Healthy lunches for 22 month old

Why not give him what you have but in a smaller portion. .?

I offer homemade soup. Peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes poached eggs or sausage as he loves those. I offer yoghurt pouches as they make less mess and apple slices and melon slices. He gets the occasional ice cream and a bit of cake or biscuit. These are because I know that is what he likes. Note I say 'offer' as sometimes he doesn't want what I serve up.

My grandson used to like Hummus with carrot sticks,cucumber and breadsticks to dip in.

Oh thank you so far - never tried him with a poached egg, will do. Also, I'll try the hummus and others. Thank you, any more ideas greatly appreciated

Another egg dish that's simple and easier to eat than poached egg is omelette - add a bit of milk if you like. I do it on a very small pan, and add a bit of grated cheese. Can be cut into pieces and eaten with fingers or spoon/fork.

Eggybread? Slice of. bread dipped in beaten egg and fried cut into strips.
Carrot sticks. cucumber sticks DGS liked eatiing strps of green pepper.
Bread sticks with dips/cream cheese

My DGD3 loves beans on toast. Also cocktail sausages and believe it or not, salad [as long as it includes cherry tomatoes] . I have been known to cook "broccoli trees" at her request and serve them with cubes of cheese.
For snacks she has fruit mainly - strawberries are her favourite. Sometimes I cave in and let her have what she calls "red crisps" i.e. Walkers ready salted - but I do try to distract her from the idea with other options.

Boiled egg and toast soldiers

Cubes of cheese, carrot sticks, bread stick, small pieces of cut up ham

Smoked salmon cut up small, bagel fingers spread with cream cheese

Meat balls in tomato sauce

Small pasta shells in some kind of sauce- tomato, green ( spinach in a blender with a bit of cheese sauce stirred in)

Finger sandwiches and hula hoops or quavers as a quick treat lunch

Followed by fresh fruit cut up ( halve grapes always) or yogurt or a scoop of ice cream or biscuit as a treat, or small piece of homemade cake or scone

Most children love pasta. Nice with a tomatoey sauce and topped with cheese. I used to add sliced sausages to it or meatballs. My grandson used to enjoy Fishcakes for his lunch when he went to nursery too. If making your own you can do mini ones.
We used to make pizzas and have them for lunch. If you don’t want to get messy you can use pitta breads as a base.

Our 2 year old DGD was here for her 2nd Birthday recently and she ate everything we did roast chicken dinner,beans on toast and enjoyed it all.

Lots of helpful suggestions - however, don't try any recipes from The Apprentice, although I suppose the fish recipe looked ok.

One of my DGC always asked for cheese on toast for lunch and spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. We did only look after her once a week, though and I did try to vary it sometimes.

They all loved chopped up peppers, cucumber, small tomatoes cut in half (never whole).

Like Grandmabatty, I'm a big fan of homemade soup.
I always make a big pot of tomato, lentil, or chicken and rice soup every week, to take through when we go to look after DGS2, aged 2.
He eats it all and enjoys sliced grapes, or melon, with yoghurt for afters.
Homemade soup is a wonderful way to get loads of vegetables into children. ?

Home-made minestrone is a hit plus pasta pesto.

Cheese cubes, cucumber and carrot sticks, fish fingers, plain pasta with butter and some ham chopped into it (when all else failed he would eat this until the cows came home). Chipolata sausages and beans or beans on toast with grated cheese.

My DGS used to enjoy some anti pasti when he was that age. Cut fruit, bits of cheese, bread sticks, something to dip them into, carrot & cucumber sticks.

It's like pulling teeth trying to get him to eat veg now, so I'm glad he at least had a healthy start!

Am I missing something here? Surely the adults are going to have lunch. Why make something different for a child? Mine were eating curry, lasagne, stews, seafood, roasts, almost everything at that age we just cut it up or mashed it.

My thoughts (above) entirely. Then they will get used to what the family normally eats without having to be catered fur separately and specially fir the next, however many, faddy years.

We collect our granddaughter once or twice a week at 1pm from Nursery and look after her and give her tea. As she has had a proper cooked dinner and pudding at nursery her Mum likes us to give her a lighter tea. So I tend to vary the following
Beans on Toast
Eggy bread ( sometimes I mix spinach with egg)
Crumpets with cream cheese or peanut butter and cherry tomatoes
Egg muffins ( with cheese, ham and loads of chopped veg)
Pinwheels ( puff pastry covered in tomato puree,ham,cheese and spinach rolled up and cut into pinwheels) I always have some in freezer.
Sugar free muffins using apples, bananas, blueberries, pears.
Sweetcorn fritters with babybel
Scrambled egg with beans or on toast

If she is still hungry some fruit.

Thanks for all the ideas. Esspee I agree, we do eat the same it's just that I'm trying to think of different healthy things for him, cos I look after him every day and thinking of a more varied and healthy diet. We eat main meal of an evening and he has his main meal of an evening at home, so eas just thinking of lighter, different things for lunch. Thanks again for ideas everyone

My 2 youngest grandchildren love what they refer to as a snack plate for lunch. A platter of ham/chicken/cheese, sliced peppers,apple, grapes etc. They enjoy taking a wrap and filling it with whatever combination they fancy from their plate. Then a yoghurt to finish.

I spend each Tuesday with DGS (two and a half). I was having beans on toast for lunch and asked him if he wanted the same. He said "beans and pasta", so I cooked some macaroni and mixed his beans with it. He ate it all. So there we were both eating our lunch in silence for a while. Then he looked up and said, " Going holiday?" Just like a little adult. I did laugh. We were having this really grown up conversation.

^ Am I missing something here? Surely the adults are going to have lunch. Why make something different for a child?^

I thought the OP mentioned lunch. Some of us don’t have a main meal until evening, by which time GS had gone home to eat whatever his parents were having for a main meal.

We usually provide lunch for our DGD on Mondays. We give her left over roast from Sunday with some fresh peas or broccoli. That's the only veg she will eat cooked. She does love raw carrot, cucumber, pepper and cherry tomatoes so sometimes she has those to dip into cream cheese. Cheese or beans on toast is always popular. She usually has fruit or a yogurt to follow. In the holidays when her brother is here too he love to decorate his own pizza.

If she doesn't like anything you'll soon find out, especially if you have a dog!

Ours used to wait to see what DD dropped on the floor.