Feeding Toddler

Feeding a Toddler certainly isn't for the faint of heart. Your baby goes from eating everything you give him and then overnight it seems he wants nothing to do with food. He won't try anything new and you worry that he is starving or sick. This is very normal behavior for a toddler. Starting at around one year of age babies get distracted by walking around and exploring their surroundings. They are not as interested in food as they once were. Also, toddlers don't need as much food as they did when they were infants. Remember that a baby grows 3 times its birth weight during the first year of life. After the first year, this growth drops significantly and your baby doesn't need as much food as you might think she does. As long is your baby is healthy and growing normally, you can rest assured she is getting what she needs.

If your baby drinks more than 24 oz. of milk each day. He may be getting full of milk and have no room left over for other food. Also, giving toddlers more than 24 oz. could increase his chances of becoming obese.
Do not give your toddler more than 4 oz. of juice each day. This could make him not as hungry and could be replacing the more nutritional things that he needs in his diet. Only give your toddler juice during meals. If he will not drink water, try watering down the juice, so that he's not getting more than the 4oz. per day. It's a good idea to start right off giving your baby watered down juice so that she doesn't become accustomed to the full juice flavor and want it all the time.
Do not force your toddler to eat if he isn't hungry. Most doctors agree that a healthy toddler will only eat when he is hungry and needs to eat.
Don't expect your toddler to eat large portions of food. Most toddlers only need about 1/4 of the food that an adult would have.
The average toddler aged 1-2 years needs around 1300 calories per day. This will give you a better idea of how much food your toddler should have each day. or 40 calories for each inch of height 40 x height = calories needed per day.

2-3 vegetable servings: If your toddler doesn't like vegetables yet, keep offering them on their own, however, try mixing them with other things to make sure he gets them in his diet. The stage 3 baby foods have chunkier pieces for learning to chew and they have several choices for vegetables mixed with other things. See what your toddler likes but keep trying with the things you think she doesn't like, because it takes time to aquire a taste for things.

This is just to give you an idea of what you should be offering your toddler, whether or not she decides to eat it is of course up to her and you should not worry too much about it. Unless your toddler is loosing weight or seems tired and drained of energy, you have nothing to worry about. Be sure he is getting enough to drink. If you are concerned your child isn't eating enough, or isn't getting adequate nutrition, discuss it with your pediatrician and he will most likely weigh your child and make sure he isn't sick and if he isn't sick and is gaining weight properly, your pediatrician will most likely tell you the same thing.