What to Expect the Toddler Years (172 page)

Button from the bottom up.
Lining up buttons or snaps starting at the bottom is the easiest way to make sure they end up matching all the way to the top. Though buttoning and snapping are beyond the fine-motor capabilities of most toddlers, you can begin teaching this lesson by showing your toddler how you line up the bottom button with the bottom buttonhole. Let your toddler practice buttoning, snapping, and zipping skills on his or her own clothing (when time permits) and also provide a doll or book that has buttons, snaps, laces, and zippers for practicing on.

Teach skillful and careful zippering.
Especially for boys, who risk catching a very sensitive body part, zippers pose a painful threat to tender skin. Even if your toddler isn’t doing the zippering solo yet (and especially if he or she is), demonstrate how to hold the zipper away from the skin during the procedure.

If the shoe’s always on the other foot...
Matching the right shoe with the right foot (and the left with the left) is one of the trickiest parts of dressing—and most children continue having trouble with this task well past the toddler years. Though you’ll need to be patient, you can also help make the task somewhat easier for an older toddler to master by demonstrating that buckles and Velcro straps usually go toward the outside of the shoe. Or you can draw a tiny pattern on the inside of each shoe and tell your child that the picture always goes on the inside or the two pictures go together. It may also help to always leave your child’s shoes laid out in ready-to-put-on position.

Cold-Weather Dressing

When, baby, it’s cold outside, take the following dressing precautions, using the wind-chill factor rather than the temperature as your guide, before setting out with your toddler:

Take it from the top.
When it’s below freezing out, a hat is tops at keeping your toddler warm; that’s because a great deal of body heat can be lost through a bare head. Find a hat that’s comfortable for your toddler to wear, and insist on it being worn when temperatures plum-met—if you wear one yourself, you’ll be less likely to meet up with resistance. (See page 283 for more on head coverings.) Since heat also escapes through the neck, keep your toddler’s neck well covered. Using a balaclava or another type of head gear that covers the neck and possibly part of the face will allow you to dispense with the muffler, and considering how most toddlers resist being bundled, any item that can be dispensed with makes your task easier.

Layer, layer upon layer.
How do you dress a toddler so that he or she stays warm sitting in the stroller on the way to the playground, but doesn’t get over-heated once the running around begins? In layers—which insulate when a child’s cold (by trapping air between the layers) and can be removed as needed when the child (or the weather) warms up. In really cold weather or when your toddler will be playing in the snow, start with long thermal underwear, move on to a turtleneck (which will keep the neck cozy even when the coat gets unzipped), a sweater and warm pants, sweats, or Polartec, fleece separates, and top it all with a coat or snowsuit. Wool is warming, but may irritate sensitive skin; some especially sensitive toddlers will balk at wearing it even over layers of underclothing.

Buy mittens (or gloves) in bulk.
Hand coverings (waterproof for snow play) are essential in cold weather because fingers are especially prone to frostbite. Buy duplicate or triplicate pairs when possible, so that when one mitten disappears, you don’t have to throw away the mate. Carry a spare pair along on outings so that you can replace lost or wet mittens. For more on mittens, see page 283.

Keep tootsies toasty.
Not only are cold toes uncomfortable, they can easily become frostbitten, especially when your toddler’s walking or playing in the snow. Insulated boots are best for cold weather; make sure they’re waterproof, seamless, and snug around the top (so snow is less likely to seep in). Thermal socks (not cotton, which keeps wet feet wet) under the boots will keep your toddler’s feet extra comfortable; avoid very heavy socks that completely fill the boots—it’s the air space
between
the socks and the boots that increases protection from the cold.

Check for overheating.
An overheated toddler can be just as uncomfortable as a chilled one. Check your toddler’s neck periodically for perspiration; if you detect moisture, consider loosening or removing a layer.

Warm-Weather Dressing

When it’s hot outside, light-colored, light-weight, loose-fitting clothing is the most comfortable. But when playing in the sun, strong, tightly-woven, darker fabrics make for better UV blockers (with denim the best). If you’re dressing your toddler lightly, consider applying a layer of sunscreen under the garments. A wide-brimmed hat should be standard issue on hot sunny days.

Between their resistance to change, their suspicion of anything green and leafy, and their intolerance for strange textures, it’s hard enough to get three meals into a toddler never mind meet a dozen dietary requirements. And yet, while helping a child learn to eat well may never be more difficult than during toddlerhood, it also may never be as important. For one thing, eating habits (good or bad) formed during these early years are likely to last a lifetime. (No, that doesn’t mean that your toddler will still be subsisting on macaroni and cheese as an adult—but it does mean that a preference for sugary sweets or salty, fatty foods adopted in toddlerhood can easily turn into a lifelong preference.) For another, toddlers, busy bundles of endless activity that they are, need a steady infusion of nutrients to fuel their on-the-go lifestyle. Adequate nourishment is also essential for optimal growth and physical and intellectual development. Good diet doesn’t guarantee good health and long life, but The Toddler Diet will give your child the best odds of starting off in that direction.

The Toddler Diet basic principles of healthy eating serve eaters of all ages well; they have been adjusted here only slightly to take into account a toddler’s special needs.

Every bite counts.
With tummies tiny, appetites tender, and tastes limited and fickle, there are just so many bites parents can expect their toddlers to take. And with just so many bites in a day, wasted nutritional opportunities (when
the peanut butter and jelly is on white; when the beverage is a “10% juice drink”; when dessert is a cupcake full of empty fat and sugar calories) may not easily be made up. So it’s especially important that each bite toddlers take be as nourishing as possible—that the bread be whole grain; the beverage be 100% real juice; and the dessert be wholesome (fresh fruit or a whole-grain fruit-juice-sweetened muffin, for instance).

All calories are not created equal.
The 110 calories in an ounce of sugar-sweetened, refined breakfast cereal are not nutritionally equivalent to the 110 calories in an ounce of juice-sweetened, whole-grain breakfast cereal. Always keep the quality of the calories in mind when preparing your toddler’s meals and snacks.

Meal-skipping is risky, but it’s a toddler prerogative.
Meal-skipping is not recommended at any age, and toddlers who regularly skip meals may not only be deprived of essential energy for getup-and-go but may be particularly prone to cranky, irrational behavior and temper tantrums. To make sure that your toddler has a steady flow of fuel, serve three meals, as well as snacks in between, each day. But remember that serving a meal to a toddler doesn’t necessarily mean it will be consumed. Toddlers don’t always eat
what
is put in front of them
when
it’s put in front of them. Your toddler may reject an occasional meal, barely eat at others—and that’s his or her prerogative. Just be sure to make up for the missed meal with a nutritious snack later on (but not too close to the next meal, or that one may be rejected, too). And don’t worry about occasional meal-skipping or pressure your toddler to eat. When healthy children are allowed to eat as much or as little as they like at each meal, the food intake tends to balance out over a week’s time.

Efficiency is effective.
Many toddlers have relatively small stomach capacities, so it makes sense to consider efficiency when selecting your toddler’s foods. When possible, offer foods that satisfy more than one nutritional requirement (cheese for calcium
and
protein, cantaloupe for vitamins A
and
C, whole grains for complex carbohydrates
and
iron). Efficiency can also work to curb a too-fast weight gain in an overweight toddler with a voracious appetite (for example, serving filling foods that offer more nutrition for fewer calories, such as fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grain breads and pasta without fattening sauces). Efficiency is effective, too, when feeding a toddler with a pint-sized appetite who is underweight or gaining weight too slowly (foods that pack a lot of nutrition and a lot of calories into small packages, such as peanut butter, meat, avocado, cheese, and beans, are good choices).

Carbohydrates are a complex issue.
Bread, rolls and bagels, spaghetti and macaroni, cereal—even the most finicky toddler usually enjoys at least one member of the carbohydrate family, and some toddlers like nothing else. But not all carbohydrates are equally nutritious—and some, such as sugars, honey, refined grains, and foods made with them, provide little or nothing but calories. It’s true that the white flour sold for home use or used in commercial breads and in some other baked goods is enriched by the addition of a quartet of nutrients (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and iron), but it’s also true that the flour has lost twenty or more other nutrients in the refining process, which removes the germ and the bran. Such complex carbohydrates as whole-grain flours, breads, and cereals; brown rice, millet, quinoa, and other whole grains; legumes (dried peas and beans); and whole-grain or high-protein pasta, on the other hand, usually provide a wide range of important nutrients—
including protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber (the recommendation for fiber intake is, in grams, age plus 5; e.g., 7 grams for two-year-olds, 8 for threes). Always opt for such carbohydrates when shopping, cooking, and ordering in restaurants; use refined carbohydrates only rarely or when there’s no other choice. For times when every carbohydrate in sight is refined, carry along a small container of wheat germ to enrich breads, pastas, and pizzas made with white flour. Chil dren who get used to a sprinkling of wheat germ early on, learn to take it for granted.

Sweet nothings are not so sweet.
Parents and teachers have asserted for years that children “under the influence” of sugar exhibit hyperactive behavior. Some studies on the effect of sugar on the behavior of some children have corroborated these claims, and many others have challenged them; much more study still needs to be done before the relationship between sugar and behavior, if any, is fully understood. In the meantime, there are still plenty of reasons to restrict the amount of sugar your toddler consumes. For one, sugar is totally without nutritional value—it provides no vitamins, no minerals, nothing but calories. And the calories that sugar contributes to a toddler’s diet can better come from a more worthy source. For another, sugar often keeps bad company; it is frequently found in combination with other nutritional undesirables—unhealthy ingredients, such as fats and refined grains—in largely nutritionally “empty” foods. For yet another, sugar and sugary foods contribute significantly to tooth decay and may contribute to obesity (many of the foods that contain sugar are fattening without being either filling or nutritious). Sugar may also be used to improve the taste of third-rate ingredients (in a tomato sauce, for example, when the tomatoes lack flavor of their own); and ingredients lacking taste are often also lacking in nutrition. And because it increases the body’s need for chromium, which is involved in the way the body handles sugar, sugar may also be indirectly implicated in the development of diabetes. But possibly the best reason to keep sugar out of the mouth of your babe—as much as possible—is to help him or her avert a lifelong struggle with a demanding sweet tooth and the problems that come with it. Research shows that children who eat a lot of sugary foods early on are more likely to grow into sugar-craving adults.

In order to minimize the sugar in your toddler’s diet, you need to know where to look for it. Sugar goes by many names, including brown sugar, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, fructose, glucose, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, high-fructose corn syrup, corn sweeteners, dextrose, and sucrose. Avoid these when shopping for ready-made foods (particularly if they rank high on
an ingredients list or if two or more of them are anywhere on a list) and when cooking for your toddler at home. Save exceptions for when there’s no other choice—at birthday parties, for instance.

Restricting sugar doesn’t have to mean restricting sweets entirely, however. Sweets made with fruit-juice concentrates and fruit sweeteners can be just as satisfying to a toddler as treats made with sugar. Make your own fruit-sweetened treats or look for ready-made ones in your supermarket or health food store. A not insignificant bonus: fruit-sweetened cakes, cookies, and muffins are much more likely to incorporate nutritious ingredients (such as whole-grain flours) than other commercially prepared sweets.