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Eat Play Grow - Toddlers
Toddler Food
Establish a meal routine – start the day with breakfast and remember to have lunch and dinner with healthy snacks in-between. Try to stick to a similar time each day so your toddler begins to understand the meal routine. Turn off the TV and eat in a settled environment – your dining table is a good start! The TV is a distraction and your toddler is less likely to know that he is hungry as the brain is trying to process the TV watching. This is helpful to know as this also means that the brain is also unable to acknowledge that he is eating and won’t let him know when he is full, not so good for portion control later in life. Sit down with your toddler to eat as your toddler is more likely to eat when you are – remembering to be a role model and eat healthy foods together. Let your toddler choose what he wants to eat by offering different choices. This way your toddler will feel in control. Only offer two choices for example have a choice of broccoli or carrots on the table and if your toddler chooses to eat at least one of the two you know that she is having her vegetables. Offer bite sized and finger foods – remember your toddler’s stomach is about the size of his clenched fist and toddlers need a little food often to keep their energy levels up. This means he will get full on less food than you may need. If he finishes what is on his plate and asks for more this is better than him thinking he has to eat everything! Better still – allow your toddler to serve own meal. With guidance your can allow your toddler to serve her own meal, this way she will be in control with what she is eating and learn better portion control which is helpful later in life! Try to give milk (and water) drinks in between meals or after food. Milk is very filling so if your toddler is drinking milk before he eats then there is no room left for food, you may think he is being fussy when actually he is just controlling his appetite and letting you know that he has had enough for now. Try not to use sugary food as a reward – especially desert! Remember this? “If you eat all your vegetables then you will get desert” – this puts a negative connotation on the vegetables as the child knows that the desert being sweeter will taste better. Your child is thinking “If I eat all my vegetables I will be too full for desert and I know that Dad will want me to eat something so I will end up getting desert anyway, best I just keep winding him up.” Involve your toddler in food preparation. Your toddler will feel proud helping in the kitchen so is more likely to want to eat his creation. A toddler can help stir, sprinkle herbs or grated cheese and measure items out (obviously with your guidance). A great place to learn about colours and counting too! If they refuse food try serving it in a different way. Children are neo-phobic (scared of new things) and may take up to 10 times before they like a food. So keep trying! Is your toddler even hungry? Think about how much activity your toddler has done and what foods they have eaten over the day. There is a chance your toddler may not even be hungry but you think that they are being fussy. Allow your toddler to ask when he is hungry rather then feeling forced to eat. Forcing a child to eat shows a negative impact on food and may result in an overweight child later in life. Try not to worry. Your toddler has a natural ability to regulate his appetite, if he doesn’t want to eat and you have provided healthy choices you are doing the best you can and he will come round to eating when he is hungry. Picnic – If it is nice weather take your meal outside and eat sitting on a picnic rug (if it is not so nice weather then put the rug down in your lounge). Prepare some finger foods together - a cut up marmite and cheese sandwich with carrot sticks and apple slices. Put natural unsweetened yoghurt into a small container and use as a dip with the carrot and apple. Funny shaped toast – take a piece of toast and use a cookie cutter to make fun shapes out of it. Ask your child what shape they would like to eat today. Faces of grated foods – take a plate and make a face on it out of different grated foods. Grated apple or pear for the eyes, grated carrot for the smile and grated cheese for the nose. You could add sultanas or raisins to the apple/pear to make the pupils. Grate something else to make hair! You can grate potato, pumpkin or kumara just pop it a little boiling water or in a steamer to cook. This one is fun to eat with fingers. Make date scones together – sift 3 cups flour, 6 tsp of baking powder and ½ tsp of cinnamon in a bowl. Cut 75 grams of butter into fine breadcrumb like pieces and add to mixture. Add ¾ cup of chopped dates. Add 1 – 1.5 cups of milk and mix quickly with a knife to soft dough. Knead with hands a few times (little fingers can help). Lightly dust oven tray with flour. Make into ‘puff like balls’ leaving about a 2cm gap in-between each on tray. Cook for 12 – 15 minutes or until golden brown at 220 degrees Celsius on middle tray in oven. Top with jam and a dash of whipped cream for a real tea party. Make a birthday melon – instead of a birthday cake take half a rock melon, water melon or pineapple and put candles in it to blow out. Happy Birthday! Just remember how many birthday parties children will be attending (if they go to daycare it will be more) and how many pieces of birthday cake they may get, over the year it adds up to a lot of treats in cake! Storytime – Does your child have a favourite story book with a meal or party involving food? You could act out the story together using your meal/snack time as the centre stage. The Very Hungry Caterpillar mentions lost of different foods and you could pretend you are the caterpillar munching through the foods you are serving until you emerge to be a butterfly! What are some good vitamin rich foods my child can eat to help get over illnesses such as a cough or cold? Offer your child lots of colourful fruits and vegetables such as kiwifruit, oranges, berries (try frozen), tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and capsicum to provide antioxidants which help to fight and protect the immune system. Include a serving of lean meat to increase iron levels. Breakfast cereals, wholegrain breads, raw and unsalted nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts) and seeds (pumpkin and sunflower) will provide vitamin E and zinc. Ensure that your child is given plenty to drink offering water and milk first. Soothing drinks of warm water, 1 tsp of honey and a squeeze of lemon will calm sore throats and coughs. Foods rich in Iron as children low in iron are more susceptible to catching an illness as their body is not able to carry oxygen around in the blood as well as those with adequate iron levels. The best source of iron is in the form of haem-iron which comes from red meats so include at least one serving of lean meat a day. The body can still absorb non-haem iron which comes from foods such as legumes, pulses, breakfast cereals and wholegrain breads so include these too. Try to include some vitamin C food with the iron foods as the vitamin C helps to absorb the iron, leave milky drinks or yoghurt for another time as the calcium inhibits the absorption. Zinc – plays an important role in maintaining immune function. It is best to eat foods with Zinc in them than supplement with zinc as if your body becomes high in zinc this can cause stomach upsets, cramping and diarrhea. Try milk, yoghurt, grainy foods, cereals, nuts and lentils. Lean meat and seafood are also rich sources of zinc. Vitamin C – is an antioxidant that plays an important role in the immune system as it holds a specific antibody that stops viruses growing and multiplying. There is no supportive evidence that shows supplementing in high doses will help alleviate symptoms so instead try including lots of colourful fruits and vegetables. Try kiwifruit, strawberries (buy frozen in the winter), oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli and capsicum. Chicken Soup really does have an ability to provide comfort and rest during a time of illness and if you look at a recipe for chicken soup it does contain some of the essential foods needed to aid recovery, high in vegetables to provide antioxidants and in lean meat to provide iron with lots of fluids to provide hydration. Try this recipe (link below) that was found in The Healthy Food Guide; make ahead of time and have in the freezer ready for that meal during a time of illness when you just don’t feel like cooking! What is the right amount of meat to feed a young toddler? It is important your toddler eats at least one - two servings of lean meat (beef, lamb, chicken, pork, fish) or alternative (legumes (lentils, peas, beans) egg, tofu) everyday. This ensures your toddler has adequate iron levels. Iron is essential for brain growth and development, it is needed to fight infection and for normal physical development. Use your toddlers palm as an indicator of how much lean meat or alternative is a serving size. Keep the meat lean by cutting off any visible fat before cooking. Other examples of serving size:
Iron from meat or an alternative absorbs best when consuming with a food high in Vitamin C – try having a brightly coloured vegetable or a piece of fruit whenever you are consuming a meat food or alternative. This is especially important if you are vegetarian and eating only legumes as your meat alternative because the iron in these foods is not so easy to absorb compared to the iron found in meat foods. It is best to leave milky drinks or yoghurt as a snack food rather than at meal times as the Calcium in these foods decreases iron absorption. Example menu to get ultimate iron absorption: Breakfast: ½ cup of Iron-fortified cereal (e.g. Weet-Bix) with ½ glass of milk. Food that helps your toddler sleep Having a snack containing tryptophan may help your toddler to sleep. Tryptophan helps to make the hormones serotonin and melatonin which help us to sleep and then stay asleep. Foods containing tryptophan:
Eating these foods with a high-carbohydrate food helps the tryptophan to work better. A glass of warm milk, peanut butter on wholegrain bread or a slice of cheese on wholegrain toast before bed may be the ticket! But remember not to let your toddler be too full before bed otherwise the body is busy digesting which can slow the “get to sleep” process down.
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