Central Texas grandparents Jeannie and Mark Randall were surprised the day their 20-month old granddaughter Anna refused to eat broccoli, which had previously been one of her favorite foods.

"She said 'no' emphatically and swiped it off the top of her high chair with her arm onto the floor," remembers Jeannie. "It was so unexpected because she has always been really good about eating and likes so many different things. If it hadn't been so funny, though, I would have been worried because it was such a change from normal."

Actually, it's not so surprising, say pediatric nutrition experts. Toddlers ages 1 to 3 years go through food phases that can often be challenging when it comes to feeding. Several developmental changes occur at this time.

Toddlers are striving for independence and control. Their growth rate slows down and with this comes a decrease in appetite. These changes can make meal times more difficult.

"The experience made me realize I probably should learn more about how eating habits develop in young children," says Jeannie.

Managing Mealtimes

It is important for parents to provide structure and set limits for the toddler. The following are suggestions to help manage mealtimes so that the toddler gets the nutrition he/she needs:

• Avoid battles over food and meals.
• Provide regular meals and snacks.
• Be flexible with food acceptance as toddlers are often afraid of new things.
• Be realistic about food amounts. Portion size should be about one-fourth the size of an adult portion.
• Limit juice intake to about 4 to 6 ounces per day.
• Dessert should not be used as a reward. Try serving it with the rest of the food.
• Make the food easy for your toddler to eat:
  • Cut food into bite-sized pieces.
  • Make some foods soft and moist.
  • Serve foods near room temperature.
  • Use ground meat instead of steak or chops.
  • Use a child-sized spoon and fork with dull prongs.
  • Seat your child at a comfortable height in a secure chair.
• Prevent choking by:
  • slowly adding more difficult-to-chew foods.
  • avoiding foods that are hard to chew and/or swallow such as nuts, raw carrots, gum drops, jelly beans, and peanut butter (by itself).
  • modifying high-risk foods: cut hot dogs in quarters, cut grapes in quarters, and cook carrots until soft.
  • always supervising your child when he/she is eating.
  • keeping your child seated while eating.

MyPyramid For Kids

Parents and family members can get more information from the US Department of Agriculture MyPyramid program. For example, MyPyramid estimates a 2 year old should eat about 1000 calories per day. They have also developed a MyPyramid for Kids program that includes learning materials you can use with youngsters to help them know more about food as they grow older.

"You have to worry more now about how you feed your grandchildren," says Jeannie. "Food habits developed early may help determine whether the child will grow up to battle obesity, which is a growing problem in our schools."