Nutrition for babies, toddlers and preschoolers – what to eat?

What should your child be eating at each age and stage?

I have searched high and low to find the very best resources for you become informed and make the best decisions possible for your child’s nutrition and health.  With obesity being the number one health condition in children under sixteen years old, good nutrition and exercise  is something we simply can’t ignore.

For babies – visit Wholesome Baby Foods

The baby solid food charts on the following pages are general guidelines with solid baby foods that are age appropriate.

For toddlers – visit MyPyramid.gov

Enter your child’s information below for a customized MyPyramid Plan. The Plan will show what and how much your child should eat to meet his or her needs.

For preschoolers - visit Preschool Rock

Need a quick reference for planning your preschooler’s meals? You can use the Food Guide Pyramid as a framework to shape what and how much your preschooler eats each day.
Still more… do you want to watch the hassle of figuring out the daily menus disappear?  I personally love the menu subscription service – Dine Without Whine – A Family Friendly Weekly Menu Planner.  Check it out – I think you will like it too!

Early education is the key to retaining good nutrition and exercise habits in the future.

Give birth to your child’s creativity

Fostering creativity in your children demands a lot of creativity on your part.

When I taught kindergarten, I was amazed at how many children were already critical of their creative abilities. We live in a culture where only the best is good enough. It’s easy to see why children are inclined to give up before they start on a creative project.

I think both children and adults tend to think people are born talented. We lose sight of the fact that for centuries; people enjoyed creating products for what they were rather than to compare them to what is considered the best.

· In today’s society, only first place equals success.

· Often children equate being able to finish a project quickly with being good at it. Speed becomes the measure of success.

Therefore, we are dealing with quite a challenge in keeping our children enthusiastic and willing to take the risk of learning new creative skills (defined as innovation in the workplace).

We need to find ways to emphasize the joy of doing a creative activity to help them see that improving skills in any creative endeavor is a life long process worthy of the time and effort.  Is there a new activity you can learn with your child?  As you learn, talk about your creative thinking aloud and cast all fear of failure aside.  By mistakes people have made, new inventions and services come to fruition every day.

Happy learning and growing…