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Toddler Eating Danger Zones

Toddlerhood is a time when new dangers come into play in many areas of daily life. Choking hazards; prolonged bottle-feeding; and reliance on nutrition-poor, flavor-heavy foods are the three food dangers to avoid most cautiously.

Choking Hazards

In Chapter 5, we presented a list of the most common food choking hazards for babies and toddlers. But it’s not just what toddlers eat. Where and how they eat can contribute to choking incidents, too. Be sure your toddler doesn’t eat while running, playing roughly, laying down, or strapped into his car seat in the backseat alone.

When learning to feed themselves, some toddlers get overzealous about the amount of food they put into their little mouths, especially if they really love that particular food. Remind your child often to take little bites and chew, chew, chew before swallowing to teach safer eating habits.

Continuing to Use Bottles

It’s easy for parents of bottle-fed babies to continue to have their child use a bottle into toddlerhood as a get-to-sleep tool. Wean your toddler from the bottle as soon as possible because prolonged bottle use contributes to tooth decay as well as an unhealthy attachment to the bottle as an oral pacifier. If your toddler uses a bottle, give it to him only during certain times of day for supplemental formula—not for juices—and not at nap- or bedtime.

Nutrition-Poor, Flavor-Heavy Foods

Now is the time to shape your child’s palate toward healthy vegan eating by presenting foods that are as whole, natural, and healthful as possible. He’ll be introduced to junk food soon enough by extended family, friends, and school, so it’s important to set the tone now while you’re still in control of your child’s daily eating.

Heavily salted, overly sugared, or deep-fried foods, as well as artificial colors and flavors, are the main no-no’s to avoid.

Here are some simple ways to avoid salt:

◆ Use low-sodium vegetable stock and low-sodium soy sauce

◆ Rinse canned beans

◆ Buy natural, no-salt-added peanut butter and unsalted nuts

◆ Choose low-sodium canned soups

◆ Eliminate potato chips and other salty snack foods from your toddler’s choices

Parent Trap

If your child is sensitive to artificial colors and flavors, his mood will show it. In The NDD™ Book, pediatrician William Sears recommends keeping a “food-mood” journal so you can track what foods affect your child’s behavior.

When you do use salt, choose iodized because iodine is essential to your child’s health.

Reducing the amount of sugary foods your toddler consumes starts with limiting juices and chocolate soy milk, dried fruits, and sugary desserts. Of course, toddlers should completely forego sodas and candy of all kinds.

Basic Nutrition for Vegan Toddlers

Talk with your toddler’s doctor about his vegan diet. Consider keeping a food journal for a week to help you reflect on his eating patterns rather than obsessively worrying about perfect nutritional balance at every meal, which will rarely happen in toddlerhood.

If he’s a picky eater or going through one of the particularly sparse eating phases so common to toddlers, his doctor may recommend a daily multivitamin or particular supplement to meet his needs in this time of rapid growth and development.

Calories

Most experts agree that toddlers should eat about 1,000 to 1,500 calories per day, give or take a little depending on his size and activity level. For vegan toddlers, getting too many calories should not be an issue as long as fruit juices, a major source of calories, are limited to perhaps once or twice a day.

Of more concern is making sure the toddler meets his minimum calorie needs, especially when he goes through a phase of disinterest in food. As mentioned earlier, continuing to breast-feed helps during these times. Especially if he’s not nursing, be sure he eats as many nutritionally sound and calorie-rich foods as possible, try to find enriched foods he likes, and talk to your doctor about an appropriate multivitamin. On days when he wants to eat very