Toddlers can very easily pick up unhealthy eating habits from their parents. If we’re not careful, this is something that can have a negative impact on them for the rest of their lives. This is why it’s so important for parents to pay close attention to their toddlers’ eating habits and work on improving them while they’re still young. Of course, you also need to be cautious because you don’t want to rule out all high-calorie, high-fat junk food. You want to set your toddler up for success, which means helping them to be happy with their food choices and who they are as an individual.
Creating Balance in Your Child’s Food Choices
One of the most important things you want to work on when developing healthy eating habits in your toddler is balance. You want to make sure that they’re eating healthy foods the majority of the time. Those fattening, sugar-filled, junk foods should only be served for an occasional treat. Don’t completely ban such treats from your home because doing so will only make them even more appealing to your toddler.
Make Sure you Have Family Meals Together
Eating meals together won’t only bring you closer as a family, it’ll also give you an opportunity to model good healthy eating choices for your child. When your child sees you eating things, they think they wouldn’t like, they’ll be more willing to try the foods themselves. This is also the best time to encourage your toddler to drink water simply by serving it with the meals that you eat together. Doing so will discourage them from drinking too much juice, soda, or other sweet, sugary drinks.
Setting Your Home up for Success
Make sure you serve your toddler three meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each meal should be healthy and contain foods from each of the major food groups. Between meals you should have a variety of healthy snack options available for them to choose from. While it’s fine to have the occasional sweet or junk food, you don’t want them to continually choose to snack on these things throughout the day.
These are just a few of the simple ways in which you can boost your toddler’s self-esteem when it comes to food. Offering lots of compliments and encouragement will also go a long way. If you ever are in need of any help or other tips in this regard, you should know that The Children’s Academy of Mansfield, Texas is there for you.
