7 Ways to Help your Toddler Get the Most out of Mealtime
With twins, it feels like I spend half my day either preparing food, serving food, or cleaning up the kitchen. My twins are constantly hungry and it’s crazy me just how much food two tiny people can eat.
Moms of toddlers spend so much time with mealtime tasks. Why not make the most of it? There are so many great ways to make mealtime special and turn it into great learning experience for your toddler.
Encourage Independence – Self feeding skills are so important, not only so your toddler can feed herself when you are occupied but self feeding is an important developmental skill that every toddler needs to learn. I love giving my toddlers a wide variety of finger foods at every meal and using baby food pouches that make it easy for them to feed themselves. We have been loving the Sprout® Organic baby/toddler food pouches lately. They are so easy for my twins to eat on the go. The pouch design makes it easy for my twins to feed themselves and Sprout® is USDA certified organic, GMO free, and doesn’t use any acid preservatives. We found a great variety at our local Albertsons.
Connect with your Toddler – I know how tempting it is to use mealtime to catch up on kitchen chores but toddlerhood doesn’t last forever. Sit down at the table with your toddler. Talk out loud, play simple games, and use the time to interact with your toddler. My twins love it when I sit down with them while they eat. They’ll often try and share their food with me (sometimes they’ll lick it first and then try to share. Yum.) and I know we are creating some great memories.
Explore New Textures – Food can be a great learning experience for toddlers. Don’t limit your toddler to the same foods at every meal. Get creative. Try new textures. Feed your toddler smooth foods, chunky foods, crunch foods, etc. Some will probably be a huge hit and others may not be but your toddler will have fun exploring the new textures and mealtime will become an adventure.
Don’t be Afraid to Get Messy – I fully expect mealtime to get messy. I actually don’t even mess around with bibs anymore — I just strip my twins down to their diapers and let them go nuts. It’s much easier to clean them off afterwards and then I don’t have to spend mealtime worrying that they are going to stain their clothes.
Try a Variety of Foods – My older kids are brave eaters. I get comments all the time about how many types of foods they are willing to eat. They’ve certainly gone through their picky phases but I attribute most of their npicky habits now to the fact that we always fed them a huge variety of food. If your toddler doesn’t like a particular food the first time around, don’t give up. Keep serving it along side a few of your toddler’s other favorites and you may find that she’s more willing to try it after a few tries. I will often serve foods in a different way if my toddler is struggling with it. For example, if your toddler doesn’t like raw apples, try baked apples or homemade applesauce.
Do you have any tips to make the most out of mealtime with your toddler?
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sprout® Organic Baby Foods. The opinions and text are all mine.
