NUTRITION SERIES: How Do I Feed My Toddler?
Hi everyone! Welcome back to my nutrition series. The next 8 weeks I'll continue answering all of your nutrition questions with the most up to date evidence! I was excited when someone submitted this question, because it really hit home.
"How do I feed my future toddler?" a question I ask myself at least once a day.
My first thought is mac and cheese with cut up hot dogs, because that's what most of the toddlers I babysit eat. Since I know that's not the simple answer anyone is looking for, I'm going to do what I said and share the science.
Disclaimer that as much as I want a toddler right now, I don't have one, so I can't speak from experience. One size never fits all in terms of methods and individual needs, I'm just offering up the current research and general recommendations, not to be used as medical advice.
The Food Groups
Toddlers, like everyone else, need to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains (including whole grains), protein, and dairy (or fortified soy alternatives) every day (U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], 2020). The basics of nutrition - a well balanced diet meeting all of the food groups.
It's also good to experiment with different colors, flavors and textures to see what your toddler likes (USDA, 2020)! Offer them different foods from all 5 food groups each day and encourage them to choose from a variety (USDA, 2020). I know it's not that easy. I don't have a kid, but I know as a 24 year old, I don't always want to try new things. I might be stubborn and childish at times, so I can imagine a toddler would (hopefully) be worse.
I've heard it can be incredibly difficult to get your child to eat at all! That sounds stressful. I'll address picky eating and methods in encouraging them later on.
Overall needs
Toddlers already have a decreased interest in food because they aren't growing as fast as before, which comes with a lower appetite (Brown, 2017). On top of that their worlds are expanding - between growth and fine motor skills, exploration of their environment has no limits (Brown, 2017)! It's so normal for them to be distracted at mealtimes, all things considered (Brown, 2017). One thing to keep in mind is that toddlers call for toddler sized portions - 1 tablespoon per year of age is a good serving size, and if they want more, they absolutely can ask for more (Brown, 2017). Sometimes parents provide more than what their child is hungry for at the time, which can cause worry that they are picky but it's actually completely fine (Brown, 2017).
There is one well known method called the "Satter Division of Responsibility in Feeding" (Lohse et al., 2021). It's when parents decide what, when, and where meals/snacks will happen, and support the child's autonomy when it comes to what of, how much, and whether or not they eat what you provided for them (Lohse et al., 2021). It's considered an appropriate feeding relationship for children this age (Lohse et al., 2021).
We already know toddlers can't eat significant amounts at food in one sitting, so snacks are essential in meeting their nutrition needs (Brown, 2017).
They need rituals, leaving you, as the parents, responsible for regular (while also flexible) meal and snack times, also allowing them time to get hungry - and it is always important for them to be allowed to control the amount they eat by their hunger cues (Brown, 2017).
Methods to Help Your Kiddo Eat
While it's important to offer a variety of foods and texture, it's also important not to force them to eat or create battles at mealtimes, which should be a time for family members to model healthy eating behaviors (Brown, 2017).
Your toddler might not eat the exact amounts of food that is suggested every day - which can be unsettling, I can only imagine, for a parent. Overall, try and balance the amounts over a few days or a week (USDA, 2020). It will never be perfect, but the big picture can work out even if one day isn't what you envisioned.
Here are some tips:
Serve foods in small portions, and at scheduled meal and snack times (USDA, 2020).
Let them help you prepare the meals! Children at this age can rinse fruits and vegetables, tear lettuce, and stir ingredients together…and they get excited about tasting foods when they were involved in helping create it (USDA, 2020)!
New foods are also more often accepted by toddlers if they're hungry, AND if she sees family members eating them (USDA, 2020).
If you're worried they might be filling up on beverages, one option could be trying water between meal and snack times to see if that makes a difference (USDA, 2020).
Because toddlers can get so distracted, it's good to keep television and other typically distracting things to a minimum during meal times so they can practice the self feeding skills you're hoping for them to develop, and try new foods and textures (Brown, 2017).
Make it fun - cutting the food into fun shapes, make the food look creative on the plate (American Academy of Family Physicians [AAFP], 2019).
Give them choices - instead of just providing one vegetable, ask if they want one versus another one. Even let them pick from the grocery store! (AAFP, 2019).
Picky Eating
Completely normal. It's actually even typical sometimes for behaviors that are considered "picky eating" to be them exploring new foods and navigating learning how to communicate their needs and preferences (USDA, 2020). Not at all to gaslight a parent who is genuinely worried about their child, it's just one thing to consider as a possibility while figuring out the best approach for your own little one.
If they are unwilling to try new foods you are offering, serving a new food along with a familiar food, a food they like, in the same meal is one route (USDA, 2020; Brown, 2017) . If it doesn't work the first time, remember that it can take them up to 10 tries to actually accept a new food into their world (USDA, 2020).
Nutrients of Focus
I wanted to focus in on a couple of important nutrients for this age group: iron and calcium.
It's good to make sure your toddler is getting enough iron, specifically at this age, so they do not develop iron deficiency - good sources are fortified oatmeal, round steak, fish, pork and beans, spinach, hamburger, chicken, etc. Of course, these all can be cut up to chewable sizes (Pai et al., 2018; Brown, 2017).
Calcium is also a nutrient of interest, because intake in childhood while they're building peak bone mass is essential for their futures (Brown, 2017). Dairy products, dark leafy greens, calcium fortified foods and beverages are all good sources (Brown, 2017).
One study based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 2005-2012 found that, overall, non-flavored milks and ready-to-eat cereals were the most important items contributing to micronutrient intakes for toddlers. (Grimes et al., 2015).
People also generally have questions about supplements, and while they do have a very important time and place and, again, this is not one size fits all, it is true that "Children who consume a variety of basic foods can meet all of their nutrient needs without vitamin or mineral supplements" (Brown, 2017, p. 278).
For an individual situation, if your child may be deficient in something where they are having a difficult time getting enough of a vitamin or mineral, I would absolutely still consult a registered dietitian or doctor about what the best route might be for you.
The Truth About Added Sugar
Last but not least, we are going to discuss sugar! I want to start this off by saying I know that sugar is taboo right now in the "raising your toddler" world. Specifically added sugars.
Before I go further with this - I strongly encourage avoiding labeling foods with adjectives like "good" and "bad" (and honestly, even "healthy" and "unhealthy") with children (and with yourself - but that's another blog post that you've already read by me if you read my blogs).
I know from hundreds of stories I've heard, but also from my own childhood - I saw everything my parents did. I noticed and internalized their relationships with food. I heard judgments about food when they talked about them, even when doing so unintentionally.
I see parents tell their kids "this is good, and this is bad. Because it's bad, you can't…" and so on. It's all well intentioned, of course. At the same time, it makes a difference. My relationship with the world around me revolved around what I learned from my caregivers. I have nothing to hide, and I have to disclose that this hurt me as I got older. I developed a very poor relationship with my body and food (amidst reasons way outside of my very loving parents as well).
Food brought me guilt and shame, especially the ones with "added sugars." It impacts everybody, on both small and large levels. We all eat and are exposed to all kinds of foods and they're important for happiness, for social value, for quality of life.
Most importantly - shame doesn't do anything helpful for us. I'm happy to provide research on that upon request, but I'm sure that everyone knows this from experience. We carry these lessons we learn from our parents with us. And I have seen friends develop the most beautiful and healthy relationships with food because of how their parents modeled food to them from the very beginning without judgments, understanding that everything fits into a balanced diet - it's incredible.
The more we encourage variety, the healthier the new generation of kids will be. Of course, they're still exposed to the world which is a constant judging eye, but they have the foundation from the ones who shaped their worlds.
The truth is this: Sugar is sugar, broken down into the building blocks of carbohydrates for energy, so we can exist, move, and think. Added sugars are just more of that.
The main concern is simple - we want kids to have room in their tummies for all types of nutrients they need to grow and develop, rather than merely getting it all from the same sources, since they already eat so little (USDA, 2020; Murray, 2017). This is the reason you see it recommended that added sugars get limited in a toddler's diet, and the rationale that is used (Murray, 2017). I'm not making this up.
The research actually shows that added sugars encourage kids in consuming nutrient-dense foods which are vital to their growth and development (Murray, 2017). The sweetness from both natural and added sugars is, and I quote, "integral" to the toddler feeding experience - they bring pleasure to eating and drinking (Murray, 2017). This allows them to pair it with other flavor components and can be significantly helpful to aid them in beginning to accept foods they are less accustomed to, and it will improve the quality of their diet, and "lay a strong foundation for life-long nutrition" (Murray, 2017).
The messages you get about children who consume so much added sugar that it leaves out room for other nutrients "is not the whole story" (Murray, 2017). There's always more to the story. There's no evil to food. It just needs to share its space. The same way you couldn't appropriately grow and develop from solely consuming fruits and vegetables. But if a child only consumed fruits and vegetables - we would never tell them to fully cut it out, we would encourage them to add more of other food groups in!
There is no perfect way to do anything, ever. We all grow and develop and are shaped by our world's around us into the unique, beautiful beings that make us individual contributors to society, and empathetic in our own ways. You don't need me to womansplain that to you, but just in case no one's told you today, you're a great parent for caring.
I know nothing is as easy as it looks on a blog post…and that nothing is really easy at all! I'm here to answer science questions with science, but when it comes to life, there are no real answers. I think I'm getting too deep for toddler nutrition. Enjoy your kiddos! Here's a throwback (obviously) pic of me enjoying a meal (a glamor shot if we're being honest).
References:
American Academy of Family Physicians. (2019, July 22). When Your Toddler Doesn't Want to Eat. https://familydoctor.org/when-your-toddler-doesnt-want-to-eat/
Brown, J.E. (2017). Nutrition Through the Life Cycle Sixth Edition. Cengage Learning.
Grimes, C.A., Szymlek-Gay, E.A., Campbell, K.J., Nicklas, T.A. (2015, August 14). Food Sources of Total Energy and Nutrients among U.S. Infants and Toddlers: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2012. Nutrients. 7(8), 6797-6836. 10.3390/nu7085310
Lohse, B., Satter, E. (2021, June). Use of an Observational Comparative Strategy Demonstrated Construct Validity of a Measure to Assess Adherence to the Satter Division of Responsibility in Feeding. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 121(6), 1143-1156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.11.008
Murray, R.D. (2017, September 14). Savoring Sweet: Sugars in Infant and Toddler Feeding. Annuals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 70(suppl 3), 38-46. 10.1159/000479246
Pai, U.A., Chandrasekhar, P., Carvalho, R.S., Kumar, S. (2018, December 8). The role of nutrition in immunity in infants and toddlers: An expert panel opinion. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health. 6(4), 155-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2017.11.004.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2020). Toddlers. https://www.myplate.gov/life-stages/toddlers
My glory years.