Raising a healthy eater: Foods that your baby can now consume

Team AckoFeb 8, 2024

After crossing the 1 year mark, your little one is ready to consume a list of ingredients that were earlier not safe for her. This includes honey, some spices, etc. At this age, toddlers need a wide variety of healthy foods. Since they are moving toward a diet more like your own, keep introducing new flavors, colors and textures. 

To meet your child’s needs for growth, development and good nutrition, you should know,  the data for Indian children’s diet shows that your little one at this stage needs about 1,000 calories among three meals and two snacks per day. Don't expect your child to eat in this particular way only—the eating habits of toddlers are unpredictable from one day to the next! For example, your child may: 

1. Eat everything in sight at breakfast and almost nothing else for the rest of the day. 

2. Eat only the same food for three days in a row—and then reject it entirely. 

3. Eat 1,000 calories one day, but then eat noticeably more or less over the next day or two. 

Maintaining a balanced diet in your child 

Motivate but don't force your child to eat at a particular time. It may be hard to believe but your child's diet will balance out over several days if you make a range of wholesome foods available. A few things you should keep in mind:

Nutrition

1-year-olds need foods from the same basic nutrition groups that you do. If you provide your child with selections from each of the basic food groups and let her experiment with a wide variety of tastes, colours, and textures, she should be eating a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins. 

Fats

Don't restrict fats from your 1-year-old's menu. Babies and young toddlers should get about half of their calories from fat. Cholesterol and other fats are also very important for their growth and development at this age. Be sure the food is cool enough to prevent mouth burns. 

Temperature

Before feeding anything to your kiddo, you need to test the temperature. The food should not be too hot. Avoid giving fried, spicy, and oily foods. It is always a bad idea to offer your kid such foods. These foods may be harmful to long-term good health. 

Choking foods

Don’t feed choking foods. You have to make sure whatever you give to your kiddo is in pureed or mashed or cut into small and easily chewable pieces. Avoid giving foods like peanuts, whole grapes, hard candies, whole carrots, whole or large sections of hot dogs, meat sticks, etc. These can cause choking hazards. Make sure your child eats only while seated and while supervised by an adult. Although your 1-year-old may want to do everything at once, "eating on the run" or while talking, increases the risk of choking. Teach your child as early as possible to finish a mouthful prior to speaking. 

Food groups: Daily serves of fruit, vegetables, cereals and grains.

Fruits: Fruits should be a part of your child’s daily routine. 

1 serve= 1 medium apple, banana, orange or pear; or 2 small plums, kiwi fruits or apricots; or 1 cup diced or canned fruit drained (no added sugar). Offer ½ serve a day. 

Vegetables: You should make your kiddo eat veggies, which kids usually don’t like. 

1 serve= ½ medium potato or sweet potato or corn; or ½ cup cooked veggies (broccoli, spinach, carrots, pumpkin); or 1 cup green leafy or raw salad veggies; or ½ cup cooked, dried or canned beans or lentils. Offer 2-3 serves a day. 

Cereal and grains: 1 serve = 1 slice of bread; or ½ cup cooked rice, pasta, noodles, quinoa or polenta; or ½ cup porridge; or ⅔ cup wheat cereal flakes; or ¼ cup muesli; or 1 crumpet or small English muffin. Offer 4 serves a day – whole grain is best. 

Food groups: Daily serves of dairy, protein and healthy fats

Dairy: 1 serve = 1 cup (250 ml) milk or calcium-fortified non-dairy milk like soy or rice; or 2 slices cheese; or ¾ cup (200 gm) yoghurt; or ½ cup ricotta cheese. Choose full-fat dairy. Offer 1-1½ serves a day. 

Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes: 1 serve = 65 gm cooked lean lamb or 80 gm cooked lean chicken or turkey; or 100 gm cooked fish fillet; or 170 gm cooked tofu; or 2 large eggs; or 1 cup cooked lentils, chickpeas or canned beans; or 1½ tablespoons nut pastes and spreads (whole nuts can be a choking risk). Offer 1 serve a day. 

Tips for raising a healthy eater 

First of all, snack foods tend to be less nutritionally dense than meal-time foods. Pretzels, puffs, popcorn, fruit snacks, etc. are not doing much besides entertaining your little one’s mouth and filling her stomach with mostly empty calories. It’s no wonder that after snacking all afternoon she doesn’t want her dinner; she isn’t hungry!

Cook one healthy meal and everyone in the family has to eat it. Do not eat something different than your kiddo. 

Grandma’s Tip: If a child knows she can refuse dinner, but get something different later because her parents are worried she didn’t eat anything, guess what? She’s going to skip dinner in favor of the peanut butter and jelly or fruit snacks she knows she can get later. So, don’t give her that privilege now as later it will become a bigger problem for you to resolve.

Don’t stop experimenting with the same food in different ways just because your kiddo didn’t like it the first time. Wait for a week or two and try giving her the same food again, this time customized with something that she likes.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, based on industry experience and secondary sources. It is not a substitute for professional advice. Please consult a qualified expert for health or insurance-related decisions. Content is subject to change, refer to current policy wordings for specific ACKO details.