9 Tips for Eating with Toddlers

A healthy and balanced diet provides your little explorer with all the essential nutrients he needs to explore his environment energetically and learn something new every day. However, fruits and vegetables are often not particularly popular among young children. How can you make healthy food truly tasty for your child? In this article, you will learn why it is quite normal for toddlers to be cautious eaters and how you can influence your connoisseur's taste preferences with patience and positive incentives.

How does the sense of taste develop?

The sense of taste is innate; its development begins as early as the 10th week of pregnancy. Just a few weeks later, your baby starts to experience taste impressions in the womb thanks to its taste buds. In the third trimester, its sense of taste is already so developed that it perceives changes in the amniotic fluid's flavor. When your little explorer is born, it can initially distinguish between the tastes of sweet, sour, and bitter, and by around four months, also salty. By the age of three, the development of the taste organs is fully complete.

How are taste preferences learned?

Certain taste preferences are already encoded in our genes: Our ancestors, who lived as hunters and gatherers, owe us the inclination towards sweet and fatty foods. They recognized ripe and edible fruits by their sweetness, and fat provided vital energy. Today, the preference for these so-called safety flavors is still ingrained in us. In children, the preference for sweet tastes is even more pronounced than in adults. The reason for this: children have hardly any learned taste information compared to adults and therefore rely more on genetic information. Other taste preferences must first be learned. This mainly happens during the first years of life. While in the first months the or corresponds to your baby’s familiar safety flavor, it begins to learn new tastes with the for the first time. This is how it gradually starts to build its taste memory.

Why doesn't my toddler like the taste?

Even if the introduction of complementary foods initially begins promisingly and new foods are accepted with curiosity, many parents observe sooner or later that their toddler becomes increasingly skeptical of eating. This is quite normal and has several reasons. First, many toddlers around the age of 18 months to preschool age enter the phase of so-called neophobia, the fear of new things. During this phase, they approach everything unfamiliar cautiously and may initially reject unfamiliar foods. This is not unusual, considering how much new information and experiences toddlers encounter daily. The familiar taste of their favorite dish can help them find stability. Additionally, toddlers around the same age begin to discover their own will and assert it during mealtime. Another explanation for why toddlers reject certain foods is that they perceive flavors more intensely than adults. Especially bitter, sour, or salty foods are often perceived as unpleasant by them.

Even if your toddler currently prefers to eat pasta without sauce every day: their taste will most likely settle over time, and they will automatically learn to try and enjoy more and more foods. However, the atmosphere at the family dining table and your role model also play a significant part in helping your little explorer develop healthy eating habits.

Why is family dinner so important?

Meal times at the family table are a fixed part of the daily ritual in many families, and for good reason! All family members come together, spend quality time with each other, and eat together in a relaxed atmosphere. This way, your child learns from the very beginning to see mealtimes as a beautiful communal ritual that should be enjoyed consciously. By around one year of age, your toddler can sit at the table and participate in family meals. Many dishes can be adapted during the complementary feeding phase so that you can prepare a parent’s portion and a child’s portion from them. Simply take a portion of the meal before seasoning and, if necessary, chop it into smaller pieces. You should then season your own portion separately so that the meal isn’t too salty or spicy for your child.

At around two years old, your child can almost eat at the family table like the grown-ups. Fancy recipes are not necessary: as long as you pay attention to a healthy and varied diet, your little explorer (prepared appropriately for their age and in suitable portions) can eat just like the rest of the family. You should only use salt, sugar, and processed foods sparingly when your child is eating with you. Hard foods (such as nuts or raw root vegetables) that they cannot chew yet, or foods that could cause choking, like fish with bones, hard candies, and chewing gum, are not suitable yet. It is also important that your toddler drinks enough during meals.

9 Tips for Eating with Toddlers

1. Lead by example

If your child regularly observes Mama and Papa eating fresh foods, they will soon become curious and reach for carrots, cucumbers, or broccoli themselves.

2. Involve your child in the preparations

Show your little one new foods and ask them what they feel like eating. When they are allowed to decide what goes on the table, mealtime becomes more enjoyable for them. There are also many ways to involve your in preparing your meals. From tearing up salad leaves to setting the table: they will be proud to have contributed their part as well.

3. Create eating rituals

Eat together with your child in a familiar, calm environment and without distractions from the phone or other media. Food that is consumed in a relaxed atmosphere is automatically associated by your toddler with positive feelings and makes them more receptive.

4. Offer vegetables as finger food

Offer a plate with bite-sized pieces of vegetables at every meal or even in between. This encourages your child to eat different types of vegetables without forcing.

5. Offer your child food prepared in different ways

If your child completely refuses certain foods, try offering them prepared in a different way. Many vegetables, for example, can be served raw, finely grated, cooked, fried, as a dip, pureed into soup, or smoothies. The texture and mouthfeel also have a significant influence on whether children like a food or not.

6. Let your child decide for themselves how much they eat

Even if the amount your child consumes varies at times: through self-determined eating, they learn to listen to their natural hunger and fullness cues. However, bans and coercion are often unhelpful or even have the opposite effect, leading to complete refusal to eat afterwards.

7. Offer visual appeal

The eye eats with you: A beautifully arranged plate also makes your little explorer more eager to eat. Red, yellow, and orange (for example, bell peppers or tomatoes) on the plate additionally stimulate the appetite.

8. Be patient and offer food repeatedly

A new food stimulus must be tried up to 16 times before it is accepted as familiar and tasty. Be patient and offer foods repeatedly and naturally, without pressuring your child to eat. Parents of young children know: what is unpopular today can be highly appreciated tomorrow. ;)

9. Stay calm

The hunger and appetite sensations of toddlers can vary greatly. It can certainly happen that they eat less for a while or only accept certain foods. Usually, they will automatically make up for it within the next few days. So, stay as calm as possible in such situations; your little explorer will most likely return to their usual eating habits on their own.

Did you know, by the way, that dietary preferences can change throughout a lifetime? Some parents see their child's first foods as a welcome opportunity to reconsider and possibly change their own eating habits in order to teach their child a healthy and balanced diet. As long as you lead by example and approach your child with patience, a true connoisseur will surely be sitting at the table with you very soon. We wish you and your little explorer a good appetite!