The Little Ones - six tips on feeding your toddlers

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Toddlers are famous for their mealtime antics and getting them to be cooperative is quite a task. The frustration a parent or guardian feels when their once angelic baby has decided that their favorite meal is now the worst thing to ever exist is totally understandable. 

However, as frustrated as we sometimes are, at this time of their lives, it is very important that children develop healthy food habits. These habits will be learned from modeling your own habits. 

Below are some suggestions on how to achieve this with as little fuss as possible.

1. Small meals more often: Your toddlers' stomach is very small and so it takes a lot less food for them to be full. They are also usually very busy exploring and getting acquainted with the world they will soon conquer. This means they will need more food per body weight than an adult. All this energy is needed because they are also growing, and this takes a lot of energy by itself. Instead of trying to get them to eat a bigger meal, it is easier to plan smaller meals more often throughout the day. You are more likely to successfully get your toddler to eat the recommended daily allowances this way. It also lessens the anxiety you may feel when you hear " I'm not hungry". 

2. Practice what you preach: Toddlers are experiencing this world for the very first time and therefore their main point of reference is you, they are keen observers who study your every move to try to make sense of the world for themselves. Share experiences like meal preparation with them so that they are invested in the preparations and more willing to take part when it's time to eat. You can carry on a conversation with them about what you are doing, even if they are non-verbal, use the correct terms and explain what you are doing and what you are using while you cook, or give them tasks to complete like taking something out of the refrigerator.  

3. Experiment with favored and not so favored foods: With toddlers, you will have to be very flexible as their preferences change every day, listen to them, and accommodate them within reason because the aim is to keep these experiences as positive as possible. Therefore if your toddler decides today they no longer like apples with a bite taken out of it, even though they were the biter, use the remaining apples to make applesauce and try that instead, or may juice it and try that. The point is, it is unproductive to be daunted by the first refusal, creativity and patience are vital for this process and needed in infinite supply. 

4. Don't feed your toddler anything that you would never eat: Toddlers are very observant and are constantly studying those around them, so if you have an aversion to certain foods, they will know and adopt this aversion. Try as much as possible to not give them any foods you know you dislike. Additionally, toddlers have very sensitive taste buds, so if you don't like the taste of something, your toddler will not like the taste of it either. So with that said, I encourage you to taste everything you give to your toddler to eat, including commercial purees, snacks, juices, and sauces. 

5. Never use food as a reward or a punishment: Although this is applicable to children at every stage of development, this is an important tip for toddlers. We all want our children to have a healthy relationship with food. If you use food as rewards or punishment, this moves food from something vital to our survival and well being and sends the wrong signals to your child. Food should never be given this sort of power, and it usually results in disordered eating ie. binge eating, bulimia, anorexia, fad dieting, etc.

6. Educate yourself: There are so many sources of information available to us now, that you can punch the most random thought into a search engine and it will give you answers in seconds. If you are stumped, just take a breather, type your question, and read a few different search results until you have a wide variety of perspectives. 

As a toddler, I was given porridge every day, and to this day I don't like porridge, now I was a healthy child but the monotony of having porridge every day has made me unwilling to having it at all. If we look back into our own childhood, I'm sure we can all identify other things that govern our food choices to this day. These memories give us strong feelings whether positive or negative. These experiences shape us in many ways and will have a long-lasting effect on your toddlers. Be very thoughtful in your approach to mealtimes with your little ones.