subject: Teaching Healthy Food Habits To Your Toddler [print this page] Teaching Healthy Food Habits To Your Toddler
Childhood obesity is becoming a major cause of concern for health experts. Statistics show that more children are obese than ever before.
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These statistics are alarming because it means children will become highly likely to develop obesity related life-threatening conditions at a very young age, reducing their life expectancy.
Another factor that worries health experts is that obese children are likely to remain obese as adults as well, increasing their odds of getting affected with the various diseases associated with obesity.
Take care of diet even when your child is a toddler:
Parents should monitor the diet of children even when they are toddlers. This is the time when children are introduced to wider range of foods. By giving healthy choices to kids as young as 1-3 years old parents can inculcate healthy food habits which are likely to remain with them for long and prevent them from childhood obesity.
A toddler's food habits:
During the first year of life, a child grows at a fast pace. The growth slows down during the second year. The appetite may diminish and the child may show strong preferences for some foods and may dislike certain foods.
Calorie requirement of a toddler is usually about 950 to 1,300 calories a day in his second year. This requirement should be sufficed with high-quality, varied diet. Your baby should get enough milk but not too many of daily calorie requirement should be met from milk alone. Avoid giving junk food to your child.
Don't force-feed:
Parents must not overfeed and force-feed toddlers. This is likely to make them turn overweight or obese in future. Parents should not force their toddlers to finish the meal or clear the plate.
Toddlers usually do eat what they need. If you over-encourage your toddler to eat, they are likely to develop eating disorders and turn obese. You should also ensure regular health check-ups of your toddler to ensure your child is growing at a healthy pace.
Remember that food and eating habits learned in the childhood years are most formative and difficult to brea
