What to Expect the Toddler Years (179 page)

Of course, if just the offer of options triggers a tirade, skip it for a while. Continue keeping the foods around should your toddler choose to accept them, but don’t press him or her to try them.

Give your toddler a daily vitamin-mineral supplement designed for toddlers (see page 508).

And relax; even the finickiest toddlers outgrow their limited tastes.

Just when you think you’ve finally found a food you can count on your toddler eating without an argument—cereal for breakfast, for example—he or she begins rejecting it. But that’s just like a toddler, isn’t it? Always keeping you guessing, consistent only in being inconsistent.

Whether it’s a whim, boredom, a display of self-assertion, temporary loss of appetite (due to teething or otherwise feeling out-of-sorts), or just plain contrariness that’s turned your toddler off to his old favorite, try these tips before you decide to retire it permanently from the menu:

Don’t bring it back for a while.
Matter-of-factly take the rejected food away, and don’t try serving it again for at least a week. In the interim serve nutritionally similar foods—whole-grain breads, muffins, or griddle cakes, for instance—in place of the rejected cereal. You may find that soon your toddler is asking, “Where’s my cereal?”

Bring it back with a difference.
When you return the rejected food to the menu, serve it in a different bowl, with a different spoon, or at a different time of day. Cereal for lunch or dinner may be more appealing than cereal for breakfast. If it’s the same old cereal that prompts mealtime ennui, try a new variety or presentation (hot instead of cold, dry instead of with milk, topped with chopped dates or apricots or with peaches or blueberries instead of bananas).

Don’t bring it back every day.
Prevent boredom from returning by switching from cereal to pancakes to French toast and back again. That is, unless your toddler latches on to another favorite and refuses to switch off.

Don’t bring it up.
Feign indifference to your child’s rejections—of old favorites or new foods. Make a fuss, and temporary rejections could become permanent. It’s natural to be annoyed when you prepare food and it isn’t eaten, but you’ll only fuel the food struggles if you let it show.

Whether they’re vegetarian by virtue of their own finickiness or household philosophy, many toddlers subsist on a meatless diet. And though this may surprise some people, when the following caveats are observed, a vegetarian diet not only provides all of the nutrients young bodies need to grow and go on, but it can be one of the healthiest dietary lifestyles around.

Whether a vegetarian diet is your idea or your toddler’s, make sure it fills the nutritional bill by:

Making every bite count. While this precept is universal when it comes to healthy eating, it’s especially important when it comes to feeding young vegetarians. Because vegetarian foods generally are more bulky than other foods (to get the same amount of protein found in a few bites of chicken, a toddler would have to eat nearly a cup of rice and beans), your toddler is likely to get fuller faster on them. And since most toddlers have delicate appetites to begin with, allowing those appetites to be sabotaged by nutritionally vacant foods leaves little or no tummy room for the good stuff.

Monitoring protein intake. Toddlers who eat dairy products and eggs can easily fill their daily requirement for protein. But vegan toddlers, who eat no animal products at all, can easily fall short in this category. And since protein is essential to growth, it’s vital for parents to ensure that their vegetarian children get adequate protein (see Dairy Protein box below and Vegetarian Protein box on page 526). Vegetarian proteins are considered incomplete proteins because they are deficient in at least one amino acid. But while toddlers don’t have to combine different vegetarian proteins at the same meal to ensure they’re getting all the protein they need, you do want to make sure they’re getting some of each type (legumes, grains, seeds, and nuts) every day. And good news: So many of the healthy vegetarian proteins you can give to your toddler also fulfill the daily recommendations for whole grains (two for the price of one!). Again, if your toddler eats dairy products and/or eggs, he or she will be getting enough protein to “complete” the vegetarian proteins eaten during the rest of the day, so you don’t have to worry about hitting all the vegetarian protein types in one day.

Supplementing with B
₁₂
, as needed. Toddlers who eat dairy products and eggs shouldn’t have a problem getting their fair share of this important vitamin, necessary for growth and development and for a healthy nervous system, but young vegans will. Vegetable sources of B
₁₂
are rare; the vitamin is found in some seaweed, including nori and spirulina, but in this form it is not absorbed well in children. These foods may also block the absorption of the vitamin from other sources. So a supplement is necessary for vegans. Since the typical toddler multiple vitamin-mineral supplement does not contain B
₁₂
, ask your toddler’s doctor for a prescription for a supplement that contains the right amount of B
₁₂
for toddlers.

Watching the iron. Children who don’t eat meat, a rich source of iron, often don’t get enough of this important mineral. To improve the absorption of the iron that is in your toddler’s diet, serve a vitamin-C-rich food each time you serve an iron-rich one (see page 507). Your toddler’s doctor may also recommend a vitamin-mineral supplement containing iron.