Perhaps the best way to ensure a nutritious diet for a toddler, as for anyone, is to be sure that adequate foods from each of the basic food groups are offered each day. Trust the child's instincts. As long as children are offered a selection of foods comprising a well-balanced diet, they will consume the proper amounts. Many adult eating problems originate early in life, often as a result of being urged to eat despite a lack of hunger, or because food is used as a reward for good behavior. The more you can avoid confrontations over how much and what to eat, the better.
Respect likes and dislikes by giving a child nutritional alternatives.
By the time a child is eating table food, some parents switch from whole milk to low-fat milk. Changing to skim milk before these other foods are a regular part of the diet, however, can be dangerous and interfere with a child's normal growth. But as the baby begins to walk and exercise more, the body fat should begin to give way to muscle and lean tissue. A grandparent may worry that the baby is getting too skinny, but in the United States overweight is a more serious and common health problem than underweight. Although the precise causes of obesity are unknown, glandular or organic problems are exceedingly rare.