Healthy toddler recipes: child-friendly food

Your toddler will eat mostly modified soft foods – small bits of cooked chicken, pasta without spices, well-cooked, unsalted vegetable pieces, and so on, but keep baby cereal on her menu to ensure that she gets enough B vitamins and iron. Now is a good time to introduce her to foods with different textures. That way she'll grow up willing to try new things.

How much is enough?

The amount a toddler eats varies from meal to meal and day to day. If your child is growing and gaining weight, don't worry that she's not eating enough. Children this age are quite good at making sure they get what they need. She actually needs less food than you might think: roughly 900 to 1000 calories each day. That's not a lot when you consider that your child consumes 300 to 500 of those calories in whole milk (about 16 to 24 ounces) alone.

Your toddler will get plenty if you offer her three meals a day, along with three sit-down snacks. Try half an English muffin with melted and cooled cheese or an unsalted cracker with a little bit of banana.

Read more about your child's ever-broadening menu.