Because children know how much to eat, parents and carers need to offer appropriate foods at regular times during the day. It is up to your child to choose which foods to eat and how much to eat.
What are appropriate foods?
According to The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating toddlers need:
- 3 to 6 serves of fruit and vegetables – no more than 200mL fruit juice.
- 3 to 5 slices of bread or small serves (about ½ cup) of breakfast cereal, rice, pasta or noodles.
- The equivalent of 500mL to 600mL of full cream milk, which can include yogurt, cheese, calcium fortified soy beverage.
- 2 small serves of meat, chicken, fish, egg or legumes such as baked beans, lentils, chickpeas.
Two or three foods from the above food groups can be offered at each meal and morning and afternoon tea snack.
Toddlers have small stomachs and can only eat enough food to last two to three hours, so they need to be offered morning and afternoon tea snacks in between breakfast, lunch and dinner.