Put out a variety of foods, like a main dish, bread, rice or noodles or potatoes, a vegetable or fruit or both, and some milk, so there's something your toddler will want to eat. Then let her pick and choose. Just don't expect results overnight. According to Satter, it takes the typical toddler multiple exposures to a new food before she'll risk tasting it, and 10 to 20 tastes before she actually likes it. And since a family may eat any given dish once a week or less, this may mean several months before you see a change.
Time helps in other ways, though.
Children's aversion to newness usually peaks by age 3, then starts to ease off. Schattle says that her oldest son, now 10, still hesitates to try a new food, but he's clearly better than he used to be. Peer pressure and increasing awareness of the connection between food and health are part of the change too, she notes. He's heard that a good diet will give him more energy to play sports, which he loves. And he's seen his friends eating different things.