I need some help with my toddler' s eating habit and will really appreciate any help. My 14 mo. old toddler is now under 3 times solid feed with breakfast of rice cereal (5 spoons plus some fruit and formula 3 oz) and lunch of rice and dal or curry and dinner of either ragi or some sweet or curd rice. Have a snack around 4 pm of yoghurt and fruit. And 2 feeds of formula 6 oz at noon and at night before bed. The thing is the rice cereal feed in the morning for breakfast takes a long time 1 hour plus. He just keeps it in his mouth and swallows only after 10 mins or so. And he cries after sometime that he doesn' t want it. We trie to feed milk early in the morning and let him go to sleep and again feed the cereal little late after he wakes up, but either way the cereal feed he doesn' t seem to like it. He is ok with lunch meal , formula. Dinner again is sometimes fussy. The thing is he got into the habit of keeping the solid in his mouth for a while. I want some suggestions on what I can do to help this. He does not like food very spicy so cereal should actually be fine, but not sure if he is bored. I try to give cereal since it is told to be very good for health.. are there any other suggestions or choices?

Another qn. is on yoghurt. Since he likes yoghurt, sometimes when he does not eat lunch or dinner fine, my mil just mixes curd in the food, even if its dal or curry and she says he eats it fine if she mixes curd. There were days where he eats dal with curd mixed for lunch , yobaby yoghurt in the afternoon and again rasam with curd mixed for dinner. I stopped my mil bcos I was afraid he will eat only curd rice in future. Am I right, or is it okay to mix rice since my mil says anyways the dal and veg.s is also going with curd. Please advise. Padmini Seshendra replied. After reaching 10-11months old ,they don' t like to eat cereal' s.They mostly like' s to eat regular food(what we eat).Your son do not like spicy food.You can try some of following recipe for your toddler.
1. rice,any kind of dal, mixed vegetalbes,salt, amchur,pinch of chilly pwd or pepper.cook all together untill done.
2. dhaliya can be cooked with carrot, tomato and onion.
3. sooji can be cooked with sugar and milk. be sure fry sooji in little ghee.
4. Atta noodles can be given.
5. slice the boiled egg and seasonend with pepper and salt.
6. Make a soft rotti and soak it in milk. according to his need u can add sugar.
7.In his breakfast you can try with dosa(batter made with rice and urad dal), Atta dosa, Rawa dosa(ingredients like sooji 1cup,rice pwd 1/2cup, Maida 1/2cup,salt),idle with sambar,rooti with onion,carrot,cauliflower, potato,green peas curry(cook all together.
8. CUSTARD with fruits or fruit salad.
9. Sprout' s can be boiled in salt and add limejuice before serving. be sure the quantity should be increased by little.
10. Mix keera in curd by adding salt. it can be given as salad.
Stop feeding formula and try with wholemilk.Let him eat self. Hope some my recipes will help.
bye
Padmini