Your toddler may already have been around a couple of years, but he has only recently started to explore the many new smells, tastes, and textures that solid meals have to offer. He is also growing a little less than he did in his first year while becoming more independent by the day. For these reasons, you shouldn’t be surprised if one day he refuses to eat anything but macaroni and cheese but the next day he pushes most food – including that old fave, macaroni, and cheese – away from his placemat. Still, you shouldn’t have to be a short order cook to keep him nourished. Try implementing a few mealtime survival skills to help expand his palate and keep your sanity.
Relax
It may seem as though your toddler isn’t getting enough healthy foods to eat, but keep in mind that most kids do get enough nutrition throughout the week, says the Mayo Clinic. Also consider that toddler-sized portions are significantly smaller than adult-sized portions, as your toddler’s tiny stomach is only about the size of her fist. To help keep your toddler relaxed during meals, serve her small portions and let her ask for more if she wants it. Additionally, avoid acting visibly frustrated while trying to force your toddler to eat something she doesn’t. This may cause her to link mealtime with stress, which could lead to unnecessary food-related power struggles.
Structure Meals
Your toddler’s mind and body will settle better into a predictable eating schedule. Having set times for three distinct meals and two nutritious snacks per day will increase the chances that he will feel hungry at mealtimes, according to pediatric health website BabyCenter. Conversely, your toddler is more likely to push food away at the breakfast or dinner table if you allow him to nibble on dry cereal and drink from his juice cup all day. If he is thirsty in between snacks and meals, offer him water.
Don’t Bribe
Bribing your toddler with dessert may seem like the only way to get him to eat, but consider the long-term repercussions of this strategy: If you beg him to eat his vegetables and reward her with sweets, he will come to perceive sweets as the “good” food and nutritious foods as the “bad” food. Elevating the status of sweets will likely make them all the more desirable and make feeding your toddler healthy meals all the more difficult. Giving your toddler dessert every day will also give him the impression that sweets are a required part of every meal rather than a “sometimes” food. Limit your toddler’s dessert intake to one or two nights per week, or at least give her a no-hype nutritious sweet snack such as fruit salad or raisins most days of the week.
Have Fun
Healthy isn’t synonymous with boring, so don’t let your toddler start to believe that. Making his foods more entertaining to eat will increase his chances of eating it without fussing. Finger foods are a big hit with many toddlers, so your toddler may enjoy a nibble tray. To make the tray, fill an ice cube tray or another tray that has compartments with a variety of creatively named small foods. Broccoli trees, tiny cheese blocks, finger olives, cereal O’s, banana wheels, and small apple boats are just a few examples of fun finger foods that may appeal to your budding connoisseur. To make finger foods even more interesting, give your toddler the option of dunking them into a nutritious dip such as yogurt, peanut butter, or hummus. As another creative option, make your toddler’s meals a work of art. For example, give his whole-wheat pancakes a face made out of bananas and blueberries, or add peanut butter and raisins to his celery to make “ants on a log.”
Be Sneaky
What your toddler doesn’t know could help her, so try making her favorite foods with a hidden nutritious twist. For example, puree some broccoli and tofu and toss it into her favorite spaghetti, add some grated zucchini and carrots to her favorite butternut squash soup, and mix some avocado and diced chicken into her macaroni and cheese. If she isn’t getting enough fruit in her diet, add some diced fruit to her yogurt, pancakes, and cereal. The best way to camouflage nutritious foods is to blend them into the ultimate smoothie. Blend together some ice, milk, 100 percent fruit juice, yogurt, fresh or frozen fruit, and a couple of handfuls of spinach until they make a smooth, icy treat. Consider other possible nutrients your toddler is lacking when you prepare her the smoothie. Wheat germ, egg powder, and peanut butter can be blended seamlessly into many smoothies.
Try, Try Again
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your toddler may just say no to food. He may poke at his meal, sniff it, or stick a tiny piece of food into his mouth and spit it out. He may simply reject the food without even trying it. While these are all normal aspects of food exploration in toddlerhood, research also indicates that repeated exposure to the same food in early childhood will increase your child’s chances of liking it later on. According to LiveScience, you may have to offer the same food to your toddler on 10 separate occasions before he will accept it. To ease his transition into enjoying more foods, carefully calculate when and how you will present him with new foods. For example, pair a new food with one of your toddler’s favorite foods, don’t introduce more than one new food in one meal, and only give your toddler a small amount of the new food. Also, encourage your toddler to take on a more adventurous attitude towards food by making it a central part of his life. For example, take him to see how food is grown at a farm, let him help you choose foods at the grocery store, and have him play a small role in preparing dinner with you.
