Balanced Diet for Toddlers – Baby Diet

All Parents who care about their baby will want to food them well to give them a balanced diet for toddlers a good start in life. Sensible breastfeeding begins through pregnancy when the excited mother eats sufficient protein, fresh fruit, and vegetables. Supply enough nourishment for herself and the increasing baby.

After the birth, the baby fed completely on milk for the first few months, then weaned on to other foods. The child will then get nourishment from a variety of foods containing different types and amounts of nutrients. A child who is to grow into a healthy adult needs a balanced diet.

Starting with baby food. Making your own toddler food is a healthy and cheap option for feeding your newborn. In addition, if your baby is breastfeeding, you can also mix some breast milk with your homemade baby food mix. Unfortunately, making your own baby food can be difficult at first.

Which Foods are Best for a Baby?

The first few years of life are the most important for the development of a child, and a lot of good habits are developed during this period. So if you want your child to be healthy and intelligent, you will have to ensure that you give them the right food and nutrition. When I look at how much children are given to eat these days, I am not sure of the nutritional value. This blog will look at how we can ensure that our kids eat right and get all the proper nutrition they need.

What Does a Toddler Need in their Diet?

Some foods you eat and serve to your baby can have adverse effects. This depends on the stage of your baby’s life. During the first few months of their life, you will need to ensure that they get the proper nutrients and vitamins. This is especially true while breastfeeding. Baby formula is one of the best ways to ensure your baby gets the right nutrients. Here’s how you can use baby food to give your baby a good start in life.

A Balanced Diet

The word diet means the usual type of food that is eaten. For example, a young baby has a diet of milk, whereas the balanced diet of an older child is a combination of foods. ‘Going on a diet is rather dissimilar.

When someone ‘goes on a diet’ that person is limited to eating certain foods, perhaps because of a disease such as diabetes, or in order to lose or increase weight.

A balanced diet is one that contains enough of all the necessary food substances. This does not mean that every meal has to be balanced or that the correct amounts, of each of the seven substances recorded on, have to be eaten each day.

It means that over the course of several days, the body needs to take in enough of the right kinds of food substances to grow and to stay healthy. Children who eat a balanced diet more likely to:

• Develop a strong, well-formed body.
• Have the energy to keep warm and active
• Keep healthy
• Grow to their full potential height (the height which their genes will allow)
• Maintain a suitable weight for their height and age.

A Rough Guide to a Balanced Diet

Parents do not need to worry too much about giving their children a balanced diet. If they offer a variety of food during the day, the child will eat what his body needs.

Generally speaking, a child should have each day:

• Some milk
• Protein foods; meat, poultry, fish, cheese, an egg, or beans
• Vegetables- raw or cooked
• Fruit
• Bread, whole grain cereals, potatoes, pasta, or rice.

Variations Balanced Diet for Toddlers

Likes and dislikes: The list given is only a rough guide. A good diet is obtained in a number of ways. For example.

• A child who won’t meat or fish can get sufficient protein for milk, eggs, cheese, beans, peas, and nuts.
• Some children do not like vegetables. They will come to no harm as long as other foods containing minerals, vitamins, and fiber eaten.
• Other children do not like fruit, but they may like fruit juice drinks such as blackcurrant or rosehip.
• Children who do not like drinking milk given in the form of milk puddings, custard, yogurt, cheese, or ice cream.

Cost of Good Balanced Diet

Good eating does not have to be expensive. Nourishing foods are often less expensive than the high-calorie foods mentioned. When a parent knows which foods are nourishing (i.e. supply proteins. vitamins and minerals), good meals can be served which may well cost less than meals of poorer quality.

An Unbalanced Diet for baby

The diet can be unbalanced because of a shortage of food. too much food or lack of essential substances in the food. Children whose health could be improved by more food or better food are suffering from malnutrition. Such children fail to thrive, lack energy, and are less able to resist infections.

Deficiency Diseases

When particular items in the diet are absent or in short supply (are deficient), illnesses called deficiency diseases to develop.

Shortage of Deficiency disease

Iron or Vitamin B

Anemia: The lack of red pigment (hemoglobin) in the blood results in a shortage of oxygen throughout the body and feelings of ‘no energy’.

Calcium or Vitamin D

Rickets: Children’s bones do not form properly, are soft and weak and bend under pressure.

Vitamin C

Scurvy: The gums become soft and bleed. Teeth become loose, and wounds fail to heal properly.

Vitamin A

Night blindness: (not being able to see in dim light). There is also, reduced resistance to diseases, especially those affecting those affections the skin.

Protein

Kwashiorkor: This is a disease of severe malnutrition. The starving children have pot0bellies that are swollen with water.

High-calorie foods

There are some foods that are high in calories but have very little other nutritional value. They contain a great deal of sugar, starch, or fat and include sweets, chocolate, cakes, biscuits, and pastry.

Children often love them because they are sweet and cast to eat. There is no cause why they should not be part of the diet in small amounts. When this type of food is eaten in large amounts, a child has less desire for more sustaining foods. Too much high-calorie food may also cause a child to put on too much weight.

Obesity (fatness)

Fat babies and children are often not strong. They take less exercise and are more likely to pick up toxicities such as bronchitis. Being overweight is caused by eating extra food than body essentials.

Overeating is a habit that, once attained, is difficult to break. Children (like adults) vary in the amount of food they can eat before receiving fat and some seem to put on weight very easily.

The tendency to be overweight often seems like fun in families. So also does the tendency to give children lots of high-calorie foods.

Everyone has seen a baby that has been underfed and is underdeveloped; it is sad but true. Parents need to make sure they give their babies the proper nutrition. They must have a balanced diet. It is important to give babies the nutrients they need to grow.