Do you want your toddler to develop healthy eating habits? Then you must offer him healthy food. No junk food or sweets! Most important is the relationship of your little one with the food. You must let him know that you are in charge of how much your baby actually eats.

The basic rule of thumb of feeding your toddler:

·        Choose how much food the toddler eats

·         Toddler chooses how much he wants to eat and how?

Every baby is born with inner signal which tells how much they want to eat. We mustn’t override our child’s innate knowledge to avoid them being set up to regulate their own eating. Toddler doesn’t need to eat much, they might eat little but they will never starve themselves. If you become obsessed with how much they eat or fight with them about food or having power struggles. You can never win a fight with someone about their own body.

Your goal must be to give sense of control to your toddler over food which will eventually reduce all the eating disorders and power struggles. Also, you will know that she wants to eat healthy.

Your strategy must be to introduce healthy foods instead of sweets. Let them eat themselves. Don’t push them into eating more by bribing them with rewards. Don’t follow them around and shoving food into their mouths.

Toddlers have small stomachs which need small portion meals throughout the day. This means snacks but only healthy ones. This could include healthy crackers with cheese or peanut butter, sliced fruits, boiled eggs or yogurt.

Toddlers usually keep themselves busy during day time and end up asking for food at bedtime. In that case, you must always build a snack for bedtime which can also help them sleep better and settle down at sleeping hour. Combine the bedtime story time with snack munching – they will enjoy it certainly.

If your toddler is a picky eater then bear in mind that this phase is evolutionary. Toddlers function in such a way that they only eat those foods which are familiar to them. In that case, offer a variety of healthy foods in small portions instead of serving or preparing food in large amount. Try and talk about healthy food choices with your little one and tell them how good they taste. Their taste buds will change as they get older and they will begin to enjoy the variety of tastes. Eventually, toddlers start eating those foods which they see their parents eating and enjoying.

 Related: Super Foods For Kids & Toddlers