Children continue to grow cognitively, emotionally and physically during the toddler years.  All the while they are gaining new skills, further investigating their surroundings and expanding their food repertoire.

Learning new feeding skills and enjoying new foods, tastes and textures are important components of the toddler years.  Parents or caregivers play an immense role, at this stage, in the healthy choices children make later on in life.  They need to provide children with nutritious foods.  Children have an amazing innate ability to self-regulate food.  It is therefore important to allow the child the opportunity to judge when they have had enough.

As nutrition is such a fundamental part of development, a naturopath or nutritionist is able to offer further advice.

What Foods do I Need to be Giving my Toddler?

Toddlers should be enjoying a wide range of healthy foods:

• Wholegrain foods;
  
  
• Fruit and vegetables;
  
  
• Fish;
  
  
• Meat;
  
  
• Nuts and seeds (if there is no allergy);
  
  
• Dairy (if there is not intolerance);
  
  
• Good fats, these include olive oil, avocado, fish, coconut oil;
  
  
• Water should be the main form of fluid intake.  If juice is given, it should be diluted in water as juice is high in sugars. Up to 3 cups of full fat cow’s milk can also be given;
  
  
• Eggs.

How do I Incorporate These Healthy Foods into Meals and Snacks?

Family mealtimes are important.  It is a time when the whole family can get together, ‘regroup’ and talk about the day’s events. Children also watch what the adult is eating. This can be a great time to set an example on making the right food choices by eating well yourself. 

Toddlers need enough fuel to meet their high energy requirements.  However, instead of feeding the toddler 3 big meals, it is important to give them 3 smaller main meals and 2-3 snacks per day as their tummies are quite small and really cannot manage bigger meals.  These meals and snacks need to be filled with delicious and nutritious foods.

Breakfast Ideas:

• Cooked rolled oats with berries;
  
  
• Scrambled egg;
  
  
• Scrambled tofu;
  
  
• Smoothie made with fruit, yoghurt, ground nuts and seeds (unless there is an allergy to these).

Lunch Ideas:

• Avocado on wholemeal bread (spelt, kamut bread is a very nutritious alternative) and then piece of fruit;
  
  
• Omelet with lots of veggies, sprinkled with cheese;
  
  
• Peanut butter (unless there is an allergy) on wholemeal bread (spelt or kamut bread are both very nutritious alternatives) and then piece of fruit;
  
  
• Tuna with pasta and tomatoes (pasta should be wholemeal).

 Dinner Ideas:

• Omelet with lots of veggies, sprinkled with cheese;
  
  
• Tuna with pasta and tomatoes (pasta should be wholemeal);
  
  
• Fish poached in milk served with veggies;
  
  
• Meatballs.

Toddlers prefer exploring and discovering new environments.  It is therefore a good idea to give snacks as finger foods that can be eaten whilst on the run.

• Fruits cut into bite sized pieces;
  
  
• Diced vegetables such as steamed pumpkin, potato, carrots and peas;
  
  
• Sticks of salad vegetables.  These can be made up of cucumber and capsicum.  This can be served with hummus dip for extra protein;
  
  
• Cubed cheese.

Lastly, it is important to bear in mind that many of the ‘healthy’ snacks found in the grocery store are filled with sugars, Trans fats and are highly processed. This is also true for biscuits, chips, lollies and flavoured milks. It is also essential to understand that using fillings such as honey or jam have limited nutritional value and should be used only as a treat and then topped up with a more nutritious addition.