9 Tips for Better Toddler Nutrition * Moms and Crafters

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nutrimom. All opinions are 100% mine.

You just celebrated that first birthday, cake smash, and all, and it’s time to embark on the journey of toddlerhood! Ensuring proper toddler nutrition can seem a challenge at times. Your baby who once explored and ate everything, will now begin to… explore and eat everything. Unless it’s food.

Picky eating seems part and parcel of the toddler years. I struggled to ensure proper toddler nutrition with M but through it all, I succeeded. He reached his second birthday, and didn’t even ask for a piece of his birthday cake! He wanted a clementine because that’s what he new he loved.

Nutrimom experts have definitely helped. While M is definitely a picky toddler, and by no means eats whatever I want him to, my Nutrimom dietitian helped figure out solutions, and pave the way for us.

Here are some of my favorite practical tips, gleaned from one-on-one conference sessions, and of course tried-and-true:

Don’t wing it on your own. Talk to a nutrition expert. Ideas can be hard to come by, and your Nutrimom coach will never run out of them! Their personal coaching has been a lifesaver for me!

Read up on reliable sources. Avoid search results that bring up sources you don’t know. Nutrimom provides customized articles, and an extensive database of easy-to-navigate information, that their experts put together and endorsed. My coach also sent me science based articles to read that were specific to my issues. They included the “why”s and the “how”s.
Try new things regularly. Again, my coach sent me custom recipes, things that I hadn’t tried before. There’s always something fresh to experiment with. There are many more healthy recipes available on Nutrimom.
Stick nutrients into snacks. Since we were struggling with proteins to serve, my coach suggested that instead of giving M a rice cake for snack time (as I had been doing) that I place a slice of turkey (from the deli counter, as it’s much healthier than the packaged variety) on top. It worked!
Avoid introducing your child to junk food for as long as you can. Once your child knows what it is, she will want it more often. And toddlers can be quite stubborn. The fact that M hardly recognizes junk food when he sees it is such a blessing for us. He is NOT missing out, because he doesn’t know. Someone handed him a lolly last week, and he handed it right to me in exchange for a cracker.
Dilute juices and other liquid calories. Even healthy sweet drinks, like fruit juices, have more calories and less of the good stuff. If you need to give it, dilute it as much as possible.
Be persistent. Ignore the negative voices around you. It helps to talk to like-minded moms to gain motivation and encouragement. Nutrimom coaches are moms like us, and they really know what it’s like to raise toddlers. So, they are realistic in their advice. They are also available to message at any time. So, if there’s something you forgot to discuss in your last coaching call, you can always message. I loved receiving timely answers from an expert I can trust!
Set an example, model good behavior. Your child will want to do much of what you do, and eat what you eat. Try eating healthy food yourself – there will be plenty of perks along with your child’s nutrition!
Eat together as a family. This was one of the first pieces of advice my Nutrimom coach offered me. I saw this in action, as my toddler always ate better at family meals. He actually prefers to eat right off my plate.

I couldn’t possibly be more pleased with the change, and the overall healthier atmosphere in our home. We eat more intentionally, incorporating the right nutrients, and modelling good behavior for our son.

Ensuring proper toddler nutrition is not as hard as it may seem. It’s not something to give up on before you try.

Having proper, reliable direction is key, and Nutrimom offers that in a personal way.