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| Main > Nutrition > Toddler > Feeding Your Toddler |
Toddler Nutrition
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Fifteen to Eighteen Months
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You may now give your baby homogenized whole cow's milk. Do not use 2%, low fat, or skim milk until your child is 2-3 years old. Your baby's diet will begin to resemble that of the rest of the families, with 3 meals and 2 snacks each day. You should limit milk and dairy products to about 16oz each day (in a cup or bottle) and 100% fruit juice to 4-6oz each day (offered in a cup only) and offer a variety of foods to encourage good eating habits later. Your child should want to feed himself with his fingers and a spoon or fork and should be able to drink out of a cup. He should have given up the bottle by now. Remember that your baby's appetite may decrease and become pickier over the next few years as his growth rate slows. Your baby should also have given up middle of the night feedings by this age.
To avoid having to supplement with fluoride, use fluorinated tap water. If you are using bottled or filtered water only, then your child may need fluoride supplements (check with the manufacturer for your water's fluoride levels).
Feeding practices to avoid are giving large amounts of sweet desserts, soft drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, sugarcoated cereals, chips or candy, as they have little nutritional value. Also avoid giving foods that your child can choke on, such as raw carrots, peanuts, whole grapes, tough meats, popcorn, chewing gum or hard candy.
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Two to Three Years
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| You should now be giving your child homogenized whole cow's milk. You can also begin to use 2%, low fat, or skim milk instead. Your child's diet should resemble that of the rest of the families, with 3 meals and 2 nutritious snacks each day. You should limit milk and dairy products to about 16-24oz each day and 100% fruit juice to about 4-6oz each day and offer a variety of foods to encourage good eating habits later. Your child should feed himself with his fingers and a spoon or fork and should be able to drink out of a cup. He should have given up the bottle by now. If not, you can wean from a bottle by stopping one bottle feeding every four or five days and then gradually reducing the amount in the bottle when you are down to one a day. Remember that your baby's appetite may decrease and become pickier over the next few years as his growth rate slows.
To avoid having to supplement with fluoride, use fluorinated tap water. If you are using bottled or filtered water only, then your baby may need fluoride supplements (check with the manufacturer for fluoride levels).
Feeding practices to avoid are continuing to use a bottle, giving large amounts of sweet desserts, soft drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, sugarcoated cereals, chips or candy, as they have little nutritional value. Also avoid giving foods that your child can choke on, such as raw carrots, peanuts, whole grapes, tough meats, popcorn, chewing gum or hard candy.
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Prevention of Feeding Problems
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The best way to prevent feeding problems is to teach your child to feed himself as early as possible, provide them with healthy choices and allow experimentation. Mealtimes should be enjoyable and pleasant and not a source of struggle. Common mistakes are allowing your child to drink too much milk or juice so that they aren't hungry for solids, forcing your child to eat when they aren't hungry, or forcing them to eat foods that they don't want. Also, avoid giving large amounts of sweet desserts, soft drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, sugarcoated cereals, chips or candy, as they have little nutritional value.
Your child may now start to refuse to eat some foods, become a very picky eater or even go on binges where they will only want to eat a certain food. An important way that children learn to be independent is through establishing independence about feeding. Even though your child may not be eating as well rounded a diet as you would like, as long as your child is growing normally and has a normal energy level, there is probably little to worry about. Remember that this is a period in his development where he is not growing very fast and doesn't need a lot of calories. Also, most children do not eat a balanced diet each and every day, but over the course of a week or so their diet will usually be well balanced. You can consider giving your child a daily vitamin if you think he is not eating well, although he probably doesn't need it.
While you should provide three well-balanced meals each day, it is important to keep in mind that most children will only eat one or two full meals each day. If you child has had a good breakfast and lunch, then it is okay that he doesn't want to eat much at dinner. Although your child will probably be hesitant to try new foods, you should still offer small amounts of them once or twice a week (one tablespoon of green beans, for example). Most children will try a new food after being offered it 10-15 times.
Other ways to prevent feeding problems are to not use food as a bribe or reward for desired behaviors, avoid punishing your child for not eating well, limit mealtime conversation to positive and pleasant topics, avoid discussing or commenting on your child's poor eating habits while at the table, limit eating and drinking to the table or high chair, and limit snacks to two nutritious snacks each day. You should also not prepare more than one meal for your child. If he doesn't want to eat what was prepared for the rest of the family, then he should not be forced to, but you should also not give him something else to eat. He will not starve after missing a single meal, and providing alternatives to the prepared meal will just cause more problems later.
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