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Child Care Tips
Toddler Nutrition
Regular Mealtimes
Toddler thrive on routines, even when it comes to snack and mealtimes. Providing a regular routine will help your child eat better.
Make Mealtimes Pleasant
Toddlers eat at their own pace and to their own tastes. The best thing you can do here is be respectful of your toddler's own eating pace which certainly is never in time with your own. Be supportive and never forceful. Remember that for toddlers, eating is still a time for learning: a time to touch and experience different foods...so let them take enough time - as much as 20 to 30 minutes, if needed.
Sit with your toddler while he or she eats. They love the company. Your toddler will probably feel more comfortable in a highchair where they are at your level with their feet supported, not dangling.
Don't Force A Toddler To Eat
If your toddler refuses to eat, let him/her know it's okay, but that they have to sit with the family or the other children while they eat so you can all spend time together. In time your child will tend to join in. Worse case scenario....snack time is only a couple of hours away and he/she may be hungry then.
Let Your Toddler Be Messy
Playing and experimenting with food is a toddler right of passage. They have a natural curiosity about new foods and will often play with them before eating. Unless things get really messy or the child starts throwing food on the floor, let him or her enjoy the time. After all, we want children to learn to eat, but we also want them to learn to be pleasant at mealtimes.
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Playground Safety Checkup
Are there hazards among the swings, slides and teeter-totters at your neighborhood playground? The National Program for Playground Safety - NPPS - spent 3 years looking into it and found that many public playgrounds only rated a "C" for safety.
While NPPS is pushing for better playgrounds, it recommends that parents take action. Parents make sure children are supervised at all times. Make sure that your child is not wearing clothing with loose ties or strings that can snag on equipment. Also, limit visits to those playgrounds with well-maintained, age-appropriate equipment and a surface of shock-absorbing material such as wood or rubber products, pea gravel or sand. For more guidelines, visit the NPPS online at
www.uni.edu/playground.
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