Do not make your toddler try a new food if she does not want to, but provide options. Sometimes a piece of bread folded in half is more appealing than it is when flat.

Make Meals Fun

Provide the opportunity for your toddlers to play in an acceptable way while eating. Put out dipping bowls with different condiments. Provide healthy optionslike cottage cheese or a mix of cream cheese and peanut butter. Apple sauce or pureed vegetables might be just what your child wants to dip his crackers in instead of eating them plain. Make a homemade shake for a meal with lots of fruits and low-fat yogurt. Use your imagination to add fun to traditional foods. Cut the crusts off sandwiches and put a smiley face on top of a burger or pancake.

Be Creative

Combine foods intoone easily eaten packagelike a cheeseburger-stuffed baked potato option. Hide healthy foods inside foods that toddlers like to eat. Zucchini bread or flax-seed cookies are options. Chop up carrots and celery and add them to meatballs or hamburgers. Make foods into different interesting colours, like serving up green eggs made with the water from steamed broccoli or spinach. Let your toddler help you make that peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then tell you how delicious it is because he made it.

Be Flexible

Always have several options at the ready in case your toddler is especially picky. Keep some of your toddler’s favourite meals in the cupboard or in the freezer. Most toddlers like fries and you can use other vegetables like the sweet potato or zucchini to prepare these–or, bake the fries instead of frying. Have vegetables sliced up and keep them in storage containers for a quick snack idea. Offer a breakfast item for dinner or a dinner item for breakfast. Toddlers do not care what they eat or when.