No one is perfect one hundred percent of the time, so for part one of how to teach healthy toddler eating habits, we are going to focus on letting go of perfection (which feels nearly impossible for this “crunchy” mama).
Next, let’s address the elephant in the room.
My two toddlers eat chicken nuggets. Yes, you read that right. There comes a point where we have to decide between controlling every aspect of our kids lives, or just let our kids be kids (at least on occasion). We (my family and I) live in America where the typical fare is SAD (standard American diet) – full of sugar, sodium, artificial dyes, and more chemicals than I care to name.
While that doesn’t mean they have to eat those foods, it does mean that it is hard to avoid without making everything from scratch, paying an arm and a leg, or hiring a chef.
So, more often than I’d like, my kids eat chicken nuggets (we are working on it)… but hopefully, in the meantime, it helps me be a bit more relatable.
Are you a sugar free parent on the struggle bus with keeping your kids sugar free, too? Saying No to Sugar was written for you – part understanding and part rejection of the American norm, this article is a reflection of the dilemma sugar free parents face while raising their children.
3 Tips Before We Start
- Be Realistic – if it’s not feasible for you to cook from scratch every day including snacks, that probably isn’t a good goal. Start with what you CAN do, even if it’s one meal a week homemade, freezer cooking for your family, or meal prepping in advance.
- Use healthier ingredients in tried-and-true recipes – if you are a Trim Healthy Mama, then you probably already have healthier options on hand… you could swap out ingredients slowly in hopes they won’t notice, do a big transition and get it over with, or use ingredients like sprouted flour and on-plan sweeteners that measure like sugar to replace white flour and white sugar in baking traditional recipes. Yes, these would likely be crossovers, but the alternating fuels can come later, especially since crossovers are important for growing children.
- Snacks are often where families run into the most issues – store bought snacks that are pre-made are generally full of fillers and other undesirables to make them cheap (which also typically makes them unhealthy). If you can replace JUST snacks in your day with a healthier option, you are off to a great start!
Teaching Healthy Toddler Eating Habits
Armed with the three tips above, let’s get to teaching healthy toddler eating habits, knowing that on the really hard days, we are building a strong (healthy) foundation for life.
If you have a strong desire to change your family and the path the typical toddler in America runs down (nutrition wise), then you are already halfway there. The battle is in not giving up, especially when friends and family are casting doubt or otherwise not being supportive. Arm yourself with knowledge (a book about nutrition from a reliable source such as Food Babe could be extremely helpful).
- Probably the biggest mistake parents make on this health journey is NOT modeling the behavior they want their kids to have. Although this also applies to other areas, if you eat healthy, they are much more likely to follow suit.
- Be persistent – trust me, the days come when you just want to throw your hands up and give them nuggets (because otherwise they are eating air) and I have definitely done this. But if you keep offering healthy options consistently, eventually you will see results.
- Make healthy options more available than unhealthy options – my one year old LOVES fruit, and will often choose fruit over most other foods. We keep a variety of seasonal fruit on hand for him, to offer with meals or when he’s hungry.
- Swap out unhealthy foods for a healthy remake – my two year old LOVES crackers, and we aren’t talking the healthy type. So to deal with this, we are slowly swapping his crackers for healthier options (I’m planning on trying my hand at Trim Healthy Mama friendly graham crackers) and we also settle for “better” options that aren’t on-plan with THM, but are definitely healthier choices than the typical cracker options here in America.
Teaching healthy toddler eating habits is a hard sell in America – when eating the Standard American Diet is the popular thing to do and no one wants to be different or “left out” – but what’s there to be left out of? The next obesity epidemic? Sickness? Disease? Our diet is making us sick, and our children need no part of it.
Do you try to feed your toddlers healthy, to establish healthy habits for life? Do you (or they) feel like they are missing out? Let me know in the comments below.
Christian, wife, “hybrid” mama, I run the site All Behind A Smile to help others like me.
[…] Cutting out these dyes, along with other dietary changes, is a great step along the path to a healthier lifestyle – for you AND your kids. I’ve got an article just for you, if you need some tips for teaching Healthy Toddler Eating Habits. […]