In Podcast Episode 32: Feeding Your Toddler, my cousin Abby and I wax on about our feeding philosophies. We aren’t experts, but we are mothers of a toddler and, in my case, a pre-toddler. Although I’d like to think personal experience counts for a lot, I know it isn’t everything (which perhaps is something too many parents forget). Here are some of the sources Abby and I reference in the episode so that you can make your own informed decision about how you plan on feeding your toddler. If I have learned anything from the reaction to my Mamapedia post about Vitamin D, it has been that nutrition is a hot button issue in the mommy world. Moms don’t like their routines and philosophies questioned. For that reason, I’m shelving my opinion for a moment (yes, this is rare) and just pointing you to other people’s ideas, in no particular order.
- Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley: This is the approach that I’ve used with Amelia since she was 6 months old. For us, it has worked great and I do recommend it to people, but realize that it might be too out there for many. Unlike some BLWers, I don’t believe purees will actually hinder your child’s love of eating, but in our case, purees just weren’t necessary.
- The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine: Abby read this one, so I can’t comment insightfully about it. From what I can tell, it explains how to hide good nutritious foods inside of other foods your child will actually eat. On the surface, this seems like the opposite of Baby Led Weaning, but when I think about it, they have similar philosophies, i.e. encouraging your child to like what he/she eats. Perhaps hiding veggies in mac and cheese isn’t the best way to introduce healthier options all the time, but I imagine it’s a fun means of nutritionalizing foods while you also offer veggies in more recognizable forms. Anything that makes food fun gets my vote.
- “Poor Diet May Lower Children’s IQ” in The Guardian: Abby sent me this article. I do think mothers can go a little overboard in worrying about what they are feeding their children; however, as this article points out, what you feed your kid DOES make a difference, not just physically, but mentally (My Philosophy 101 class taught me physical is mental. I got an A, so I must have eaten my veggies growing up).
- “To Win Toddler Food Battles, Take a Softer Approach” by Sarah Varney of NPR: This is the short NPR segment that provided a starting point for a lot of my research. I thank my friend Melanie for sending me the link. The title pretty much sums up the segment’s gist.
- Ellyn Satter: She has an entire website devoted to helping you feed your child. I reference her site in the podcast, and I’m still mulling over some of her ideas, but overall, I found her information pretty convincing.
Okay, so I can’t actually end a podpost without inserting my opinion. No matter how you feed your toddler or older child, just remember that passing along healthy eating habits is impossible until you’ve come to terms with your own relationship with food. I’m looking at you moms who count every calorie, spend all your days worrying about being fat, obsess over every bad thing you eat, and yet somehow expect your children, especially your daughters, to have a functional relationship with what they eat. Nobody’s perfect and I myself am not living the functional food relationship dream (Oh Oreos, how I love you), but I do recognize that food is something with which we engage every day, so it might as well be good for us and we might as well enjoy this good food without beating ourselves up over the occasional sweet or unhealthy treat. Happy eating.
Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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