Tips For Feeding Young Children
Tips for Feeding
Cooperative Extension Service
College of Agriculture and
Home Economics
Young Children
Guide E-134
Martha Archuleta, Extension Food and Nutrition Specialist
This publication is scheduled to be updated and reissued 9/04.
Eating should be a pleasurable experience,
• Serve fruit and vegetable finger foods rather
although parents and caregivers with toddlers and
than a mixed dish. Children are suspicious of
preschoolers may sometimes wonder. Young
things they don’t recognize; they often dislike
children alternately refuse and then demand
casseroles because they can’t identify the
certain foods; some children seem to eat so little
foods. Children also prefer to keep their foods
they can’t possibly thrive (most do).
separate and don’t like one food to touch
Almost every time they sit down to eat, young
another.
children encounter many new foods, while
simultaneously learning to manage utensils and
• Arrange food attractively on small plates.
cups. Parents and caregivers can reduce the stress
Avoid bribes, gimmicks, and games to get a
and tension triggered when feeding toddlers and
child to eat. As soon as a child is finished
preschoolers by following these two basic
eating, respect his wishes to stop.
guidelines:
• When children finish quickly or eat little or
• Provide a wide variety of nutritious foods at
nothing, have them stay at the table for a few
regular two- to three-hour intervals (usually
minutes and talk pleasantly about the day’s
three meals and two or three snacks each day).
activities and tomorrow’s plans. Mealtimes are
not occasions for discipline or unpleasant
• Allow the child to be responsible for deciding
discussion.
how much of each food to eat and the order in
which to eat them; the child may decide not to
• Keep portions small. A spoonful of fruits and
eat anything.
vegetables, a quarter of a slice of bread, and
two or three small bites of meat may be
Offering Foods
sufficient for small eaters. Allow children to
ask for seconds after they have finished their
• When you serve a new food to a child, make
first servings.
sure it’s accompanied by familiar foods.
Encourage the child to taste it, but don’t expect
• Don’t run a short-order kitchen, responding to
her to accept it the first time. Two-year-olds
a variety of requests from different family
are especially suspicious, generally refusing
members.
unfamiliar foods several times before trying
them. Accept the child’s decision with no
What to Expect from Young Children
comment.
• When children refuse to eat a regular meal or
• Encouraging or forcing children to eat more
snack and then return to the kitchen just as it’s
than they want reduces their ability to know
cleaned up asking for something to eat, tell
when they are full, leading to overweight and
them pleasantly that the next meal or snack
even obese children.
will be forthcoming at the usual time. A child
To find more resources for your business, home, or family, visit the College of Agriculture and Home Economics
on the World Wide Web at http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu
will not starve in that short time and will learn
mealtime or strive to feed the child by
to observe a regular eating schedule.
preparing a special dish. Don’t offer rewards
or incentives or allow the child to dictate the
• Do not present dessert as a reward or incentive
family meal plan—or you may find yourself
for eating. Allow children to eat dessert first if
with a finicky eater. Children recognize when
they wish—especially if it’s already on the
they have power over adults and will use their
table—followed by other foods. Provide
skill to manipulate adults.
necessary nutrients by serving desserts such as
fruits, yogurt, and pudding.
Making Mealtimes Pleasant
• Children have small stomachs and need to eat
• Two-year-olds may stay with a meal for as
several times throughout the day. Provide
long as 10 minutes; four-year-olds are usually
small meals and snacks to maintain a consis-
ready to leave the table in 20 minutes.
tent supply of energy and nutrients for growth
and activity.
• Make the child’s chair a comfortable height for
sitting at the table. Provide a foot support to
• Children learn to know when they are satisfied
prevent leg fatigue.
if they are allowed to select their own diet
from a variety of nutritious foods and eat only
• Children should always sit when eating—most
as much as they want. These children are more
choking occurs when children are running.
likely to develop life-long good eating habits.
• Provide tip- and spill-proof glasses for drinks.
• Be patient with children’s idiosyncrasies. A
When spills occur, let children help clean up.
child may think a sandwich isn’t really a
sandwich unless it’s cut diagonally, want milk
• Children generally eat better when an adult
served in one cup and juice in another, or
sits with them. Be patient with slow eaters
expect the customary place mat same side up
who may become involved in the eating
every time. For the child, these are important
process itself or visiting. Eliminate the
parts of the meal. These needs generally fade
distractions of television, toys, or other
over time.
activities.
• Children frequently develop food fads. For
Serving Foods Safely
example, a child may request a peanut butter
sandwich at snacktime for days or weeks. As
• Cut all foods, especially meats, into small,
long as the requests don’t disrupt the family
bite-sized pieces to prevent choking.
meal plan, it’s easier to comply, as these
requests pass with time.
• Cool foods to room temperature to avoid
burns.
• Children in day care are often hungry when
you pick them up at the end of the day. Provide
• Provide child-sized utensils. Using small
them with a light snack as soon as they get
pitchers, children can pour their own milk or
home.
juice.
• Hungry children are not patient. When you eat
• Use nonbreakable dishes and cups. Cloth and
away from home, bring a few crackers or
plastic placemats protect the table from spills
wedges of fresh fruit to take the edge off their
and stray food.
appetites as they wait for a meal.
• Some foods are unsafe for children under age
• Children go through temporary periods of not
three, including nuts, small rounded candies,
eating. Be careful not to hover over the child at
weiners, and raw carrots. They are difficult to
Guide E-134 • Page 2
manage in the mouth and are likely to cause
green beans, cooked sweet potato, mashed
choking.
potatoes, oven-baked potato fries, peas, cooked
and uncooked frozen vegetables, celery with
• Children usually do not like spicy or hot
strings removed.
seasoned foods until they are elementary-
school age or even older.
Fruits In thin wedges or bite-sized pieces:
Apples, pears, peaches, oranges, mandarin
Offering Nutritious Foods
oranges, canned fruits, fresh berries (halved),
watermelon with seeds removed, cantaloupe,
• Avoid offering children foods low in nutrients
banana.
and extremely high in fat and sodium. Young
children need only about 1000 calories per day,
Breads and Cereals: Toast, arrowroot
so too many low-nutrient, high-calorie foods
cookies, zwieback crackers, soda crackers,
(such as cookies, candy, chips, and soft drinks)
pretzels, bagels, unsweetened cereals served
will displace high-nutrient foods. Poor food
either dry or with milk, regular and instant hot
choices threaten children’s growth and health.
cereals, cooked pasta (including noodles,
macaroni, and spaghetti), whole-grain breads and
• Children often prefer raw vegetables to cooked
buns, rice.
ones. Thin strips of zucchini, bell pepper,
celery, and carrots dipped in cottage cheese or
Dairy: Cheese cubes and slices, yogurt,
yogurt spreads or low-fat salad dressing are
low-fat milk.
good food choices.
Meats, Fish, Poultry, Other: Tender, diced
• Choose real fruit and vegetable juices rather
beef, chicken, and fish; fish sticks; ground meat;
than artificial fruit drinks, which are high in
hot dog spears (split lengthwise into fourths and
sugar and low in nutrients.
then in halves); hard-cooked eggs; well-cooked
legumes such as beans; peanut butter.
• Keep a supply of quick, nutritious snacks
readily available for occasions when you have
both hungry children and a tight schedule.
Orginal Publication written by Alice Jane Hendley,
Cheese, crackers, and juices are quick,
former Extension Specialist Emerita
nutritious fillers.
• The best role models for good eating habits are
Additional Resources
the adults and older children who care for
children. Older children who have been
allowed to choose what they want to eat are
E.M. Satter. How to Get Your Kid to Eat. . .
less likely to criticize a food, discouraging
But Not Too Much. Palo Alto: Bull Publishing
other children from eating it, too.
Co., 1987.
Good Foods for Young Children
E.M. Satter. Child of Mine: Feeding With Love
and Good Sense. Palo Alto: Bull Publishing Co.,
Focus on serving children these nutritious
1991.
foods:
Vegetables: Thin carrot strips (children over
age three), cherry tomato halves, tomatoes,
mushrooms, cut-up lettuce, ripe avocado,
asparagus tips, sweet pepper strips, zucchini
squash strips, corn, broccoli and cauliflower tips,
Guide E-134 • Page 3
New Mexico State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and educator. NMSU and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
cooperating.
Reprinted January 2003
Las Cruces, NM
3C
Guide E-134 • Page 4
