Toddler Nutrition: How Important is It?

Do you ever notice your toddler becoming cranky at certain times each day? Do you have trouble controlling his behavior or does he seem unpredictable and unmanageable? Does she wake up during the night several times each week? While many factors can contribute to these things occurring, your toddler's nutrition plays a surprising role.

Many parents have discovered that what their children eat strongly influences their behavior, attitude, learning abilities, and sleep habits. In recent years, scientists have been able to discover why food plays such an important role. Allow me to take you on a whirlwind tour of nutrition and its effect on your toddler.

What To Avoid

Sadly, the American diet has been on a downhill slope since around 1920. No, that's not a typo! I believe that the first packaged foods were the beginning of this 'poor diet snowball' that has led to such a high rate of obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and many other problems. Many common foods are basically devoid of any nutrition and are instead full of preservatives, food coloring, sugar, and other ingredients that harm instead of help your body. For toddlers especially, who are growing and developing at such a fast pace, it's important to avoid these foods.

Soda, pop, Coke, cola. Whatever you like to call it, toddlers have no business drinking it. The caffeine alone can be a major cause of restless sleep, irritability, and hyperactivity. The sugar just exacerbates any of these issues. If your toddler is already in the soda habit, be aware that taking away the caffeine can cause headaches and other 'withdrawal' type symptoms, so be prepared for two or three days of transitioning.

Junk foods like chips, cookies, candy. Your little one's body needs protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, and junk foods simply don't have them!

Excess milk. While it is an important source of protein and calcium, too much milk is actually harmful for your toddler. Some children wag the sippy cup around all day sipping their milk. When mealtime comes, they're full of milk and not hungry for food. Most pediatricians recommend limiting your toddler to no more than 24 ounces (three cups) per day.

What about packaged "toddler foods" as part of your toddler's nutrition? Call me a rebel, but I don't like feeding my toddlers the special "toddler foods" often labeled "graduate" or some other term designed to make parents think it's the only suitable food for proper toddler nutrition. Homemade foods are far more nutritious than packaged foods full of preservatives and white flour.

Frequent Small Meals Will Improve Your Toddler's Nutrition

Toddlers are grazers and like to eat small amounts all day long. Asking your toddler to wait four to six hours between meals is just setting him up for disaster. If you find that your little one becomes increasingly fussy, angry, and naughty while you're trying to cook dinner, he is probably hungry.

When a person's blood sugar level falls because he's gone too long without food, he begins to feel fuzzy-headed, achy, and even nauseous. The same is true for your toddler! Keep healthy snacks easily available throughout the day and make sure your child never goes more than three hours between meals/snacks. (For more information on snacks for toddlers, see Healthy Toddler Snacks to help maintain proper toddler nutrition)

Nutrition And Your Child's Sleep Habits

The foods a person eats greatly effect his sleep. Your toddler may go to sleep at the beginning of the night by breastfeeding or taking a bottle, but most parents prefer for their toddlers to sleep through the night and not wake up later wanting to nurse or have another bottle. The two a.m. feedings are for the baby days, right? By the time your child has reached her first birthday, she is physically capable of going 8-10 hours during the night without eating.

One way you can help her to sleep more soundly and for longer stretches is by giving her a high-protein snack about an hour before bed. Protein is digested slowly; therefore, the hunger pangs don't hit as quickly. Meat is an excellent source of protein but can sometimes be difficult to whip up for a before-bed snack. Other good protein-rich snacks include a peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread, cheese and crackers, yogurt, or a scrambled or hard-boiled egg.

If you have not fed these foods to your toddler yet don't make your first time right before bed. These are some of the more common food allergens and it is advisable to first test your toddlers sensitivity early in the day for proper observation and intervention. Contact your prediatrician for what to watch for when testing for food allergies.