Meal ideas for toddlers
I’m hoping y’all can share, what do you feed your toddlers? I’m at my wits end with my 3 year old. She’s not a fan of spicy food and has been indifferent to pizza and pastas recently. I’m also looking for ways to get vegetables into her. Also what’s a reasonable portion size per meal? I can’t tell if I’m expecting her to eat more than she feasibly should.
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I can’t help with meals because we struggle too😅 but one tablespoon per food group per year of age is a good guide! So for a 3 year old you’d hope for 3 tablespoons of each group on the plate
My most effective trick is to let them help me cook. It’s 3 times the work but they usually want to eat what they’ve helped make. Pastas are a great dish for kids to help with, and you can put all kinds of veggies in the sauce and blend it up and they will never know.
Other than that, I try variety. I will put 3-5 different foods on her plate or in her snack box, some that I know she likes, and some that are new. It takes a lot of patience and consistency, but eventually she will try it on her own.
I had a nutritionist tell me “it’s your job to offer a variety of foods, and it’s your child’s job to decide what and how much to eat”. That helped my anxiety immensely lol 😊
I offer everything I make. He sometimes only takes a bite or two, but I'm really glad he at least tries it.
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