This document provides parents with tips and strategies for establishing healthy eating habits in their toddlers. It discusses the importance of teaching good habits early, getting toddlers involved in food preparation, and which foods to include or avoid in a toddler's diet. Specific recommendations include establishing family mealtimes without distractions, introducing toddlers to where food comes from through activities like farming visits, avoiding sugars and processed foods high in refined carbs, and ensuring toddlers get enough calcium from dairy, broccoli, or other sources. The overall goal is to make healthy eating fun and enjoyable for toddlers through involvement and positive reinforcement.

1. TITLE: Parents’ Ultimate Guide To Having Happy, Healthy Toddlers SUBTITLE: Discover
Insider Secrets To Improving Your Toddler’s Diet…Without The Battles!
Introduction
Teaching toddlers to eat healthy is incredibly important. Healthy eating supplies your youngster
with the necessary energy for proper growth and learning.
Establishing healthy eating habits for your children now is a gift they will take with them far into
the future! Not only will it help them by strengthening their young minds and bodies, but it will
also allow them to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight throughout their lives!
As all parents know, convincing toddlers to eat healthy is no simple task! Often times, there is a
huge gap between what your kids want to eat and what they should be eating. Thankfully,
shrinking that gap can be easier than you might think!
This eBook will help you get your child to eat well by showing you some of the best ways to
make healthy eating more enjoyable and fun for them! Also included are healthy meal plans that
will get you started on the right foot!
Chapter 1: Teach Good Habits Early
It is important to teach your toddler good habits as early as possible. The earlier you start, the
better chance they have of actually becoming lifelong habits! This is the time to instill structure
with regard to meals and snacks.
Try to establish meals as a time for the family to be together. This will allow your toddler to
associate eating with pleasant thoughts of togetherness. Areas for meals and snacks should be
specifically predetermined in order to ward off the possibility of your youngster snacking
throughout the day. Naturally, the most likely spots would be the kitchen or the dining room. The
hope is that these rooms will be the areas that are primarily associated with food in the mind of
your child. Also, eating as a family at the dinner table presents an excellent opportunity for you
to teach your child good table manners!
Avoid watching television while eating. Watching television during meals can result in
overeating because your youngster might be paying more attention to what they’re watching
instead of how full they actually are.
Mealtimes and snacks are excellent opportunities to teach your toddler about eating healthy.
Remember not to force healthier choices. The last thing you want to do is cause your child to
make a connection between eating and stress. A good way to make healthy changes to your
child’s diet is to sprinkle the new additions in with what they are already comfortable with.
Remember to stick with it! It may take a while to get your toddler to accept these new foods. In
fact, it can take up to 10 tries! Don’t give up!

2. Avoid using sweets and desserts as rewards to convince children to eat the healthier foods. This
can cause children to minimize the value of vegetables and fruits and to conclude that desserts
and sweets are superior in some way. Instead, consider offering stickers or small toys as rewards
for eating the foods that are good for them.
When teaching your children the importance of healthy eating, you might consider getting the
point across by utilizing illustrations they can relate to. For boys, this might involve explaining
how eating their vegetables can help them grow strong muscles like their favorite superheroes.
You might consider explaining to a girl that eating fruits and vegetables can give her pretty hair
and skin like her favorite fairytale princess.
Chapter 2: Get Toddlers Involved!
When it comes to food, help your youngsters feel like they are a part of the process! Letting them
experience different aspects of food preparation is a great way to help them establish a healthy
relationship with food. The more they become familiar with different types of food, the more
comfortable they will be with experimenting with new things.
A good way to do this is to show toddlers where their food comes from. Taking your toddler to
visit a farm, orchard, or community garden could be an incredibly beneficial activity for them to
experience! During these trips, help them make the connection between what they’re seeing at
these berry farms and vegetable gardens and the food on their plate. This educational excursion
can be just what your child needs to jumpstart a healthy curiosity with food!
Take your toddler grocery shopping! Involving your children in the family’s decision-making
process in this way will give you an idea about what foods they are currently partial to as well as
what foods they seem to dislike. It will also give you an excellent chance to inform them about
making good nutritional decisions.
While grocery shopping, encourage your toddler to help out as much as possible. This can
include holding the shopping list and picking some of the groceries. As you shop, offer your
child options to choose from. Let them decide between apples or oranges and so on.
Another great way to get toddlers involved is to encourage them to help you make meals and
snacks. Like grocery shopping, this will help you develop an understanding of what foods they
do and don’t like. Because they have a hand in putting the food together, children might have
more of an adventurous attitude when it comes to trying new things.
Some good ways to include your youngster in food preparation is to have them add toppings onto
such dishes as pizzas and casseroles. Cookie cutters can be used to make fun shapes out of
sandwiches. You can also have them create fun designs and rainbows when placing foods like
carrot sticks, celery, and cherry tomatoes on their plate. All of this will also give children a
fulfilling sense of achievement.

3. Chapter 3: Foods You Should Avoid and Dangers to be Aware of
When planning your toddler’s diet, avoid foods containing refined sugars and white flour. These
are found in processed foods and provide little to no nutritional value. In fact, refined sugars are
stripped of their natural vitamins and minerals and have little to offer but empty calories.
Consuming too many of these carbohydrates is a major cause of obesity, diabetes, and
cardiovascular diseases.
Processed foods that contain refined sugars and white flour include soda, candy, cookies,
muffins, cakes, bread, pasta, and crackers. To avoid unhealthy amounts of refined sugar and
white flour, seek out unprocessed foods like beans, lentils, fish, fresh fruits, eggs, nuts, legumes,
chicken, fresh vegetables, beef, and seeds. Whole grains, such as oats, buckwheat, and barley are
also some great options.
Look for breads made with whole wheat flour. This will help to minimize your child’s
consumption of the unhealthy carbohydrates found in bread. Sprouted Bread is also a healthy
option.
There are lots of breakfast cereals out there that are overloaded with refined sugars and white
flour. Some healthy alternatives include quinoa, oatmeal, kasha, plain yogurt mixed with fruit,
and homemade smoothies.
Apart from the above foods to avoid, there are also some health concerns to be aware of when
considering a more adventurous diet for your toddler. It is extremely important to remember that
honey should not be given to an infant under the age of 12 months. However innocuous honey
may seem, the fact is that honey contains spores that can wreak havoc on your child’s digestive
system and result in death.
Children aged 1-3 are extremely susceptible to choking. Because of this fact, remember to dice
green beans, carrots, celery, and similar vegetables. Fruits like grapes and cherry tomatoes
should be quartered.
1-3 years of age is also the perfect time to introduce your child to seafood. However, your child’s
food allergies must always be taken into consideration. Accordingly, it is wise to begin with
small portions of foods that are known to be particularly allergenic, like seafood, so potential
reactions can be as minimal as possible.
Chapter 4: What to Include in Your Toddler’s Diet
Now that we’ve covered what not to feed your youngster, let’s discuss the things that should be
included in your child’s diet.
Calcium is immensely important! It is vital for calcium to be an essential part of your toddler’s
diet. Your child needs calcium for the building of healthy bones, muscles, and teeth. Dairy is an

4. excellent source of calcium. A growing toddler needs 500 milligrams of calcium a day. This
amount of calcium can be found in two servings of milk, yogurt, or cheese.
Both cow’s milk and goat’s milk products are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals.
However, when it comes to calcium, goat’s milk contains a bit more.
If your youngster is not fond of milk or allergic to it, broccoli, peas, and oranges are also great
sources of calcium. Soy milk that is fortified with vitamin A, vitamin D, and calcium is also a
suitable alternative.
Vegetables should be an integral part of any child’s diet. The health benefits from eating veggies
are plentiful! For the most part, veggies have incredibly low amounts of calories and fat. They
do not have cholesterol. Vegetables help decrease the threat of heart disease, heart attack, stroke,
obesity, and type 2 Diabetes. Also, the skins of many vegetables are important sources of fiber.
When shopping for veggies, consider the fact that organic vegetables generally contain more
nutritional value than those that have been treated with pesticides and herbicides. In addition,
fresh and frozen vegetables are preferable over canned vegetables.
Despite what your toddler might think about the way that some veggies might taste, veggies are
incredibly good for them! Most adults already know this. The trick is convincing your youngster
to eat them! Consider adding some tasty toppings to your children’s veggies. Butter, sesame oil,
flax oil, Parmesan cheese, and melted cheese all present some wonderfully delicious
possibilities! Another way of making vegetables more attractive to children is to dress them up a
bit. Mix the different colors to make them look fun and exciting to your child.
Your toddler needs fats! That is, your child will greatly benefit from taking in the good fats!
These good fats are especially beneficial when it comes to your youngster’s brain development.
These good fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, are found in avocados, peanuts,
almonds, cashews, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, and
soybean oil. Polyunsaturated fat is also the main fat that is found in salmon, anchovies, herring,
sardines, and trout.
Meats are also great for brain development! For starters, fish has been known to boost cognitive
development in infants and toddlers. Also, chicken is filled will the vitamins and nutrients that
youngsters need!
Chapter 5: Meal Breakdowns
Following are breakdowns of some meal suggestions that are quick and easy to prepare.
Remember to always take into consideration your child’s age and ability to chew certain foods
when planning meals.
Breakfast

5. Multigrain waffles, buckwheat pancakes, vegetable and cheese omelet with spinach, broccoli,
and tomatoes, sprouted bread with cheese, or cottage cheese with fruit
Cereal options include Kashi, bran with fruit, cheerios, and oatmeal.
Lunch
Grilled cheese on sprouted bread with tomato and goat or regular cheese, plain yogurt with fresh
fruit or apple sauce, all natural turkey slices with steamed carrots, baked potato with melted
cheese and broccoli, veggie burger with condiments, or bananas with sunflower butter
Snack
Vegetables and pita dipped in humus or spinach and goat cheese (or tofu cream cheese) dip,
avocado mixed with vegetables and dipped with crackers or chips, Cereal bars instead of
cookies, whole grain pretzels, sweet potato chips, fruit, or smoothies
Dinner
Whole wheat pasta with sauce or meat sauce and peas, chicken or veal parmesan with spinach,
turkey hot dogs (nitrate free), hamburger on a whole grain bun, spaghetti with turkey meatballs
Possible sides include sweet potato, sweet potato cut in discs, creamed spinach, sesame broccoli,
carrots (baby), cut veggies to make faces and shapes and letters, vegetable fried rice with
chicken, vegetable quesadillas, soups
Dessert (rather than offering dessert every night, make it on special occasions)
Natural frozen yogurt, baked apple, frozen fruit bar, cookies in moderation
Conclusion
While ensuring that your youngster is eating healthy, it is important to remember that children
need to be active. A healthy diet and regular exercise – together – are vital to the growth of your
child.
Regular exercise helps children develop strong muscles, a healthy weight, and strong bones.
Exercise is also great for a child’s sleep patterns and brain development.
Long stretches of time watching television and playing video games should be avoided. Every
opportunity should be taken to keep children active. Ways to keep your children active include
visiting outdoor parks, playing sports, playing tag, age-appropriate jungle gym activities, Simon
says with jumping jacks, karate, and freeze dancing.
Always remember to set a good example for your children. When your children see you eating
well and exercising regularly, they will be encouraged to do the same!

6. Final Version
Parents’ Ultimate Guide to Having Happy, Healthy Toddlers: DiscoverInsider Secrets to
Improving Your Toddler’s Diet…Without the Battles!
Introduction
Teaching toddlers to eat healthy is incredibly important. Healthy eating supplies your youngster
with the necessary energy for proper growth and learning.
Establishing healthy eating habits for your children now is a gift they will take with them far into
the future! Not only will it help them by strengthening their young minds and bodies, but it will
also allow them to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight throughout their lives!
As all parents know, convincing toddlers to eat healthy is no simple task! Often times, there is a
huge gap between what your kids want to eat and what they should be eating. Thankfully,
shrinking that gap can be easier than you might think!
This eBook will help you get your child to eat well by showing you some of the best ways to
make healthy eating more enjoyable and fun for them! Also included are healthy meal plans that
will get you started on the right foot!
Chapter 1: Teach Good Habits Early
It is important to teach your toddler good habits as early as possible. The earlier you start, the
better chance they have of actually becoming lifelong habits! This is the time to instill structure
with regard to meals and snacks.
Try to establish meals as a time for the family to be together. This will allow your toddler to
associate eating with pleasant thoughts of togetherness. Areas for meals and snacks should be
specifically predetermined in order to ward off the possibility of your youngster snacking
throughout the day. Naturally, the most likely spots would be the kitchen or the dining room. The
hope is that these rooms will be the areas that are primarily associated with food in the mind of
your child. Also, eating as a family at the dinner table presents an excellent opportunity for you
to teach your child good table manners!

7. Avoid watching television while eating. Watching television during meals can result in
overeating because your youngster might be paying more attention to what they’re watching
instead of how full they actually are.
Mealtimes and snacks are excellent opportunities to teach your toddler about eating healthy.
Remember not to force healthier choices. The last thing you want to do is cause your child to
make a connection between eating and stress. A good way to make healthy changes to your
child’s diet is to sprinkle the new additions in with what they are already comfortable with.
Remember to stick with it! It may take a while to get your toddler to accept these new foods. In
fact, it can take up to 10 tries! Don’t give up!
Avoid using sweets and desserts as rewards to convince children to eat the healthier foods. This
can cause children to minimize the value of vegetables and fruits and to conclude that desserts
and sweets are superior in some way. Instead, consider offering stickers or small toys as rewards
for eating the foods that are good for them.
When teaching your children the importance of healthy eating, you might consider getting the
point across by utilizing illustrations they can relate to. For boys, this might involve explaining
how eating their vegetables can help them grow strong muscles like their favorite superheroes.
You might consider explaining to a girl that eating fruits and vegetables can give her pretty hair
and skin like her favorite fairytale princess.
Chapter 2: Get Toddlers Involved!
When it comes to food, help your youngsters feel like they are a part of the process! Letting them
experience different aspects of food preparation is a great way to help them establish a healthy
relationship with food. The more they become familiar with different types of food, the more
comfortable they will be with experimenting with new things.
A good way to do this is to show toddlers where their food comes from. Taking your toddler to
visit a farm, orchard, or community garden could be an incredibly beneficial activity for them to

8. experience! During these trips, help them make the connection between what they’re seeing at
these berry farms and vegetable gardens and the food on their plate. This educational excursion
can be just what your child needs to jumpstart a healthy curiosity with food!
Take your toddler grocery shopping! Involving your children in the family’s decision-making
process in this way will give you an idea about what foods they are currently partial to as well as
what foods they seem to dislike. It will also give you an excellent chance to inform them about
making good nutritional decisions.
While grocery shopping, encourage your toddler to help out as much as possible. This can
include holding the shopping list and picking some of the groceries. As you shop, offer your
child options to choose from. Let them decide between apples or oranges and so on.
Another great way to get toddlers involved is to encourage them to help you make meals and
snacks. Like grocery shopping, this will help you develop an understanding of what foods they
do and don’t like. Because they have a hand in putting the food together, children might have
more of an adventurous attitude when it comes to trying new things.
Some good ways to include your youngster in food preparation is to have them add toppings onto
such dishes as pizzas and casseroles. Cookie cutters can be used to make fun shapes out of
sandwiches. You can also have them create fun designs and rainbows when placing foods like
carrot sticks, celery, and cherry tomatoes on their plate. All of this will also give children a
fulfilling sense of achievement.
Chapter 3: Foods You Should Avoid and Dangers to be Aware of
When planning your toddler’s diet, avoid foods containing refined sugars and white flour. These
are found in processed foods and provide little to no nutritional value. In fact, refined sugars are
stripped of their natural vitamins and minerals and have little to offer but empty calories.
Consuming too many of these carbohydrates is a major cause of obesity, diabetes, and
cardiovascular diseases.
Processed foods that contain refined sugars and white flour include soda, candy, cookies,
muffins, cakes, bread, pasta, and crackers. To avoid unhealthy amounts of refined sugar and
white flour, seek out unprocessed foods like beans, lentils, fish, fresh fruits, eggs, nuts, legumes,

9. chicken, fresh vegetables, beef, and seeds. Whole grains, such as oats, buckwheat, and barley are
also some great options.
Look for breads made with whole wheat flour. This will help to minimize your child’s
consumption of the unhealthy carbohydrates found in bread. Sprouted Bread is also a healthy
option.
There are lots of breakfast cereals out there that are overloaded with refined sugars and white
flour. Some healthy alternatives include quinoa, oatmeal, kasha, plain yogurt mixed with fruit,
and homemade smoothies.
Apart from the above foods to avoid, there are also some health concerns to be aware of when
considering a more adventurous diet for your toddler. It is extremely important to remember that
honey should not be given to an infant under the age of 12 months. However innocuous honey
may seem, the fact is that honey contains spores that can wreak havoc on your child’s digestive
system and result in death.
Children aged 1-3 are extremely susceptible to choking. Because of this fact, remember to dice
green beans, carrots, celery, and similar vegetables. Fruits like grapes and cherry tomatoes
should be quartered.
1-3 years of age is also the perfect time to introduce your child to seafood. However, your child’s
food allergies must always be taken into consideration. Always consult with your doctor first
before introducing highly allergic foods like shell fish, eggs, nuts, soy, and dairy.
Chapter 4: What to Include in Your Toddler’s Diet
Now that we’ve covered what not to feed your youngster, let’s discuss the things that should be
included in your child’s diet.
Calcium is immensely important! It is vital for calcium to be an essential part of your toddler’s
diet. Your child needs calcium for the building of healthy bones, muscles, and teeth. Dairy is an

10. excellent source of calcium. A growing toddler needs 500 milligrams of calcium a day. This
amount of calcium can be found in two servings of milk, yogurt, or cheese.
Both cow’s milk and goat’s milk products are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals.
However, when it comes to calcium, goat’s milk contains a bit more and is also easier to digest.
If your youngster is not fond of milk or allergic to it, broccoli, peas, leafy greens like kale and
bok choy, and certain fruits like oranges are also great sources of calcium. Coconut or almond
milk (barring not nut allergies) that is fortified with vitamin A, vitamin D, and calcium are also a
suitable alternative.
Vegetables should be an integral part of any child’s diet. The health benefits from eating veggies
are plentiful! For the most part, veggies have incredibly low amounts of calories and fat and are
high in antioxidants. Vegetables help decrease the threat of heart disease, heart attack, stroke,
obesity, and type 2 Diabetes. Also, the skins of many vegetables are important sources of fiber.
When shopping for veggies, consider the fact that organic vegetables generally contain more
nutritional value than those that have been treated with pesticides and herbicides. In addition,
fresh and frozen vegetables are preferable over canned vegetables.
Despite what your toddler might think about the way that some veggies might taste, veggies are
incredibly good for them! Most adults already know this. The trick is convincing your youngster
to eat them! Consider adding some tasty toppings to your children’s veggies. Butter, sesame oil,
flax oil, Parmesan cheese, and melted cheese all present some wonderfully delicious
possibilities! Another way of making vegetables more attractive to children is to dress them up a
bit. Mix the different colors to make them look fun and exciting to your child.
Your toddler needs fats! That is, your child will greatly benefit from taking in the good fats!
These good fats are especially beneficial when it comes to your youngster’s brain development.
These good fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, are found in avocados, peanuts,
almonds, cashews, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, and
coconut oil. Polyunsaturated fat is also the main fat that is found in salmon, anchovies, herring,
sardines, and trout.

11. Meats are also great for brain development! And because of the healthy fats (omega 3 fatty acids
in fish like salmon and trout) in fish, it has been known to boost cognitive development in infants
and toddlers.
Chapter 5: Meal Breakdowns
Following are breakdowns of some meal suggestions that are quick and easy to prepare.
Remember to always take into consideration your child’s age and ability to chew certain foods
when planning meals.
Breakfast
 Multigrain waffles, buckwheat pancakes, vegetable and cheese omelet with spinach,
broccoli, and tomatoes, sprouted bread with cheese, or cottage cheese with fruit
 Cereal options include Kashi, bran with fruit, cheerios, and oatmeal.
Lunch
 Grilled cheese on sprouted bread with tomato and goat or regular cheese, plain yogurt
with fresh fruit or apple sauce, all natural, nitrate-free turkey slices with steamed carrots,
baked potato with melted cheese and broccoli, veggie burger with condiments, or bananas
with sunflower butter
Snack
 Vegetables and pita dipped in humus or spinach and goat cheese (or tofu cream cheese)
dip, avocado mixed with vegetables and dipped with crackers or chips, cereal bars instead
of cookies, whole grain pretzels, sweet potato chips, fruit, or smoothies

12. Dinner
 Whole wheat pasta with sauce or meat sauce and peas, chicken or veal parmesan with
spinach, turkey hot dogs (nitrate free), hamburger on a whole grain bun, spaghetti with
turkey meatballs
 Possible sides include sweet potato, baked sweet potato cut in discs as chips, creamed
spinach, sesame broccoli, carrots, cut veggies to make faces and shapes and letters,
vegetable fried rice with chicken or pork, vegetable quesadillas, soups
Dessert (rather than offering dessert every night, make it on special occasions)
 All natural, organic ice cream, baked apple, frozen fruit bar, oatmeal cookies in
moderation
Conclusion
While ensuring that your youngster is eating healthy, it is important to remember that children
need to be active. A healthy diet and regular exercise – together – are vital to the growth of your
child.
Regular exercise helps children develop strong muscles, a healthy weight, and strong bones.
Exercise is also great for a child’s sleep patterns and brain development.
Long stretches of time watching television and playing video games should be avoided. Every
opportunity should be taken to keep children active. Ways to keep your children active include
visiting outdoor parks, playing sports, playing tag, age-appropriate jungle gym activities, Simon
says with jumping jacks, karate, laser tag, trampoline jumping, and freeze dancing.

13. Always remember to set a good example for your children. When your children see you eating
well and exercising regularly, they will be encouraged to do the same!