The day my son decided he would only eat plain pasta was the day I truly understood toddler picky eating. For three months. Plain pasta only. No sauce, no butter, no anything. He is now 6 and eats everything. Picky eating is one of the most common and most stressful feeding challenges parents face, and almost every family goes through it. Neophobia, the fear of new foods, peaks between 18 months and 3 years and is completely biological. Your toddler is not being difficult on purpose. The most important strategy is called division of responsibility: you decide what food is served, when it is served, and where eating happens. Your toddler decides whether to eat and how much. Do not force, bribe, or make separate meals. Serve one food you know they like alongside new foods every time. The familiar food is their safety net. Eat together as a family as often as possible. Toddlers are brilliant mimics and will eventually try what they see you enjoying. Repeated exposure without pressure is the evidence-based approach: it can take 10 to 20 exposures before a child accepts a new food. Talk to your pediatrician or a feeding therapist if your toddler is losing weight, has extreme reactions to food textures, or has a very limited repertoire of fewer than 20 foods.