What food to give a 2 year old child?

By age two, your child should be eating three healthy meals a day, plus one or two snacks. He or she can eat the same food as the rest of the family. Do not fixate on amounts and do not make mealtimes a battle. Whenever possible, offer your child finger foods instead of soft ones that require a fork or spoon to eat.

PreschoolerAgeSizeGirls24 monthsWeight23.3 – 27.5 poundsHeight33.2 – 34.9 inches27 monthsWeight25.8 – 30.0 poundsHeight33.7 – 35.6 inches

Your 2-year-old now. Your preschooler’s vocabulary is on its way to becoming dictionary-thick. The typical 24-month-old knows about 50 to 75 words and is working the next big milestone: stringing them together into phrases and sentences. Two-word noun-verb sentences are typical at 2: “baby sleep” and “want milk.”

A 2-3 year old needs two servings of dairy products per day. One serving is the equivalent of 1 cup (8 oz) of milk, 3/4 cup yogurt, 1.5 oz of cheese. So if your child does not eat yogurt or cheese, then you would give 16 oz of milk.

It is important to avoid foods that may cause choking: Slippery foods such as whole grapes; large pieces of meats, poultry, and hot dogs; candy and cough drops. Small, hard foods such as nuts, seeds, popcorn, chips, pretzels, raw carrots, and raisins. Sticky foods such as peanut butter and marshmallows.

What to feed

Whole milk.

Other dairy products (soft pasteurized cheese, full-fat yogurt and cottage cheese)

Iron-fortified cereals (oats, barley, wheat, mixed cereals)

Other grains (whole wheat bread, pasta, rice)

Fruits (melon, papaya, apricot, grapefruit)

Vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower “trees,” cooked until soft)

A toddler is a child 12 to 36 months old. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from “to toddle”, which means to walk unsteadily, like a child of this age.

A one-year-old child needs to eat about six times in a day, with milk or breastfeeding session as the last meal. While toddlers require to be fed every two to three hours or five to six meals in a day, pre-school kids need about four meals in a day.

At fifteen months, the average girl weighs about 23 pounds (10.5 kg) and is almost 30.5 inches (77 cm) tall; the average boy weighs about 24.5 pounds (11 kg) and is 31 inches (78 cm) tall. Over the next three months, they’ll each gain approximately 1 1⁄2 pounds (0.7 kg) and grow about an inch (2.5 cm).

The American Heart Association recommends fat-free and low-fat dairy foods should be part of a balanced diet, including two cups of milk or its equivalent for children 1 through 8 and three cups of milk or its equivalent for children 9 through 18.

Babies readily eat cereal, cooked noodles, soft breads, and rice. It’s just as easy to give them enough dairy, since babies this age are still drinking 16 to 24 ounces of breast milk or formula a day. But don’t forget to serve extra protein in the form of chicken, fish, beans, or eggs.

Between the ages of 1-3 years of age, a toddler should drink no more than 24 ounces of milk per day. I recommend that toddlers have 16- 18 ounces of milk per day…one cup at each meal. After age one, milk is a beverage and no longer a food. Interestingly, there is no minimum amount of milk that a toddler must drink.

Toddler Nutrition. Your toddler’s diet will begin to resemble that of the rest of the family, with three meals and two snacks each day. You should limit milk and dairy products to about 16 to 24 ounces each day and juice to 4 to 6 ounces each day and offer a variety of foods to encourage good eating habits later.

Parents should limit their children’s juice consumption. Children ages 1 to 6 should drink no more than 4 to 6 ounces of juice per day. Older kids ages 7 to 18 should drink no more than 8 to 12 ounces of juice each day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

A: According to the Institute of Medicine’s Dietary Reference Intakes for Electrolytes and Water, the Adequate Intake (AI) for water for children aged 1 to 3 is 1.3 liters per day; that’s about 44 fluid ounces, or the equivalent of 5-1/2 8 ounce cups of water.

What are some snack ideas for my child?

Whole grain cereal or oatmeal with milk.

Bite-sized pieces of leftover cooked beef or chicken and soft cooked vegetables.

Milk or yogurt-based fruit smoothies in an open cup.

Yogurt with pieces of soft fresh fruit.

Applesauce with whole grain crackers or roti.

That’s because the fish is known to contain mercury. If you’re a fan of tuna, then you may be thinking about giving it to your baby after you introduce your little one to solid foods. But you want to be safe, of course. In general, pediatricians say parents can start introducing tuna at around 6 months of age.

According to the AAP, your 1-year-old can get enough calcium and vitamin D from 8 to 12 ounces (1 to 1 1/2 cups) of cow’s milk – or the equivalent amount of other milk products, like yogurt or cheese. By age 2, your child should get 16 ounces, or 2 cups, of cow’s milk or other milk products each day.

Babies under 1 year should not drink regular cow’s milk, although yogurt and cheese can and should be introduced after 6 months of age. Once your baby turns 1, you can offer whole or reduced-fat (2 percent) cow’s milk.