ADVICE RATING |
 4.99 (Highly recommend) from 21 votes (1508 Visits) |
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Food & Toddlers |
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by ellamia  (October 2007) (rank 44th) |
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From personal experience I know that feeding a toddler is difficult and quite frustrating at meal times. You get food thrown on the floor if they dont like it, or they may even throw it at you. Oh and then the tantrums will they stop? Well this is all normal
and part of growing up for them and its really hard on them as well. Try to be patient with them. Here are some helpful hints.
- Toddlers have only small bodies so they cant really eat big meals so they have little meals throughout the day around 6 or 7 meals. They do have their breakfast, lunch and dinner but dont expect them to eat a whole lot as they love to snack. Some babies like to graze and will graze all day others might just have their three meals and a couple of snacks. Every baby is totally different.
- When giving your toddler snacks try things like fresh fruits and vegetables (if they have enough teeth that is). Some Fruit and Vegetables such as apples and carrots my 19 month old cant even eat yet she only has 6 teeth or so. Depending on the toddler try and encourage fresh fruit and vegies. Dried fruit is another good healthy choice and most toddlers love them. These foods are much better than snacks in high sugar, salt and fat.
- Of course like us adults some toddlers dont like some foods its just normal. Try to encourage new things and always try the foods they dont like up to three times as they might suprise you and eat it. Fussing over your toddler not eating certain foods may make the situation worse. Try and just encourage and if they dont want to eat it then thats fine. All toddlers taste buds change so they might decide after a month they dont like their food that used to be their favourite.
- When serving them food give them a good variety so they can try out what they like and dislike and also gives you a guide on what not to give them. Also buy food that all the family can eat and buy things like wraps or tacos which they can choose what they want to have on it and theirs a selection of different things on the table for them. This makes them feel happy and excited about choosing what to have on their dinner plate.
- At this age they want to feed themselves with a spoon or a fork. You must encourage this and help them with this as it is such a huge step and a learning curve to each them the right and wrong ways. To avoid alot of mess on the floor only put a certain amount of food on their plate. Most toddlers drink from a sipper cup by now and on their way to a normal plastic cup. If they are onto a plastic cup ensure there isnt alot of fluid in it so their isnt much of a spill when accidents happen.
I hope this has helped some parents needing advice with food and toddlers.
