By now your toddler will be having lots of variety in their food. If they are wanting to try now foods, let them go for it! There is still so much adventure around for them to experience. Just keep in mind any history of food allergies in the family...you may want to keep that type of food for when your child can fully express any sensations they may have as a reaction to eating it. And remember, just because you don't like a food, doesn't mean they have to not like it either. Experts recommend that children avoid eating nuts until 3 - 5 years, so they can chew them properly as they are easy for them to choke on. Try to avoid fatty meat, salami, etc, as much as possible, especially in the early years of development. Perhaps let your child choose a new type of food to try once a week to help expand their culinary world! To avoid the lolly section, go directly to the fruit & vegetable shop or butcher. As a toddler, your child may start to refuse to eat some foods, become a very picky eater or even go on binges where they will only want to eat a certain food. An important way that children learn to be independent is through establishing independence about feeding. Even though your child may not be eating as well rounded a diet as you would like, as long as your child is growing normally and has a normal energy level, there is probably little to worry about. Remember that early childhood is a period in his development where he is not growing very fast and doesn't need a lot of calories.

Other ways to prevent feeding problems are to not use food as a bribe or reward for desired behaviors, avoid punishing your child for not eating well, limit mealtime conversation to positive and pleasant topics, avoid discussing or commenting on your child's poor eating habits while at the table, limit eating and drinking to the table or high chair, and limit snacks to two nutritious snacks each day.

You should also not prepare more than one meal for your child. If he doesn't want to eat what was prepared for the rest of the family, then he should not be forced to, but you should also not give him something else to eat. He will not starve after missing a single meal, and providing alternatives to the prepared meal will just cause more problems later.

You can dress a simple dinner up by putting peas or sliced carrots as eyes on a blob of mashed potato or pumpkin, then make a mouth & hair with other vegetables. Use your imagination to make all kinds of animals & people, your child will be delighted with their specially made dinner. Healthy homemade burgers are great fun to turn into faces & animals! Set the ingredients up as a smorgasbord because your child will love to make their own creation & maybe even yours! And who says mashed potato has to be white? Just make sure you use vegetable food colouring ...perhaps leaving out the red! We want them to sleep later! A handy tip is to experiment with small amounts first, to know just what colour you want.

If you are after some tried & true recipes for your little one, be sure to check out our recipe book.