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Receive our newsletterRegistered dietitian and nutritionist Fiona Hinton answers your questions on child nutrition.
Eating a balanced diet for a toddler simply means eating from each food group; including fruits and vegetables; breads, other cereals and potatoes; milk and dairy foods; and meat, fish and alternatives. This ensures that their diet contains all the required nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and protein, their bodies need. This is especially important for young children as they rely on these nutrients to grow and develop properly. Keeping the diet balanced also means generally choosing foods that are lower in sugar and salt, so eating boiled or baked potatoes rather than chips, for example, and choosing breakfast cereals that do not contain a lot of added sugar. It’s important to note that toddlers cannot cope with a lot of high-fibre grain foods such as wholegrain bread and brown rice. Because these foods are bulkier, they can make young children too full to allow room for other foods their bodies need.
While some 2-year-olds will eat larger portions than others, here is a guide to how often you should offer each food group:
Because toddlers have little stomachs, they often cannot eat enough at mealtimes to take in all the calories and nutrients they need. However, offering a healthy snack from the food groups listed offers an opportunity to top up energy and nutrient levels.
Note that children under the age of five should not be offered whole nuts, and that these foods may not be suitable in cases where allergy is a concern.
Salads are not seen as a traditionally child-friendly food, and it’s true that many youngsters would turn their nose up at lettuce with a balsamic dressing. However, with crunch, colour and variety, salad can be an ideal food for children, and a great finger food. Children who are reluctant to eat cooked vegetables are also more likely to be tempted by crisp raw chopped vegetables. The key is to choose a number of different colours and shapes, from red pepper squares to long green cucumber strips to circular orange carrot wheels. This also provides an educational opportunity for toddlers to discuss colours and learn names of shapes, as well as listening to the satisfying crunchy sound they make.
For children who still aren’t keen, here are a few more ideas:* Let children choose a new vegetable themselves at the supermarket – they are more likely to eat it if they have taken part in the choosing of it * Grow a vegetable if you can – even a small pot with an easy-to-grow dwarf bean plant will spark a child’s interest in their food* Lettuce can make a great boat, maybe with a cargo of other salad vegetables or tuna mixed with corn and a little mayonnaise – older children could even have a paper sail secured with a toothpick * Use a dip, such as hummus, to make carrot sticks or slices of peppers more exciting
* Fill celery or top cucumber with tempting cream cheese or peanut butter.* Suggest they make a shape or a picture on their plate, such as a car formed out of carrot sticks with cucumber wheels
It’s important to plan meals extra carefully when kids are vegetarian, to ensure they get all the protein, vitamins and minerals they need to grow and develop. Any vegetarian diet risks a low iron intake, and stricter eating plans such as vegan diets can lead to lower intakes of other nutrients if they’re not well-thought-out. Of course many vegetarians got protein through eggs and dairy foods, however it’s also important to regularly include plant-based protein foods, including beans, tofu, lentils, chickpeas and (if allergies are not an issue) nut-based foods. This can be as simple as a:* Peanut butter sandwich* Crackers, hummus (which is made from chickpeas) and salad* Bean salad* Sprinkling chopped cashew nut on a vegetable fried rice* Lentil or bean soup with a bread roll.
Or it can be more sophisticated, with options such as: * Nut loaf* Spaghetti bolognaise using Quorn in place of meat* Marinated tofu stir-fry with rice.
There are also many ready-made vegetarian protein foods on supermarket shelves, such as veggie-sausages and veggie-burgers. These can be very convenient, but do check the label as some are high in salt.
Iron rich foods are also important – vegetarian sources of iron include breakfast cereals with added iron, wholegrain foods, beans, lentils and tofu. Eating these foods with another that is high in vitamin C, such as oranges, orange juice, tomatoes or melon, helps the body to absorb the iron more effectively. For example, they could have baked beans (look for lower-salt and sugar types) on toast followed by an orange, or lentil soup with a salad containing tomatoes.
I’d recommend that you discuss your child’s diet with their GP or a dietician if you are concerned that it may not be meeting their needs. In some cases a vitamin and mineral supplement may be recommended. For convenience you may also like to visit Greatvine.com and speak live and direct to a dietician or nutritionist today from the comfort and ease of your own home.
To make sure your children are getting the nutrition they need, start by basing lunch around the food groups, and then choose options your children enjoy. For example, if they are not keen on bread and sandwiches, try other foods from the breads, other cereals and potatoes group, such as wedges of baked potato, pasta salad or a crisp-breads. However there’s nothing wrong with a simple sandwich if your child is happy with it – you can add a huge amount of variety with different fillings, from tuna and cream cheese to hummus and salad to pesto, chicken and tomato. Leftovers also make great lunch options, and pasta, rice or couscous can be spruced up by adding chopped vegetables, grated cheese and chopped meat such as leftover chicken. An insulated lunch-box or cold pack is a good idea to keep lunches cool and appealing.
Don’t forget fruit and vegetables – a study in 2007 showed that children eating packed lunches at school rarely ate vegetables at this meal, so add a bag of crunchy carrot sticks (either ready chopped from the supermarket, or chop your own to save a few pennies), sliced peppers or cucumber with a small container of hummus dip, or pack some salad into their sandwich. Fruit can be as easy as an apple or pear, but you can add variety with containers of grapes or tinned fruit, or even chopped fruit salad. A dipping pot of plain yogurt sweetened with a little honey makes it into a special treat.
Whether due to celiac disease or another food intolerance, a medical recommendation to follow a gluten free diet can be stressful for all the family. Because the grains that contain gluten include wheat, rye and barley, the main group of foods affected are the breads and cereal foods such as pasta, couscous and crackers. Do be aware that many other processed foods, from sausages to soy sauce to soups, also frequently contain gluten – it’s imperative to check labels. Some people also react to oats, and they frequently contain gluten that’s come from other sources.
Rather than focussing on foods that can’t be eaten, look at building meals around the many that can, including rice, potatoes, quinoa and polenta. In addition, there are many gluten-free alternatives to foods such as breads, bread rolls and pastas available at supermarkets and health shops (and on prescription for those with a medical diagnosis of celiac disease). Thus, you can usually make your usual recipes just substituting other options for ingredients that contain gluten. For example, you could serve: * Gluten-free sausages with quinoa and roasted vegetables* Roast chicken, roast potatoes and vegetables – use pure cornflour or another Gluten-free flour to thicken gravy* Gluten-free pasta with bolognaise sauce* Lentil soup with a gluten-free bread roll* Baked potato with tuna mayonnaise and salad – check that the mayonnaise is Gluten-freeFor more information, try the excellent CoeliacUK website at www.coeliac.org.uk.
The first step is to check what meals your children would like – you may get ‘takeaway food’ answers like burgers and pizza, but these can easily and healthily be made at home. In fact, pizza is an ideal food for children to get involved in cooking – even young children can help build their own meal given burger and bun or pizza base with a variety of toppings (including vegetables, such as sliced tomato, strips of peppers, or mushrooms). If children have chosen, and especially if they help make, their meals, they’re much more likely to want to eat them. Other simple and appealing options include:* Pasta sauces with hidden vegetables blitzed into them – make enough for several meals and store it in the freezer* Chinese fried rice packed with lots of colourful vegetables and seasoned with reduced-salt soya sauce* DIY wraps with lots of toppings put out on the dinner table, or make them up Yourself on sunny days and take them out to the garden for an impromptu picnic.
Combine several colours of vegetable with a starchy food from the bread, other cereals and potato food group and a protein-rich food from the meat, fish, eggs and alternatives food group to make a balanced meal. So you could try a baked potato with baked beans (look for reduced salt and sugar types) with cherry tomatoes and cucumber wheels on the side, chicken nuggets with chunky homemade potato wedges, frozen peas and frozen corn, or a high quality sausage smile with curly pasta hair, carrot nose and courgette eyes. Often raw vegetables are more popular than cooked, so bowls of chopped peppers, cucumber wheels, carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes can simply be placed on the table as finger foods. If you have a few extra minutes to make food into a face on the plate for younger children, the vegetables will disappear twice as fast.
To speak with Fiona for individual expert advice on child nutrition call her on 09056201246 or view her profile.
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