Medical Care

One of the most important jobs of parenthood is keeping your child safe and healthy. During these toddler years, this job will keep you hopping. Your daughter’s doctor will continue to monitor her growth and health at routine checkups where he or she will be particularly alert to any signs of food allergies or developmental delays. Here are some facts about the health of toddlers. Introducing your daughter to table food is a fun and challenging experiment. It often takes a lot of time and patience to find foods that are good for her and that she’ll actually eat. Good luck! Eating Like a Big Girl: Your big girl is now ready to sit with the family and enjoy table food for three meals a day. Although your one-year-old may still be getting half or more of her daily calories from breast milk or formula, regular table food will help round out her diet. Formula-fed and some breast-fed babies can now switch to cow’s milk (unless there is some reason to suspect an allergy). Be cause babies need fat in their diets for development, most doctors recommend that they drink whole milk until they are two. Then, if their growth is stable and steady, they can switch to low-fat or nonfat milk. Although your daughter is now at the family table, don’t expect her to eat like an adult. She will usually eat only a small portion (and play with the rest). She may choose one favorite food and refuse to eat anything else (and that favorite food may change every few days). Most toddlers are quite finicky and often find new foods scary. If you fight with your daughter over her food choices, you’ll soon find that this is a battle you won’t win. It’s best to offer a variety of nutritious foods and then let her take the lead. If she refuses to eat anything but oatmeal cookies for a week, it won’t hurt her (as my healthy daughter can attest to). If she’d rather snack on good foods throughout the day instead of sitting for three meals, that’s also okay for now. Give her time to get used to good foods and a regular feeding schedule. Excess weight: As your little girl begins to toddle around, you may notice that the “baby fat” on her cute little pudgy legs is no longer looking so cute. Once kids are up and about it gets easier to see that some one- and two-year-olds are already overweight and at risk for becoming a statistic in the epidemic of childhood obesity, which has doubled in the last twenty years. Doctors report an alarming rise in the number of toddlers showing early signs of weight-related health problems such as diabetes (insulin resistance) and heart disease, with their elevated blood fats (called triglycerides) and low levels of good HDL cholesterol.As your daughter begins to eat table foods, now is the time to prevent health problems down the line due to excess weight. Before putting your daughter on a diet, talk to her doctor. Little growing bodies need an ample supply of protein, vitamins, and minerals that can be limited on low-fat diets or any of the popular adult diets. You can safely help your daughter meet her body’s needs while staying in shape by following these guidelines: Set a good example. Your toddler loves to imitate you, so use that to your advantage. If you choose a piece of fruit for dessert rather than a bowl of ice cream, suddenly fruit will be your daughter’s new favorite dessert, too. Control portion sizes. Rather than dish out food family style from bowls placed on the table, portion out servings on each family member’s plate. Offer seconds only of lower-calorie, high-nutrient foods. Offer lots of water. Instead of high-sugar juice or soda, offer water or no-calorie fruit-flavored seltzer. Limit fats and sweets. Don’t declare all fats and sweets off limits; you’ll only make them more enticing. Instead, find ways to substitute—for example, an ice pop for ice cream, gelatin for pudding, macaroni with low-fat cheese for lasagna, a poached egg for scrambled egg, turkey for ham. Limit TV time. Sitting in front of the TV (and munching on junk foods) is a major reason for the rise in childhood obesity. Set a limit and then get your daughter up and moving.Increase physical activity. Toddlers rarely sit still, but often it’s more fidgeting than moving. Make sure your daughter gets time every day for real physical activities like running and jumping for at least thirty minutes. These suggestions are good for the whole family. So do not tease or embarrass your daughter by saying, “You’re getting fat so you can’t have ice cream.” She is learning important lessons about health that will last a lifetime if they are taught with love and support.