Food and Habits For a Healthy Baby

By Lyssa Mysca Allen

Does your baby turn up her barely-grown nose at peas, throwing them off the spoon and onto your shirt? Do you ask her to try the food, force her to try it, or throw it away? Eating healthily is important at a young age, but this is also the age to teach a toddler healthy eating habits and attitudes that will stick with her throughout her life. We’ve got tips for teaching both healthy habits and healthy eating.

3 Easy Ways to Teach Your Child Healthy Habits:

1. Decide which nutritious foods to offer, but let your toddler decide how much to eat. Never insist your toddler eat everything on her plate.
2. Respect your toddler’s tastes and preferences – don’t force feed a child. Some children eat almost everything while others are pickier. Allow them the freedom to not eat certain foods.
3. Reward your toddler with your attention—not food and drink. Play, read, or talk with your toddler as a reward. Never use food or drink as a reward for eating other foods or for good behavior.

These tips are from The Infant & Toddler Forum, a team of UK specialist pediatricians, psychologists and dieticians. For more, check out the Ten Steps for Healthy Toddlers.

5 Nutrients Your Child Needs and How to Get Her to Eat Them

The U.S. “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” lists five nutrients as essential for kids: calcium, fiber, magnesium, vitamin E, and potassium.

1. Calcium: builds strong bones. From Got Milk? ads to Happy Cow commercials, it’s pretty common knowledge that kids need calcium to bolster bone strength. Calcium also promotes heart and muscle function. Most kids need 3 servings a day, and dairy foods are a great place to find those servings. Try smoothies, cheese sticks, and slipping milk into things that call for water, like oatmeal and instant hot chocolate.
2. Fiber: facilitates digestion. Fiber can also curb your child’s risk for several diseases, like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Legumes, fruits, and vegetables are great fiber sources. Try celery-and-peanut butter, zucchini hummus, and chilled fruit as snack.
3. Magnesium: grows healthy kids. Building up bone density is just one of the many things magnesium does to keep a child’s systems in tip-top working order. Nuts, seeds, legumes, and certain fish are great for upping magnesium intake in children. Try baked pumpkin seeds instead of potato chips, use crushed nuts to crust or “fry” your dinner fillet, and try quinoa and bulger in place of rice or noodles.
4. Vitamin E: builds immunity. In kids, vitamin E protects against cell damage and helps build a healthy immune system. Find vitamin E in oils, nuts, seeds, and green vegetables. Try almond butter or sunflower seed butter in sandwiches and snacks, add leafy greens to soups, and try wheat germ as a binder in your meatloaf or meatball recipes.
5. Potassium: essential for strong muscles. Kids need potassium for heart and muscle function and normal blood pressure. Find it in almost every food, but bananas and oranges are the most recognized sources of potassium. Try pork tenderloin, peaches, and pureed fruits for fresh sources of potassium.

Want a big bang for your buck? Smoothies are a great way to combine all the essential nutrients—combine a banana, berries, vanilla almond milk, almond butter, a handful of spinach leaves, and ice for a sweet treat your kids will love.

Teaching children from an early age to eat a variety of foods for a variety of nutrients is a great lesson for the future, creating healthy habits and healthy food choices for the rest of their lives.

About the Author: Lyssa Myska Allen is the Editorial Director from EndlessBeauty.com Lyssa has been on the forefront of an ever-changing journalism world. She’s overseen the development and optimization of content for various mediums. At EndlessBeauty.com she manages the entire site’s content from feature stories to video scripts. A lifelong athlete and health enthusiast, Lyssa’s philosophy aligns perfectly with EndlessBeauty.com’s vision, “You have to build confidence in yourself and your body to be beautiful. I truly believe that confidence is what creates success—personally and professionally.”EndlessBeauty.com is a health and beauty website with a section devoted to New Moms.