Eating with your toddler

• email
• save PDF
• print

• Children copy what you do.
• Eating together helps your toddler learn how to eat.
• Helping with cooking makes toddlers more interested in food.

Children tend to copy the habits of their parents, so if you want your toddler to eat well you’ll have to eat well yourself. If your child sees you eating a chocolate before dinner or not eating any vegetables, then she’ll want to do the same. If you walk around while you eat your breakfast, she’ll think that’s the best way to eat breakfast (and, by extension, other meals as well).

If mealtimes are happy occasions where the family chats around the table, your toddler will look forward to dinner and enjoy participating. She’ll see other members of the family enjoying new and nutritious foods, which will inspire her to do the same.

Eating together as a family whenever you can will also help your toddler pick up a few table manners. Right from the start it’s worth insisting that your toddler sits whenever she is eating or drinking, even if she’s just having a snack – it’s easier to start with good habits than try to change bad habits later on. She will probably find it too difficult to sit at the dinner table for an entire three-course meal – just let her run off when she’s had enough and take her plate away to signal that leaving the table is the end of the meal. Most children don’t grasp the finer points of table manners (like not talking with a mouthful of food) till they’re around five years old, so don’t expect too much.

You can help stimulate an interest in food by letting your toddler help with the cooking. If she has been involved in preparing a meal, it will become a source of pride and she’s more likely to eat it. By helping she is also learning a lot about food and developing a true appreciation for it. Meals that are constructed at the table, such as sandwiches or tacos, can be a great way of involving your toddler in food preparation.

• Rated6 ratingsRate this item
• FeedbackTell us what you think of this item