Feeding Toddlers

This question came up on my local twins list this week: what do you feed toddlers? How to you get them to eat healthy food? Or any food? What do your toddlers eat?

I don't intend this as a brag, but I've never had any real problems getting my daughters to eat a variety of food. Some days they devour it, some days they throw it on the floor (or paste it into their hair...), but this is true whether we're talking about cheese crackers or carrot coins, so I don't stress.

One thing you should know: I get a CSA box of vegetables once a week, and thus eat mostly along with the seasons. I also probably eat a lot more vegetables than average in general as a result.

The ladies generally eat more or less what the rest of the household eats. That is, I am prone to serving them reheated leftovers. This week, it's been oyster beef with broccoli over brown rice. Tonight, it will be ground pork and noodles. Last week, diced roast chicken and leftover cauliflower.

I do also prepare a lot of food just for them, but I don't make a big fuss. I'll boil up some dried tortellini once every few weeks -- they love to stick them on their fingers. Also every once in a while I make a small pot of dal, an Indian lentil dish. The last batch I made had leftover diced canned tomatoes mixed in. I like to serve it with yogurt on the side.

I also generally prepare a bag of frozen vegetables once a week. Green beans and peas and carrots are very popular right now; I also like to try out various stir-fry mixes. This is the simplest way to get vegetables into meals, frankly.

Oven-roasted vegetables are also popular with the ladies, and easy to make. I just toss cut-up veggies with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and put in the oven at 400 degrees until they're a little bit browned. This works for carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, cauliflower, winter squash, or any combination thereof.

I also sometimes steam or saute these same vegetables. I also occasionally saute strips of cabbage or kale or chard when I have extra lying around -- they love it. Really!

I also often feed them canned beans (or, sometimes, leftover dried beans).

And fruit, let's not forget fruit. My daughters devour just about any fruit. "Apple" is one of their favorite words. Of course, they use it for pears, Asian pears, oranges and tangelos, oroblancos, mangoes, etc., too, but that's OK. I've tried the occasional canned fruit, but pineapple is the only success so far. I also offer poached prunes at least once a day because one of my daughters has some ongoing issues with constipation.

I supplement all this with a revolving rotation of whole-grain crackers, tortilla and pita chips, and pretzel sticks. And graham crackers and cheese crackers, too. And saltines while the adults are eating. I'm no saint.

A lot of this is finger food because my daughters adore finger food and have for ages now. They can manage a spoon and bowl well enough, and are starting to work on forks, but we are by no means civilized yet.

I'm avoiding some foods (cheese, bananas) because of the constipation issues, not because of general nutrition concerns. My daughters love both cheese and bananas. I might try sneaking it back in on occasion just as a treat. Nothing is forbidden, including sugar; everything is in moderation -- especially sugar, and also white flour.

This is what a typical day of meals looks like at the moment (17 months), not including milk, water, or (usually prune) juice. Also not including various bites of adult food, from gnawing on pork rib bones to spoonfuls of ice cream.

Breakfast: Dry cereal (wheat puffs or Cheerios) and fruit. Sometimes scrambled eggs, too, if the adults are eating them. (My daughters adore eggs.) Very occasionally: oatmeal, pancakes, whole wheat toast, yogurt and fruit.

Lunch: Finger food. Something with protein (beans, eggs--scrambled or hard-boiled or diced-up omelet, leftover chicken, peanut butter, cheese), a vegetable, a fruit, crackers or toast.

Dinner: Bowl and spoon food. Leftovers, dal, noodles or rice, Greek yogurt. A vegetable if there aren't enough veggies in the main dish. More protein if needed, too. More fruit, most of the time.

We're a little inconsistent on snacks in my household. I lean heavily on crackers and fruit here. (More fruit?) The tortilla chips and salsa experiment was kind of fun, though.