Toddler Appetites Washington DC

by Ann Douglas

Whether it's a toddler who brings a whole new dimension to leisurely dining, a preschooler who redefines pickiness, or the day-to-day challenge of getting dinner on the table, Ann Douglas offers these solutions to your family's toughest mealtime challenges.

Problem: Your preschooler wants to eat ice cream for breakfast.

Solutions:

• Have some clear rules about what foods are breakfast foods and what foods can be eaten at other times of the day-and then stick to the rules.
• Encourage your child to suggest healthy breakfast foods that he'd like you to purchase at the grocery store-e.g., his favorite brand of unsweetened cereal.
• Look for foods that have strong kid-appeal and yet that still deliver the goods nutritionally: e.g., fresh berries on cereal or whole grain waffles.

Problem: Your child keeps changing his mind about what he wants to eat.

Solutions:

• Try to determine what's making your child act this way. Some kids change their mind about foods because they like to be the ones in total control when it comes to food, even if that means playing head games with their parents. Others are simply rather fickle. By the time dinner shows up on the table, they don't want it anymore.
• Let your child know that the time to change his mind about what he wants to eat is before you start making it. Otherwise, too much food gets wasted.

Problem: Your toddler just picks at her lunch. She hardly eats anything!

Solutions:

• A toddler's appetite isn't nearly as voracious as that of a baby. This is because toddlers grow at a much slower rate than babies.
• Toddlers only need toddler-sized portions: approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of an adult-sized portion of most food groups.
• Most healthy children won't starve themselves. However, there are situations when children can run into trouble, so it's best to have your child checked by a doctor if you're seriously concerned. To make the doctor's job easier, keep a food diary for about a week, taking note of everything that your toddler eats. This will give your toddler's doctor a much more accurate idea of what she is-or isn't-eating than if you were to track her intake for a single day.

Problem:Your family is stuck in a convenience food rut.

Solutions:

• Consider the health and financial costs of relying on convenience foods.
• Load up on cookbooks that feature menus that can be whipped up quickly and easily, and that are both healthy and kid-friendly. (Ask other parents and your local bookseller for recommendations.)
• Do some food preparation ahead of time or look for items in the grocery store that can save you time on the food preparation front (e.g., salad in a bag, mini-carrots, etc.).
• Make at least one extra meal on the weekends, either by cooking that meal all by itself and popping in the freezer, or by making "doubles" of one of your family's weekend meals (e.g., a double batch of spaghetti sauce or lasagna) so that you can have leftovers during the week.

Problem: Family members' schedules make it tough for you to eat together on a regular basis.

Solutions: