Confession - my toddler only likes chicken nuggets, despite my best intentions

My son eats lots of veggies.  Sometimes, there are things I have to do when preparing them to make them "edible" (string beans need to be very soft or they get the boot), but mostly I just cook them and he eats them.  Every now and then the broccoli he loved two days ago is unaaceptable for some unknown reason but generally the next time I serve it, he is happy.

My son LOVES fruit.  There is nothing I can do to make him eat less fruit, short of not buying it.  He sees bananas, pears, apples, on the counter and asks for them.  Grapes or pineapple in the fridge = demands when he sees the door open.  The mrere existance of kiwi sents in himto a tailspin.

Dairy is also not a problem.  He loves cheese (so he is definitly mine), and ate yogurt daily for the first 6 months or so of his foray into solids.  Now he eats it often, usually in fruit smoothies.  We like greek yogurt for the protien content.  He is even now thankfully drinking milk, mostly without complaint.  I give him 2% because...well...it's what I always buy.  Whole milk grosses me out, is more expensive, and would end up getting throw away since he is unlikely to drink the entire bottle before it goes bad.

Meat, however, is another issue entirely.  I gave him beans and rice, tofu, eggs, but no meat until about 10 months.  I think in general we eat too much meat so I thought I was doing him a favor by not making it normal early on.  Then we could all enjoy meatless meals without complaint or feeling like something is missing.  I wanted him to like inexpensive protiens as well.

What meat does he like?  Chicken nuggets.  Yes, my son is one of those toddlers who only wants chicken nuggets.  This was the entire basis for my "make-all-the-baby-food-lots-of-veggies-nothing-processed" mentality.  I didn't want the kid that only eats food that is breaded/battered and fried.  Especially since high-quality chicken nuggets are not only hard to find (impossible, in our new town) but also rather pricey.  I have tried making my own with no sucess.

He also loves meatballs.  But meat as nature made it is hard for him to chew.  Why?  He has almost all this teeth (last time he let me look, only 4 were missing). 

So the answer simply must be my delayed introduction.

So I guess this post is mostly a confession that I didn't do everything right, like I thought I did.  At the time it made sense, but next baby will get a more well-rounded diet. For now, I'm going to get bean cakes back into our meal plans and keep on serving up those little cut up pieces of chicken off the grill and not the Tyson bag and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I have decided that in reality, it isn't the end of the world if my son eats chicken nuggets every now and then.  It didn't kill me, and it won't kill him.