Being a parent is a daunting task. Each stage of your child’s life brings on new challenges. The newborn stage is filled with sleepless nights and exhaustion. The teen years are bustling, stressful, and again, often filled with sleepless nights. It often feels like, the moment you get the hang of parenting your child, their needs change overnight as they enter a new stage. This means that as a parent, you are always adapting and improvising to ensure your child is getting everything they need. So, what do you when your baby is suddenly a toddler, and instead of relying on basic things such as milk to gain nutrients, you have to introduce them to an entire new world of foods, and all they want to eat is applesauce?
Practice intuitive eating
Feeding a toddler is truly a daunting task. You want to make sure they are getting all of their necessary nutrients and are healthy children. But they just want to snack on goldfish and applesauce pouches all day, throwing their actual meals on the floor and throwing a tantrum at every mealtime. You may think the answer is restricting their food to just the healthiest foods, but that’s often not going to end up helping you. When you force only “healthy” foods on your child, they will seek out these unhealthy foods and will gorge themselves on them when they are presented. Intuitive eating is something many parents are wary of, but it works amazingly. The main idea behind it, is to give your child foods from all different food groups at every meal. With Bastian, for lunch he gets a main course that has protein(often a pb&j sandwich, honestly), an applesauce or other fruit, a vegetable, and a treat. A few pieces of candy, a cookie, or whatever else we have on hand. He is presented with all of these things at the same time. Sure, some days he wants only the treats and passes on everything else. Some days, he doesn’t even eat the cookie. Giving him that option, he decides what his body needs that day.
Reintroduce foods frequently
There are plenty of foods that we give Bastian, that he passes up on. He used to love brussels sprouts and broccoli, but no longer wants to eat them when they are presented to him. The important thing is to continue offering these foods to him. It’s hard, but I try to refrain from saying things like “he won’t eat that”. Because if he hears that, he will believe me. I want him to eat broccoli, so I will keep cooking it, and putting it on his plate, because sometimes he will taste it. Tastebuds are constantly changing, and I don’t want to limit his palate because he refuses something once or twice.
Make sure they are getting enough sleep
Sleep is such an important part of your toddler’s health, and should be getting at least 12 hours of sleep daily at age 2. Bastian usually gets 10-11 hours of sleep every night, so he still takes an afternoon nap after his lunch, and sleeps for 1-3 hours. Staying consistent with that sleep routine helps him have normalcy in his days, and makes the rest of the aspects of his life go much more smoothly.
Help them practice good hygiene
Health is such a broad task, and one of those things, is making sure your child stays clean. Sometimes, we’ll be cuddling on the couch, and I’ll notice his toenails have a fun little layer of dirt under them. Aaaand then I know he really needs a bath. Since it’s winter and he isn’t spending a lot of time outside, one bath a week is adequate to make sure he stays clean, since I don’t want to dry out his skin by bathing him more frequently. Another aspect of this, is making sure he brushes his teeth twice a day. He used to hate brushing his teeth. It was a fight everyday, he would scream as I brushed his teeth. Being consistent with brushing his teeth daily was the biggest help, but also finding a toothpaste that he really liked. He views his toothpaste as a yummy treat, so he looks forward to brushing his teeth. If he is struggling to brush, I will sometimes tickle him and chase him down, and then he doesn’t mind having my brush his teeth, because we’ve turned it into a game.