preview

The Importance a Good Earlychildhood Nutrition Essay

Satisfactory Essays

As a parent, you want to provide the best nourishment available to ensure your toddler’s early physical growth. Early childhood nutrition is crucial for development in the first two years, not only to protect health and support growth, but it can also introduce and reinforce beneficial eating habits. As your infant grows into a toddler, you will start to rely more on foods to include suitable solid foods to get the proper nutrients and calories to support healthy growth and development. Many parents will be faced with toddler feeding challenges, such as, undisciplined table behavior, food jags, meal refusal and overweight. Without doubt, it can become a strenuous task for many parents, particularly first-time parents. The key is to be …show more content…

You could start as soon as your infant begins to eat solid foods. During the toddler years, “self-feeding should be encouraged because it will help the child develop fine motor skills and lead to the development of controlled energy intake (Allen and Myers 1530).” The interaction between child and adult will teach your toddler appropriate table manners by experiencing feedback for “good” and “bad” actions. “By sitting at the table, turning off the television, and eating the same foods as the toddler, caregivers can create the desired social environment in which good nutritional habits develop (Allen and Myers 1530).” First thing to remember is that you need to have the right timing. For instance, make sure your child isn’t too tired to eat and that he/she is hungry. It’s best if there is no snacking for at least an hour before the meal. Secondly, patience, it takes time to introduce the idea that there are proper and improper behaviors to act at the table. Manners are built over time, you could start training your child not to bang or throw utensils, not to throw food and instructing to say “please” and “thank you” as soon as your child can talk. Last but not least, I recommend planning your course of action. Some of the responses parents find useful, is ignoring the misbehavior, discouraging their child’s conduct, and placing the child in a time-out. Of course, there are

Get Access