You wish to serve your toddler with food that offers as much nutrients, like proteins, fiber, calcium, and iron, as possible. However, toddlers don’t eat a lot in a single sitting, as their small stomachs don’t have much capacity and their patience runs out quickly when eating. Therefore, it’s important to have a couple of nutrients in each of his small servings so that the toddler gets all the nutrients essential to his growth. Read to learn what is the best food for toddlers and how to make your child eat it enthusiastically.
Best Foods for Toddlers
1. Cereal
Cereal remains a great diet for toddlers as it contains a great amount of minerals like iron as well as more than ten or so kinds of vitamins.
How to Serve It: It’s best to use cereals that have no more than eight grams of sugar and around three or so grams of fiber. You can also pour some milk, which offers proteins and calcium.
2. Lean Meat
Lean meat offers a lot of healthy nutrients and is rich in heme iron, the most easily absorbed form of iron.
How to Serve It: Lean meat can be served in the form of hamburgers or ground beef or even meatballs. You should choose the leanest meat as it contains the least amount of fat. Grinded round steak or chicken breast usually offers the least saturated fats.
3. Eggs
Eggs are rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, with a single egg containing six or so grams of protein, and around seventy calories. Eggs also have choline, which improves memory.
How to Serve It: You can either serve your toddler scrambled eggs, which can be eaten easily through a fork, or serve eggs mixed with vegetables in a puree form, which would offer extra nutrients to your baby.
4. Beans
Beans offer a lot of nutrients in the smallest of servings. Beans contain iron, protein, and a lot of fiber, all of which are very important nutrients for young children.
How to Serve It: You can serve beans either as solo food items in the form of soup or tacos, or present them in the form of bean dip along with a couple of pita strips.
5. Fruit Smoothie
Rich in minerals and vitamins as well as fiber, fruits are very useful for your toddler.
How to Serve It: A fruit smoothie is best served in the form of a milkshake; you can also freeze it and pass it as an ice cream to your toddler. It would be best if you made the smoothie using yogurt that is low in fat and if you blended fruits like blueberries or raspberries.
6. Avocados
Avocados are rich in monounsaturated fats, which are very important for the heart, and they also contain Vitamin A, Vitamin C, fiber, and folate.
How to Serve It: You can either serve avocados in finger-food form or you can have them all mashed up in the recipe for guacamole.
7. Tomatoes
Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, which is an important substance that keeps the body safe from various types of cancer. So it is important to contain this in food for toddlers.
How to Serve It: You can serve tomatoes in the form of pizza sauce or offer it in the form of tomato ketchup along with foods like meatballs.
8. Yogurt
Yogurt is very good for children as it is rich in proteins, and contains healthy bacteria that strengthen the immune system.
How to Serve It: If the child rejects yogurt alone, you should add a bit of maple syrup or some honey or several drops of agave syrup, all of which sweeten the yoghurt without increasing blood sugar.
9. Salmon
Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are considered great for stable development of the brain and effective prevention of inflammation as well
How to Serve It: Children always like to eat what they like, so all you need to do is to serve salmon along with whatever your child likes best. Sandwiches or salad containing salmon, and salmon fillets along with the child’s favorite orange juice or cakes, should do the trick.
10. Cocoa
Cocoa powder is great for improving the overall health of the heart, and controlling the blood pressure. It is also rich in flavonoids.
How to Serve It: You can top cocoa over the child’s favorite waffles, pancakes or even toast.
11. Basil
Basil is great food for toddler as it contains three vital vitamins: vitamin A, K and C. It is also rich in minerals like iron, calcium, and potassium, which are important for a child’s growth.
How to Serve It: Children usually hate the sight of green items in their food, so the best way to serve Basil is to simply grind it into fine particles and then add them to meatballs, soups or the child’s favorite sauce.
12. Cinnamon
Cinnamon can help children maintain their energy throughout the day as it regulates the sugar in the child’s blood.
How to Serve It: Cinnamon is best served as a topping over oatmeal, yogurt or cereal; you can also add it to muffins if your child likes them.
Foods to Avoid Feeding Toddlers
There are a few foods that are unsafe for toddlers. The examples of such foods are:
- Peanut butter chunks. Spreading peanut butter over bread is fine but peanut butter chunks are a big no-no.
- Candies like jelly beans
- Beans and carrots in their raw form
- Sunflower seeds
- Whole tomatoes and whole grapes . They should be served after being cut into slices.
- Large food chunks even if the chunks contain meat or vegetables or fruits. Everything should be in small bite-size form.
- Popcorn and nuts
- Whole hotdogs. Hotdogs should be first cut into small pieces and then sliced before being given to the toddler.