Disclosure – This is a collaborative post
A toddler’s digestive system is one of the more robust aspects of their young growing bodies. They are able to eat almost anything that adults eat but in very small bites. However, babies are unable to use their meals for much else other than growth. We eat breakfasts to give us the energy we need to go to work. Babies use their breakfast energy to grow to protect themselves from harmful infections and strengthen the immune system. That’s why it’s common for babies to eat and then go to sleep almost immediately afterwards. This can be used to your advantage and something you will get better at predicting as the weeks and months go on. But since your toddler will be getting 3 to 5 small meals a day, will he or she always sleep? No, but here’s how you can make a routine that does take this into account.
Weight and schedule
There are some meals that can be classed as light, and others as medium and heavy. This can be linked to the size of the meal but also the food that is consumed. For babies, a light meal would be a small number of mashed vegetables and fruits. This is when you’re feeding your toddler a snack or perhaps breakfast. A medium meal can be a small 150-250ml bottle of milk. A large meal would be solids, as it takes more digestive energy to break down the food and make it absorbable. The heavier the meal, the more likely it is that your toddler will need to be set down to sleep in his or her cot, even if it’s during the day. It’s a good idea to make a schedule, whereby you can allow your toddler to get the maximum amount of sleep and playtime and still receive good meals throughout the day.
Light or medium?
Light meals will purely be for giving your toddler a variety of vitamins, nutrition and minerals. So, this will be things like vegetables, fruits, and peanut butter. However, as peanut butter is technically solid, this should only be food for the toddler after 6 months. Peanut butter is smooth and packed full of healthy fats and oils. It also may technically fall under the medium meal category too, if it has chunks in it. Smooth peanut butter is a better option. However, a medium meal would be something that you give your toddler during the day, preferably during lunchtime. For that, you may want to look into baby formula that uses S-26 Gold. This formula has a lot of nutritional value and can be used for toddlers between the ages of 1 -3.
Meat is essential
Toddlers unlike babies have stronger digestive systems that can break down beef without much fuss. Therefore giving your toddler red meat is going to be very beneficial to his or her growth. However, this should only be something you feed him or her, during dinner and not during lunch as this is a heavy meal. It can make toddlers very sleepy and want to sleep even during the day.
Toddlers will need to have 3 to 5 small meals a day. However, they are still growing rapidly and thus use the energy to do so while asleep.
Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
