What Did You Feed Your Toddler Today?

Hi A.,
I have a two year old daughter and it sounds like your daughter is eating plenty. My daughter started doing this about the same age and it was really hard. Sometimes I could just rub her belly or back and she would go back to sleep or sometimes I had to put her in bed with me. It became very rare for her to sleep through the night but it was just a phase and after about 4 months she started sleeping through the night again. It's probably just a comfort thing. The milk doesn't sound harmful to me especially if you brush her teeth afterward. I would suggest just trying different things to soothe her back to sleep. Good luck!
M. H.

Hi A.,

It sounds like you're feeding her just fine. I've read that it's not good to force feed kids. I do notice that Parker eats more if I help feed him though.

Parker eats similarly; however, he won't drink milk so I'm constantly adding whatever I can to bulk up on the protein and calcium. In the morning, he usually starts with dry cheerios or kix to keep him happy while I mix up his mixed grain cereal (1/4 cup of mixed grain and usually a little less than half a cup of liquid). It's like the rice cereal with lots of iron and b vitamins but a little bulkier and he likes the taste better. I usually add soy milk, yogurt or a drink I found in the baby aisle that is a mixture of fruit and yogurt. Sometimes he'll eat a whole banana in the morning, too, depending on how much success I have with the mixed grain cereal (some days he refuses it and others he eats it just fine).

For snack times I usually give him whole grain crackers that I found in the baby aisle (Earth's Best). They are shaped like Elmo and Big Bird. He loves them (I think they taste great too). He also gets apple slices and/or cheese. He'll usually eat about 3/4 of a whole string cheese or the equivalent in another cheese. Once a day, usually during snack time, he'll have a whole thing of yo-baby yogurt (which is the best way I found to get whole milk down him).

Lunch time he usually loves a piece of cut up wheat bread, a piece of turkey (the most natural one I can find at the grocery store), and usually cheese again (again, I give him a lot of dairy because of the milk issue). Sometimes he'll get tuna or canned chicken instead of turkey, but I have less success with those. Once in awhile I'll make him a grilled cheese on wheat (I use olive oil spray instead of butter) or a quesadilla with refried beans. He usually won't touch the beans because of how they look, but as soon as I give him a bite, he goes for more. I tried baked fish sticks once and he loved them, but they don't seem that healthy to me (look like more grease than fish). I also usually give him a jar of green (sometimes yellow) vegetables with lunch and/or dinner, depending on what we're having because he's not good about eating vegetables in other forms. If they're mixed in a casserole or something, he has no problem, but if they're off by themselves he avoids them.

Dinner is same as yours, usually whatever we're having. If we're having salad instead of cooked veggies, I'll make sure to give him some baby food veggies. I usually add spinach to our salad, and he sometimes will eat some of that. I've tried raw carrots grated, but he just spits them out.

Sometimes he'll get some cookies (again, I get the whole grain Earth's Best version) with soy milk or water before bed. I've been doing that recently because of his antibiotic which needs food with it. Before that, I never usually gave him a snack before bedtime and he did just fine.

As far as drinks go, he is getting better at drinking water solo, sometimes fortified OJ for the calcium and vitamins, and sometimes a mixture of water with a little 100% juice of some type. I also found in the baby aisle some juice that was a mixture of fruit and vegetable juice. I still mix it with water, but he loves that too. Lately he's also started accepting a few ounces of Silk soy milk in his cup, as long as I don't try to force it down him. (I know one mom on here mentioned to me that soy milk is bad, but his doctor says it's fine. I've been drinking it for years because I'm lactose intolerant. I wonder if he prefers it to regular milk because I drank it while breastfeeding?).

Good luck with the teething! Parker doesn't seem to be bothered at night, but he does get upset while eating sometimes if he's teething and he bites down on an area that's coming in. And when his top molars started coming in it was tantrums galore during the day! I'm not looking forward to the rest of the molars coming in!

I am going through the same thing with my 13 month old. So I have been doing alot of adding in protein or fiber. Try tofu in your pancake or waffle mix. Do a whole wheat/grain pancake mix, egg, milk, organic applesauce and silken tofu. Yum! Or get whole grain graham crackers and crush them, sprinkle pumpkin spice and shake up. Cut the silken tofu into cubes and add in and shake up. I call them faux cheesecake bites. They actually taste good. For mac n cheese I actually got this from Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook. Take white beans and heat them up. When they soften blend them in the blender. Add that to your homemade or box mac n cheese to bump up the protein. I also buy the meatless patties. Look for the ones with the lowest sodium. My daughter also eats flax seed so I put flax seed meal into her yogurt.
Good luck and let me know if you find anymore recipes so I can try them with Ciara too.
Thanks!

A. - It sounds like you're doing a great job... but I did notice that the sample menu didn't include much protein. I have a 23 mo old son and I noticed when he wasn't eating much protein, he seemed hungrier during the day and didn't sleep too well at night. Some ideas for protein are cottage cheese mixed with yogurt (there's a TON of protein in cottage cheese), beans, turkey, cheese. Make sure she's getting a bit of protein with breakfast - some cottage cheese and yogurt and use fruit as carbohydrates. You could probably eliminate the pancake/waffle and have those as an occational special breakfast. For lunch, I found a neat thing at the market - Jr. Lunchables and they include turkey bits and cheese and crackers. They're a bit pricey so I just cut up deli turkey and cheese and serve it with some Ritz crackers and fruit and my son loves it.

Also - KEEP OFFERING WATER!! I disagree that she doesn't need it or that it's flushing out electrolytes. It's helping to develop her tastes and establish a pattern in her life. Water is the absolute best thing for her if she's thirsty! GREAT JOB for choosing a healthy drink for her.

Dr. Sears has a great book about nutrition for the entire family, called The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood. You could always look at it at your local bookstore (Borders or Barnes and Noble) and get some ideas. It might be worth adding to your parenting library.

Additionally - don't stress about your daughter still taking a bottle. She'll give it up when she's ready. My son was still drinking out of a bottle at night until he was about 17 months old. One night he just decided he was done with it and that was the end of it.

One more thing - try some baby tylenol or baby ibuprophen only before bed for the teething pain. I noticed that teething didn't bother my son a whole lot during the day because he had plenty of distractions, but once he went down to sleep at night, his teeth would ache and throb. We used tylenol or ibuprophen depending on what was in the house and it seemed to give him some relief at night so everyone got some sleep.

A., it sounds like you are doing a great job with your daughter! Here is a sample menu/daily schedule for my 14 mo. old daughter: 7 a.m. (Wake-up): 6-8oz. bottle of milk, 8 a.m.: 1 egg & 1 piece dry whole-wheat toast, 9:15 a.m.: 4-6oz bottle of milk before morning nap (1.5hr. nap), 12 p.m.: turkey or grilled chicken diced small & Yo-Baby yogurt, 1:15 p.m. 4-6oz bottle of milk before afternoon nap (2hr. nap), 4 p.m.: Cheerios, fruit or cheese, 5:45 p.m.: Whatever we're having for dinner, 6:30 6-8oz bottle of milk before bed. During meals & snacks I offer water in a sippy cup and on occasion I will give her diluted 100% fruit juice. I continue to give her bottles of milk in the morning when she wakes up as well as before naps and bedtime as I think milk is still a very important part of her diet and if I only offer it with meals, she won't drink as much. I will probably switch the bottles to sippy cups of milk in the next few months. Around age two I will stop giving the milk before naps & bedtime and give it with meals instead. Hope that helps reassure you. Keep up the great work Mama!!!!

I just want to second Dr. Sears Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood book. It should be required reading for every new parent! You are doing great with giving her water, if she is drinking it up, she is probably thirsty.

Along with what you are already feeding her, add hummus to her diet (great dip with crackers, veggies and pita chips that will provide some protein). Give her deli meat (nitrate/nitrite free - you can find at Trader Joes) roll it up and she can eat it like a little burrito. Cheese sticks.

Trader Joes has yummy whole wheat pasta, the curly multi colored one is delicious and healthy. My kids eat whole wheat pasta (different kinds served regularly) with a little parm cheese on top and a turkey meatball on the side a few times a week (you can find the meatballs in the frozen section at Trader Joes, takes 4 minutes in the microwave to make). My son's favorite food is mac and cheese so I buy Aunt Annies and when I serve it to him, he gets more veggies on his plate than mac and cheese, this way he doesn't fill up on only mac and cheese.

Keep up the great work! You are doing a great thing by staying away from processed foods as much as possible! We are our kids nutritionist!
M.

Check out the book The Breast Cancer Prevention Diet. It's a great guideline for how to feed little girls starting at birth. Also, I don't think she needs water yet. It probably flushes out her electrolytes and makes her thirsty. She gets enough fluid from her formula or milk.

I admit to being horrified by the American diet!!
Your's sounds better, but overly dairy and charbs.
Chickens here are full of hormones. Bread and other foods have chemicals in. The fruit is good. Buy organic at all costs. 5 mini servings a day is good - 2 1/2 cups in a day? Also dried fruit like apricots or mangoes for a snack. Lots of vegetables like carrots, broccoli, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber circles, etc.
I would advocate NO processed foods or box foods like Cherrios and much more vegetables and eggs and fish. Tofu and such is great too if you can prepare it!

Whole grain bread or toast
Boiled Eggs and poached eggs to dip toast in
Scrambled eggs etc
Fish pieces (no bones of course)
Veggie pieces
Mashed potatoes (without butter)
Whole milk or rice milk.
Finger foods are easiest and encourage independence.

Do you have a juicer? Blending veggies and friuts into drinks is excellent way to get nutrition into her (and not need to chew).

You sound like a wonderful Mom, Good Luck!

It sounds like you are offereing lots of great healthy foods. Sometimes you just have to wait for your child's tastebuds to develop.

My son was a very picker eater at that age. He liked oatmeal, peanut butter, bananas, apple sauce, mac & cheese. Then suddenly his tastes started to change and he liked turkey lunch meat, hot dogs, Goldfish, spicy foods like jambalaya (he didn't like plain rice before) and stopped liking potatoes. It's all trial and error. He even went through a short pahse of disliking yogurt. He loves cheese. I'll buy Tilla-moos or string cheese, but in a pinch he likes American slices too. cheese seems to fill him up pretty well too. Maybe add that to your daughter's diet with a few crackers as a snack and see how she does.