The Golden Rules of Feeding Babies and Toddlers

Golden Rules of Feeding Toddlers

1. Avoid choking foods. Your child should not have hot dogs, grapes, peanuts, tree nuts, chunky peanut butter, cherry tomatoes, popcorn, chewing gum, raisins, chunks of meat, and hard raw vegetables until age four.

2. Almost all toddlers go through a picky phase. Look at the big picture when assessing your toddler's diet: One good meal per day and a balanced diet over the course of a week should be the standard.

3. Raising eaters with a broad range of tastes may involve persistence (up to 14 reintroductions of the same food), role modeling (yumming up your fruits and veggies), and creativity (zucchini muffins or pureed carrots and breadsticks for dipping). And yes, family dinner time is important—without the TV on!

(This Toddler Nutrition Guide can offer even more answers!)

Now, see also our article on infant and toddler nutrition, demystified to measure your child's nutrition needs!