep at the moment but I don't really think it is his dinner size because it doesn't really change if he is eating more/less.

He does he a massive breakfast - usually 1-2 cups of stewed apple, 1-1.5 weetbix with milk.

He eats lots of rasins, marmite, banana so he is getting good food not just crappy chips & nuggets (i have nothing against this but its not the best dinner!)

I just need to get him eating more like mince, pasta, anything really - would be nice if he would eat what me and DF eat.