Healthy Eating and Nutrition for Toddlers

Healthy Eating and Your Toddler

Feeding your toddler can be tricky. For one thing, it can be difficult to know what the right healthy food choices are, given the vast array of choice in the supermarket, along with the huge number of foods targeted at young children. For another, it’s at about this age that your child can get incredibly choosy about the food she eats.

One of the delights about your child becoming a toddler is that her personality really begins to shine through, as she begins her journey towards independence.  As your child explores the wider world, and practices her new-found ability to communicate with words (sometimes very loudly and quite frequently with the word ‘No’), many hours of enjoyment can be had in seeing how she responds to new experiences and in sharing these moments with her.

You may, however, find some new experiences rather less than enjoyable, indeed positively infuriating. Having your child assert her growing independence at mealtimes can be particularly irksome. You may well find that the baby who took to solids like a dream and enthusiastically gobbled up all manner of foods presented to her becomes a great deal fussier as she grows older. You may be concerned that she is eating a lot less than when she was a baby.

In this article you can find out Why Nutrition is Important for Toddlers and what Nutrients Your Toddler Needs. You can get some tips on Providing a Balanced Diet for your Toddler. You will also learn some strategies for Encouraging Your Toddler to Eat Healthily.

Why Nutrition is Important for Toddlers 

During her first year, your child grows rapidly. Her brain is growing immensely fast; at the age of two years her brain is already 80% of its adult size according to the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation.

Your child’s rate of growth slows down as she reaches the toddler years. Her level of physical activity, however, increases as she learns to walk and move around (as you may find yours does with all that chasing around after her).  And she’s still learning lots of new skills each day.

It’s essential that the food your child eats gives her enough energy and nutrients to grow, develop and learn in these early years. The Ministry of Health’s Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers highlight the importance of healthy food for growth and development. Children who lack sufficient nutrients in their diet are at real risk of failing to thrive (not meeting expected or normal rates of growth). A lack of nutrients or too much of the wrong types of food in early life can also have long lasting effects on health, right into adulthood.

So encouraging healthy eatingnow is setting your child on the right path to a healthy future. But what nutrients does your child need, and what foods are the best source of them?

Nutrients Your Toddler Needs

Your child’s body and mind are hungry for a wide range of nutrients. Here’s a list of some of the key nutrients, why your child needs them and some of the food that provides them.

Iron is essential for your child’s brain development. It also helps boost the immune system along with a wealth of other benefits. While your baby is being fed on milk in her first six months, the iron stores in her body will be gradually used up. By the time she is ready to eat solid foods, she needs to be given good sources of iron in her diet. Being iron deficient (anaemic) can seriously impact on health.

Iron can be found in foods such as red meat, poultry and fish, as well as eggs, fruit and vegetables and cereals. The iron that you get from meat and fish is more easily absorbed by the body than iron from other sources.

Calcium is needed for healthy bones, teeth and muscles. Dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt are great sources of calcium. Green vegetables are also great for calcium as well as food such as sardines.

Fat is an essential part of your child’s diet as it provides her with much of the energy she needs; for a toddler this is at least a third of her daily energy requirements.

Many people worry about eating too much fat, especially as there has been a lot of national concern about obesity and health. While childhood obesity is something to be concerned about, you should not put your toddler on a low fat diet. She needs to eat fat to be healthy. Instead, focus on the type of fat in her diet.

Ideally, plenty of the fat in your child’s diet should be coming from ‘good fats’ such as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. These types of fat have a lot of health benefits and can be found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds, and oily fish. Olive oil and avocadoes are excellent sources of these ‘good fats’.

Saturated fats, which are found in meat and dairy products, are often called ‘bad fats’. Processed foods such as crisps, cakes and biscuits are also often high in saturated fat. Before you decide to cut out all sources of saturated fat from what your child eats, remember that meat and dairy products also contain a lot of important nutrients such as iron and calcium. So it’s best to ensure that the saturated fat your child eats comes from natural products, and that you limit the amount of processed foods that your child eats.

Proteins benefit your child’s body in many ways and are absolutely vital for growth. Meat, fish, poultry and dairy products are good sources of protein, as are lentils, beans and nuts.

Carbohydrates are another important source of energy. Carbohydrates come from a wide range of foods, including cereals, bread, pasta, rice, vegetables, fruit and dairy products. Natural sources of carbohydrate are better than processed foods.

Fibre is vital for your child’s digestive system. It helps her to absorb the nutrients from the food she eats, and helps her to go to the toilet regularly. Without adequate fibre your child could become constipated. Fibre is in cereals, vegetables, fruit, beans and lentils.

One of the things to be mindful of when it comes to fibre in your child’s diet is that it easily fills small tummies. Some fibrous foods can also be low on energy. If your child eats too much fibre, she can quickly become full and lose her appetite for other food that will give her energy. As with most things in life, balance is key.

Other vitamins and minerals are also needed. Vitamin C acts as a powerful antioxidant, boosts the immune system and helps your body absorb iron effectively. It is found in fruit and vegetables. Vitamin A has numerous health benefits and can be found in dairy products, fish, eggs and fruit and vegetables. B vitamins such as folate are also important.

As well as calcium and iron, your child also needs to eat food that contains zinc, selenium and iodine. Although your child needs a little sodium (salt), too much can be harmful. Salt is already added to many foods so you shouldn’t add it to your child’s meals.

Providing a Balanced Diet for your Toddler

As you can see from the long list of nutrients your child needs, it’s really important that she eats healthy food from a wide range of food groups.

It can be a little confusing trying to work out how much of each food your child needs and what foods to avoid. Many health promotion organisations have tried to help us out on the path to healthy eating by developing nutritional guides. The most popular one is the Food Pyramid. The traditional food pyramid shows:

• cereals, breads and fruit and vegetables at the base of the pyramid (eat lots)
• dairy products and lean meat/poultry/fish in the middle of the pyramid (eat moderately)
• oil and fat at the top of the pyramid (eat only occasionally).

One thing you should note is that this is not a specific food pyramid for kids. The trouble with food pyramids is that if you do a Google search, you will find many different versions of them, all saying slightly different things. As already noted, many are not kid specific and it’s important to keep in mind that children – young children especially – have different nutritional requirements from adults.

The other problem is that much of the advice given in the old food pyramids has been replaced by more up-to-date thinking. For example, in the old pyramid, fat falls into the ‘eat only occasionally’ category. Nowadays, the advice is that some types of fat are better for you than others, and the good fats don’t have to be so restricted from your diet.  The type of fat you eat is possibly more relevant than the quantity of fat.

Some good ideas for healthy eating

Here are some good things to do for providing your toddler with a balanced diet.

• Do give your toddler a variety of healthy food from the following food groups:

°       Fruits and vegetables

°       Cereals and bread (white or wholemeal)

°       Dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, cheese (or an alternative)

°         Lean red meat, poultry, fish, beans and lentils, nuts and eggs.

 

• Do offer your toddler plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, rather than canned, dried or frozen.
• Do focus her diet on foods that are natural rather than processed.
• Do remember that too much fibre can fill little tummies. Make sure that you offer food that is rich in other nutrients and which will give her much-needed energy.
• Do provide food that contains ‘good fat’ such as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
• Do provide lots of drinks to keep her hydrated. Water and milk are the best drinks. Remember though that milk can be quite filling. The Ministry of Health’s Nutrition Guidelines recommend that a toddler shouldn’t have more than 500ml of cow’s milk a day (make it full-fat up until the age of two). And breast milk is fine if you’re still breastfeeding!
• Do provide healthy snacks for your toddler, such as:

°         Sliced fruit – apple, grapes, pears, oranges, banana

°         Crackers and cubes of cheese

°         Yoghurt

°         A slice of toast

°         Homemade dips such as hummus or guacamole (perhaps with a little less chilli!) with carrot or cucumber sticks

• Do provide your toddler with lots of opportunities to use up her energy through play and fun physical activities.

Some unhealthy eating ideas to avoid

• Don’t add salt and sugar to food to make it tastier – your toddler doesn’t need it.
• Don’t give her lots of processed foods. These often have a lot of added salt, sugar and saturated fat. Keep it natural.
• Don’t make biscuits, cakes and sweets every day snacks. These are absolutely fine as occasional treats. Provide healthy snacks instead.
• Don’t give your toddler fruit juices, fizzy or soft drinks, tea, coffee or alcohol to drink. Fruit juice and fizzy drinks contain a lot of sugar. Too much sugar isn’t good for your toddler (or anyone for that matter) and can also cause tooth decay. Tea can prevent your child’s body from absorbing iron. Caffeine can over stimulate your child. Alcohol is a really bad idea for all sorts of reasons.
• Don’t give your toddler whole nuts. These could cause her to choke. Nuts in other forms such as peanut butter or nut spreads are fine, as long, of course, as your child doesn’t have an allergy to nuts. Large pieces of dried fruit and chunky cereals can also cause choking so be careful with these.

Encouraging Your Toddler to Eat Healthily

Knowing what healthy food your child should be eating and what foods and practices to avoid is half the challenge. Encouraging your child to eat healthily is another.

For one thing kids like sweet and salty food for obvious reasons – if humans didn’t like the taste of sugar and salt then food manufacturers wouldn’t add so much of it to processed food!

If you have found that meal times with your toddler have become rather a battle of wills these days, you may be reassured to know that this is a normal phase. Many toddlers are fussy eaters and will reject foods, even ones that they happily ate not long ago.

Also keep in mind that different toddlers have differing appetites, depending on their size and levels of activity. If your child doesn’t want to eat, she may simply not be hungry. As long as her growth and development are within a healthy range, there are no other indicators she may be ill, and you are providing her with healthy eating opportunities, you should not be too concerned if she turns down food.

That being said, there are ways to encourage healthy eating and positive behaviour at mealtimes. Here’s some tips.

Eat together as a family as often as possible. Mealtimes can be an enjoyable way to spend time together.

Set an example. If you eat healthily you’re giving out the message that healthy eating is a good thing to do.

Keep portions to a reasonable size. Your child only has a small tummy and being faced with too much food in one go may put her off. Toddlers need smaller, more frequent meals.

Keep regular meal times. As far as you can, have meals and snacks at regular times of the day. This provides a stable routine for your child and enables her to be ready for mealtimes.

Time snacks carefully.  It’s not a great idea to give your child a snack too soon before a meal. By the time dinner’s ready she may not be hungry.  Make sure snacks and meals are timed to be a couple of hours apart.

Offer variety. Your child may be more interested in food if you offer it in varied ways. For example, offer finger food, or food that she can help herself to rather than you plating it all up for her. This helps foster your child’s independence and gives her the power to make her own healthy food choices.

Don’t push it. Try not to get angry or upset with your child if she doesn’t eat up. Resist the temptation to resort to bribery. Give her a reasonable amount of time to eat her meal – remembering that children eat slower than adults. If she hasn’t eaten her meal after a certain amount of time, she may not be hungry.

But don’t give up either. Children often have an aversion to new foods. If she turns up her nose at a particular food, try it again another time. You may need to do this quite a few times before your child gets used to the idea of that particular food.

If all else fails be a little bit sneaky. If you’re desperate to get her to eat some vegetables, keep a bunch of healthy recipes up your sleeve that you know she likes and which can be easily adapted to use vegetables in sneaky ways. For example, you can add vegetables such as finely chopped spinach, grated carrot or grated zucchini to spaghetti bolognaise, macaroni cheese or an omelette without your toddler even having to notice they’re there.

It’s better in the long run, however, for your child to accept a range of different foods and to want to eat fruit and vegetables simply because she thinks they taste good.