Contents:
- Medical Video: Restaurant Dining Tips and Must-Haves for Toddlers | #MOMHACKS
- The most common parental concerns
- Other common toddler eating problems
- Let your child decide
- Suggestions for eating time for parents
- Make mealtime a positive experience
- Safety advice
- Drinks for toddlers
- Professional help may be needed
- Important to remember
Medical Video: Restaurant Dining Tips and Must-Haves for Toddlers | #MOMHACKS
Toddlers can eat and enjoy a variety of foods and textures. This period is the right time to encourage your child to enjoy family food and explore a wider variety of foods, including tastes, tastes, and textures. Toddlers and children have the natural ability to feel when they are hungry and when they are full. Children will learn to eat what their families eat if they are offered the same food and are supported to try it.
Low-fat foods or strict diets are not recommended for toddlers because they can result in poor growth.
The most common parental concerns
Children like to choose food is normal. He just found out that this world is a very interesting place to play and food might be his umpteenth focus when there are many other things he must do. Some other reasons why a toddler's diet often changes, such as:
- Slower growth. Child growth will begin to slow down in the second year. This condition makes toddlers often have a smaller appetite and need less food. The amount of food eaten from day to day can change drastically. Although children often cause parents to worry, this change is normal and does not mean your child is sick
- Chewing and snacking. Toddlers rarely follow a normal adult diet. They tend to need small but regular meals. This condition is in accordance with the size of their small stomach and provides energy to keep moving throughout the day. The amount of food eaten at meal times, especially dinner, may be smaller than the portion of parents. However, children can balance the amount of food eaten with how much they need if they are given the opportunity to enjoy good food, and not be forced to overeat or consume all food. This means that healthy snacks are more important to help provide the energy and nutrients your child needs during the day.
- Fussy eating. Showing the emergence of independence is part of the development of a normal toddler and this condition also includes refusing to eat the food you offer. Refusing food doesn't always mean he doesn't like it. If you offer another day, maybe they will eat it.
Other common toddler eating problems
Other common toddler eating behaviors may include:
- Fussy when eating and refusing food
- Delay eating alone
- Prefer porridge or difficulty with chewing
- Eat too much
- Reducing food intake or dependence on drinks
Let your child decide
Your role as a parent of a toddler is to be wise in deciding what foods and when to offer, but the child decides whether they should eat or not and how much they will eat. Remember that children will eat when they are hungry. Children have the natural ability to feel when they are hungry and full. If you insist on giving your child more food than they need, you tend to reduce this natural ability and can encourage excessive eating habits in the future. Let your child decide what they eat and how much food they will eat.
Suggestions for eating time for parents
Some suggestions include:
- Be a positive role model by eating healthy, balanced and varied foods, together with other family members
- Serve the same food as all families eat
- Remember that toddlers need snacks and snacks
- Don't worry too much because your appetite and toddler food intake can vary every day
- Offer small portions at first and you can offer to add portions if they need them
- Let them tell you when they are full and do not force the child to eat all the food
How to offer new food:
- Serve new foods with one of the foods your child likes
- Be patient and continue to offer new food, even if they refuse at first
- Suppose your child will like new food
- Offer new food in a relaxed environment
- Don't use food as a gift or punishment
Make mealtime a positive experience
Meal time must be relaxed and happy. What you can do:
- Let your child explore food by touching food and making "chaos"
- Let the child eat alone and give help if needed
- Enjoy family meals together at the table, so toddlers can pay attention and try any food other family members eat
- Try family food and enjoy together while eating
- Keep eating time to stay relaxed. Reduce interference like TV
- Give encouragement, but don't scold or force the child to eat
- Talk about fun with your child at mealtime, not just about food
- Don't ask your child to eat quickly
Safety advice
To reduce the risk of choking, here are suggestions that you should pay attention to the safety of your child:
- Always supervise children when they eat
- Encourage your child to always eat in a sturdy sitting position, to prevent falls and reduce the risk of choking
- Avoid hard snacks such as beans, raw carrots, hard candy and popcorn. Offer steamed light vegetables instead
Drinks for toddlers
Offer all drinks for toddlers in a baby cup (sippy cup). Sometimes children like drinks, especially sweet drinks such as juices, which make it easy to satiate, leaving little room for heavy food. Suggestions include:
- Offer only three cups of milk every day, and give water another time to avoid thirst. Fatty milk must be given until the age of two years and then reduce drinking fatty milk
- Juice and sweet drinks are not needed
Professional help may be needed
Many parents worry about their child's eating patterns at certain times, especially in young children when food intake and appetite changes every day. You should seek professional help if:
- You have concerns about your child's growth
- Your child is not healthy, is easily tired and has no appetite
- Meal time causes children, and also you, stress and excessive anxiety
Important to remember
- Your role as a parent is to decide what food and when to offer, but the child will decide whether they should eat or not and how much they will eat
- Toddler taste and their food intake can vary every day
- New foods can be rejected at first, so be patient and continue to offer them.
