Toddlers need a balanced diet, but healthy eating at their age isn’t just necessary for development and growth. Toddlers learn to enjoy the food that their parents feed them. The food selection they develop can help shape the eating habits they embrace when making their own food choices. Good eating habits in later life can deflect heart disease.
For these reasons, enhancing toddlers’ diets should be considered a public health priority. Yet the assistance on what to feed one to four years old is only sometimes straightforward. With many parents in full or part-time employment, the accountability for what their children eat does not rest with just a single person—Playgroup, preschool, grandparents, and other child minders.
Everyone must realize that whatever toddlers are fed, those involved have a role to play in improving their diets. To accept this role, they need clear and practical guidance on how to do this; by following these steps or processes, parents will give toddlers a good start in life.
ENERGIZE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR AT LEAST 3 HOURS A DAY AND ABOUT 13 HOURS SLEEP
Most toddlers love active play, particularly with their parents and friends. The Department of Health advises being physically active for at least 3 hours daily. Activities such as active play inside and outside, including walking upstairs and downstairs, running, dancing, walking to the nursery, and other similar activities all count. The suggested 3 hours can comprise short episodes throughout the day.
Physical activity enhances toddlers’ physical coordination skills, vital for their future enjoyment of sports and other physical activities. This may then lead to healthy weight management. Poor sleep may contribute to excess weight gain. For example, toddlers who sleep less than about 10 hours per day and 24 hours were more likely to be obese at seven years.
Many childhood sedentary behaviors are now combined with ‘screen time. ‘Screen time means watching television. It is not yet clear which type of screen time most affects the risk of obesity and when screen time might have the most impact.
REWARD YOUR TODDLER WITH YOUR ATTENTION& NEVER GIVE FOOD AS REWARD
Toddlers see food given as a reward for eating other foods or for good behavior or comfort, which is more enjoyable than those not shown in the situation. High-energy reward foods can contribute to excessive weight gain if overeat.
Parents should be advised not to say, as this makes the pudding more pleasurable than the vegetables in the toddler’s mind. A small nutritious pudding should be given whether or not a toddler has eaten their first course. Toddlers also love their parent’s attention and care more, so parents should reward their toddlers with attention and adoration when they eat well. Rejected food should be removed from toddlers without attention, as hard as it may be.
RESPECT YOUR TODDLER TASTE AND SELECTION
Toddlers are likelier to refuse new foods on sight, even without tasting them. Some may even refuse foods they have happily eaten because they look wrong. Most toddlers grow out of this. Parents need to be adaptable when serving food and not give up when foods are refused the first time. Toddlers are more likely to learn to like foods as they become more familiar. Each child has a different taste selection; some like all foods kept on a separate plate, while others are happy with foods mixed. Mind you, parents should offer a nutritious diet that accommodates these selections and always provides the usual family foods.
New food should always be provided in tiny portions, on a separate plate from what the toddlers usually eat. Most toddlers will dilate their food selections in time and by eating with others. Annoyed parents may be tempted to force feed when they become more concerned that their toddler is not eating enough. However, force-feeding can make toddlers uneasy around food and mealtimes. This can often make toddlers lose their appetite and eat even less.
MAKE A ROUTINE & OFFER 3 MEAL AND 2-3 SNACKS EACH DAY
All toddlers must eat regularly throughout the day to maintain their energy levels. However, toddlers who crunch on snacks without a routine usually eat a less nutritious diet and are most likely to suffer dental caries. A routine of 3 meals and 2-3 planned nutritious snacks ensures a more balanced diet and reduces the number of times teeth are exposed to sugar and acid in food and drinks. Toddlers can become more bored with the first savory course at a meal but still be interested in eating second courses of different foods.
Toddlers will eat various nutrients by offering two courses of other foods at meals. The first savory course may be vegetables, meat, fish, or starchy food. The second course should include milk, yogurt, eggs, flour, or rice ingredients.
OFFER 6-8 DRINKS A DAY
Toddlers need to drink sufficient fluids to maintain hydration and prevent constipation. They should be offered a drink and snack with each meal. They need more drinks in hot weather or when they are particularly effective. Bottles should be ceased by about 12 months of age because toddlers who carry on drinking from bottles often begin to use them as a comfort—sucking slowly on large drinks of juice or other sweet fluids.
All drinks offered, including milk, should be about 100-120ml; toddlers who start with large milk drinks from bottles or beakers are most likely to become iron deficient.
GIVE VITAMIN D EVERY DAY
Not all toddlers who eat nutritious diets get enough vitamin D. The Department of Health policy recommends a vitamin D supplement for all children from birth. Vitamin A is essential for immunity, but the new national diet and nutrition surveys reveal that, in general, toddlers eat adequate amounts in their diets. Whole milk and fruits, even vegetables, are the key providers of this vitamin in the diet, food, and drinks.
However, the skin is made in response to sunlight when outside. Toddlers urgently need this vitamin to support their rapid growth; many become deficient.
EAT TOGETHER AS ONE FAMILY & MAKE MEALTIMES
Make food cool; always eat the foods your toddler wants. Adore your toddler when they eat well or try something new; toddlers take more time to learn how to like new foods. Eating together is an essential social time in family life and a learning occasion for toddlers. They learn to consume different foods and improve their self-feeding skills by seeing what and how other family members feel. Disliking eating unfamiliar foods is a normal developmental stage, particularly evident in some toddlers.
When eating in social groups, they study foods they may feel reluctant to eat and enjoy with other people. In time, with encouragement, they will gradually begin to taste and learn to like the tastes and textures of a more expansive combination of nutritious foods. So, by eating a healthy, balanced diet of nutritious foods with their toddlers, parents will encourage them to like and love those same nutritious foods, building a fantastic foundation for future food choices.