Toddler Eating Habits: The Ups and Downs of Growth Spurts

From the day your child is born, she will begin a lifelong relationship with food. During her toddler years, she'll likely go from one extreme to the other; gobbling up food like there's no tomorrow one day and shunning just about everything you serve her the next. During a growth spurt, children need additional calories, and the feeding frenzy begins. During these eat-everything-in-sight days, you may wonder if your child is destined to a lifetime of bad eating habits.

According to RightHealth.com's Dr. Steven Chang, "Each child is different. Not all children have 'feeding frenzies' per se. Children will tend to increase their nutritional intake simply because their bodies require the calories for growth. Once toddlers start teething, they are suddenly able to eat an entirely different world of foods. So, they may appear to be eating much more. Some children will focus on a particular food and only eat that for days, sometimes weeks, only to move on to a different dish and repeat that pattern. This is very normal."

While these toddler eating habits are normal, they're not easy on parents. Once the growth spurt eases, parents often fret over why their children suddenly aren't eating. Jill Jayne, registered dietician known as "The Rock Star Nutritionist," explains, "Kids do tend to eat more when they are undergoing a growth spurt, so when they aren't growing sometimes it seems like they aren't eating at all." Acknowledging that this is frustrating to parents, Jayne adds, "First check with your pediatrician to see if your toddler has a weight issue; they will use height and weight charts to plot their growth. If the child is plotting normally, there is no need to worry about the child voluntarily starving."

Notice that Dr. Chang says, "They may appear to be eating much more" during growth spurts while Jill Jayne says, ". . . it seems like they aren't eating at all" after growth spurts. These two comments make you wonder, "Are my child's eating habits just a figment of my imagination?"

No, you're not imagining that your child eats more food one day and less another day. Understanding that this is normal is the first step in easing your own fears over your child's eating habits. Continue offering healthy foods and avoid making an issue over or under eating and you and your child will likely survive the ups and downs of growth spurts.

To ensure that your toddler is receiving sufficient calories and nutrients before, during, and after growth spurts, serve nutritional foods. If you haven't already checked out the USDA's food pyramid for toddlers, go to the MyPyramid.gov Web site and learn about the nutritional needs of your growing toddler. Here you'll find a specific food pyramid for preschoolers.

Since toddlers often resist new foods, it's important not to overwhelm him with too many new choices. Look for familiar foods in the pyramid's food groups and push as many as you can. For example, the food pyramid for toddlers says that a three-year-old boy who is fairly active should eat 4 ounces of grains, 1.5 cups of vegetables, 1 cup of fruit, 2 cups of milk, and 3 ounces of meat and beans each day. Go for as many familiar foods in these categories as you can while introducing a couple of new ones.

Jayne recommends that toddlers eat every three to four hours. Satisfying snacks with a little protein and fat like peanut butter and cheese, if not allergic, can help tide a toddler over between meals.

Toddler eating habits along with the ups and downs of growth spurts can be frustrating. Keep your kitchen stocked with satisfying, nutritional foods and help your child learn to make good choices.