‘What’ to feed your toddler

It’s important to learn to like eating and eat the foods we like.

Nutrition for toddlers

On this page we look at the food that will provide your toddler with the nutrition they need to grow and develop. But first things first. You need to make sure you are considering the challenges your toddler has to overcome before they can safely and happily accept new foods and eat a varied diet. 

In PICNIC we have purposefully kept the information on the vitamins and minerals to a minimum.

We keep it simple and talk about foods, variety between the food groups and then increasing variety within food groups. If children are provided a regular supply of food from the 5 food groups in an acceptable form, they will get the nutrition they need.

Your toddler is learning to eat what you eat

The recommendations for toddlers and children food intake are fairly similar to adult recommendations, just in smaller amounts. Your family can all choose to eat from the same selection of food. Over time your toddler’s eating will look more and more like your eating. 

There are some things you need to consider as they are still working on their eating skills. Your toddler will look to you for guidance in everything they do. Being a role model is important.

Remember your feeding roles when feeding your toddler. You are responsible for the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ food is provided, and your toddler is responsible for whether they will eat and how much.

Australian Dietary Guidelines for 12- 36 months

The Eat for Health website provides more detail about the five food groups including the recommended servings for each age.

This section guides you on the foods to provide toddlers over a day, not what they ‘SHOULD EAT’.

After serving, leave them to learn, explore and become familiar with foods without any pressure.

 

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There are lots of meal planning and snack ideas online, including the page First Steps Nutrition UK. But remember there are no magic meals or recipes that your child or toddler will automatically eat. It will be just offering and letting them learn new foods on their terms.

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What the guidelines can look like served over a day 

You can provide these foods, but it is up to your child to meet the guidelines.

Mid Meals 

Mid meals are an important part of a child’s eating and should be treated in the same way as main meals. They might be hungrier at a mid-meal than the main meal, you never can tell. A mid-meal could be a combination of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, beans, eggs, breads/cereals and nut butters. 

Make sure we all stop for the mid meal, it doesn’t have to be at a table, as long as it becomes eating time, without other distractions. Don’t allow your toddler to eat on the run or eat while doing other activities. If your toddler is hungry at a non-meal or snack time, offer water and let them know their next meal/snack is not far off. 

Progressing food texture safely

From the age of 12 months your toddler is still learning to manage different textures safely and therefore they are likely to gag on textures they are still learning to manage and are still at risk of choking. The progressing food texture safely page located within the 6-12 section, provides guidance on how to make foods safer for your toddler and foods to avoid.

Your toddlers drinks

Between meals, provide water, full fat milk or breastfeed. Your child should be drinking fluids (water, full fat milk) from a cup. There is no need for any ‘follow on’ toddler formula. The nutrients in these formulas can be provided by solid food, even if it seems they aren’t eating much. 

Full fat cow’s milk can be introduced as a drink from 12 months.

Soy, goat, sheep, rice, coconut and almond milk are not good alternatives to full fat dairy or breast milk. 

Avoid giving soft drinks, flavoured water (cordial), juice, energy drinks or sports drinks as these are high in sugar and don’t provide much nutrition to your growing toddler. These drinks can lead to fussy or problem eating and dental issues.

Commercial baby foods

Commercial baby foods can be helpful when we are really busy or in a rush. If we use them all the time our baby won’t get used to the tastes and smells of family foods, which is an important part of learning to eat.

If you do use them, make sure they are taken out of a squeezy pouch and use a spoon. Sucking from pouches can cause tooth decay and affect speech, tongue and swallow development. 

Commercial baby foods don’t have the tastes and flavours of family foods. Using them all the time can lead to limited variety and increased fussiness.

Tips for providing foods for toddler

At each meal provide enough filling foods so your toddler can leave the meal satisfied. You will never know if they will be hungrier at morning tea, lunchtime or afternoon tea. You just can’t plan it. They will always surprise you.

Provide a couple foods that your toddler has eaten before at each meal. If they recognise a food, it can make them braver with new foods they haven’t learned to like yet. A mixture of accepted foods and new foods will help your toddler increase variety in their diet. 

You can’t influence their eating once served but you can try new ways to provide foods.

You can change the time-of-day you serve foods. If they eat better at certain time of the day, you might use this time to provide food your toddler finds more challenging and are taking a bit longer to accept and like.

You can change how rejected foods are served to see it helps them to taste and eventually like the food. This might be serving foods raw or cooked, sliced, diced, peeled, cubed, grated or even fancy shapes if you have the time! You can change which foods are served together or spread foods out on the plate, so they are easier to recognise. 

Even after lots of ‘trying new ways’ to serve food, acceptance and increase in diet variety might be slow. Be prepared to play the long game and variety will increase if we don’t pressure.

Vegan and vegetarian diets

Vegetarian and especially vegan diets come with a higher risk of our toddler not getting enough iron due to low intakes of animal foods. If you are choosing a vegan diet for baby, keep breastfeeding as long as you can.

It is recommended you see a Dietitian to make sure you are providing enough nutrition for your toddler and advice on iron and B12 supplementation.  This fact sheet from the Royal Children Hospital Melbourne provides more information on vegetarian diets for toddlers. 

 

References