Food & nutrition

By 1 year of age your baby is eating more family foods. Eating together as a family enables you to have a social family time and to role model good eating.

Children need to be offered a variety of food for energy and growth, including fruit and vegetables, bread, cereal, meat, fish or vegetarian foods and dairy products.

Feeding your toddler

When your child is around 1 year old, try offering them the same food as the rest of the family. Eating together as a family enables you to have a social family time and to role-model good eating.

Children need fat in their diet for energy and growth. Low-fat diets do not provide enough fat. However don’t give them things like hot chips or chippies daily. They are best kept for treats once a week. Healthier sources of fat in the diet could be avocado and nut butters.

High-fibre foods such as whole-grain brown bread and bran can prevent your child from getting the goodness from other foods and are best left until at least 2 years of age.

Offer your child small amounts of a variety of food and let them choose. Try to ignore food left on the plate and tell them you are pleased with what they have eaten. Some toddlers will drink and eat everything they are offered, while others will have firm likes and dislikes. They may now refuse food they used to happily eat. Even the best eaters are fussy at times.

You may notice your child does not eat as much as before. Don’t worry, this is normal behaviour. Healthy children do not starve themselves; they will eat when they are hungry. Growth rates slow down at around 9 months to a year so they do not need as much to eat.

Your child may want to start to feed themselves, either with a spoon or fingers. At first the spoon may be taken to their mouth upside down and empty. They will soon learn how to get the food into the mouth. To help reduce the risk of choking on food, avoid small hard foods (eg nuts, popcorn) and teach your child to sit down when eating and drinking. Stay with them when they are eating.

To help prevent your child getting sick, teach them to wash their hands before eating.