Nourishing Toddlers

Following on from our last article, today I'm excited to talk to you about Nourishing your Toddlers. Our little people are so important, and what we feed them really can set them up for health and wellness from the beginning.

​Toddlers & young children are growing quite rapidly, and require adequate nutrition in order to develop fully. They require large amounts of fat and protein to build body tissues and a healthy brain. Iron, Vitamins A, D, E and K are all essential for healthy neural development in the growing brain. Zinc is also necessary, and can help in fussy or picky eaters.

Important foods to have in the diet include:

• Egg yolks
• Meat – beef, chicken, pork, lamb
• Butter/ghee/healthy oils such as olive oil and coconut oil.
• Lots of fresh vegetables – 5 serves daily
• 2 serves of fruit daily
• Yogurt
• Wholegrains – brown rice, quinoa, oats, amaranth, millet, spelt

 
With weaned toddlers, avoid giving them processed refined carbohydrate foods, such as white bread, white rice, white pasta, biscuits, cakes and processed snacks. These foods are void of nutrients, and can set the child up for many health and wellness weaknesses if consumed regularly.

Instead, for snacks try:

• Vegetable sticks with yummy dips – kids love to dip food.
• Eggs with rye bread stick soldiers
• Cheese lumps with carrot sticks
• Tubs of yogurt with low sugar content
• Stewed fruit with greek yogurt
• Fresh fruit

 
As a parent, your attitudes towards food are generally transferred to your child. If the child is a fussy eater, it may be because either of the parents are picky eaters, or not experimenting with new flavours and textures in the childs diet. New foods need to be offered on up to 10 different occasions. If they child won’t take the food initially, keep trying until the food is accepted.
 
Ways to improve your childs eating habits:

• Have the children help with preparing meals. Having them involved makes the experience more exciting, and they feel a bit more independent and a part of things.
• Eat meals together as a family.
• Try to make the food tasty (not boring). Do this by adding herbs and spices to meals.
• Reduce treats throughout the day, including in the lunch box. Offer up whole food snacks and meals instead.
• Keep meals to a small portion size, in order to teach the child from an early age how much we need to eat.
• Keep their main source of liquid to WATER. This is very important, as dehydration can be mistaken as hunger, and many other drinks offer a lot of sugar and no real hydration properties. 

Some wonderful cookbooks for nourishing your little ones:

Supercharged food for kids by Lee Holmes

Nourishing Kids ebook 

Nourishing traditions cookbook by Sally Fallon

Wholefood for Kids by Jude Blereau


​If you'd like some further information on this wonderful topic please let me know in the comments :)

Love Ally