Toddler's Nutrition Tips

Su Laurent brings us handy hints and tips to make life easier, such as how to deal with fussy eaters.

Wendy Turner: We will know how important it is for children to eat properly, and this of course includes vegetables we are getting children to eat their greens and making sure that get all the vitamins and nutrients they need is not so always easy. As children coming very fussy eaters, the baby channels medical advisor Dr. Su Laurent is here. Hello Su. Dr.Su Laurent: Hi Wendy. Wendy Turner: well, I have got an example my self my little boy Freddy who is nearly 3. I mean it seems to me he can go for 2 or 3 days I wonder what he is eaten and then another day he like wholes. Dr.Su Laurent: It’s very common, and that’s particularly that the toddler age look some where between 18 months and 3 or 4 it’s a particularly difficult age I was find with children. Yes and I have got 3 children as well. And one of him is a fantastic eater, then 2 with just nightmares to begin with. Wendy Turner: So what happened in your case? Dr.Su Laurent: Well I thing the interesting thing here is all to do with mother child interaction. so my eldest one who is brought up to begin with largely by a nanny because I was back of full time work, and I had a fantastic nanny who was very and getting all the right food in to him and she just never gave up so, he has become a most amazing eater, where as my younger 2 I was at home with much longer, and I think as parents what we tend to do is if a child doesn’t like one thing we tend to try something else rather than saying this is what we giving you this is what there is if you don’t like it then you just have to wait till the next meal. Wendy Turner: Yes. Dr.Su Laurent: And nothing that makes big difference and interesting in enough my nanny who now has her own son said that her own son is a terribly eater. Wendy Turner: Really. Dr.Su Laurent: Yeah. Wendy Turner: Now you see yes again my children eat far better with their grandparents, of it because with us they know they can get away with. Dr.Su Laurent: Eating habits are all about a childs developing, understanding the world around them and understanding how much they can manipulate as his parents and food tends to be an area that parents worry about more than anything after their children, what they eat how they are growing getting enough food into them. I mean the number of consultations I have about parents about children who are growing and the parents are doing the most but offering for trying to get food in to them its just extraordinary. Wendy Turner: Well let’s go to the basics and what should toddlers be eating and first more importantly what should they not be eating? Dr.Su Laurent: Okay well toddlers should be eating what a good healthy adult balanced diets consist itself. Which is the right set of combination of carbohydrate protein and fat, with vitamins as part of the diet they don’t need extra vitamins provided they a good healthy diet. And if I ask any child in clinic how many portions of fruits and vegetables should you be eating? They will all say 5 every one of them whether they are 4 or 5 or whether they are 15 or 16 they will all say 5. And my next question is always and how many do you eat? And they will look at that they eat look at the parent and the parents will look a bit shit stage, and sheepish, and say things like well if I luckily might get one portion in that, that’s some raisons or that some fruit juice, so the problem with and I think it’s the problem with the western wells and is that we tend to give up if your children don’t want to eat one of the vegetable is that we give the more type of fruit just we give them we tend to say okay we’ll then go back to chicken nuggets. Which they really eat and the chips. Wendy Turner: As a parent you know you have just reassured that, oh well, thank goodness maybe in something. Dr.Su Laurent: Yeah, some parents will come in and say they’ll eat 2 sorts of chips now, but donuts and something off, and I will say, are you proud of that. Because I see that is a sense of achievement. Wendy Turner: Yes, yes. Dr.Su Laurent: So they accumulate that one child recently that I had in clinic with severe constipation was only eating white bread and drinking milk that was his inspire diet. And recently that was a report in Holland, of a child who had scurvy and scurvy you may well know is to do with deficiency in vitamin C. Wendy Turner: It’s an old sailor’s disease. Dr.Su Laurent: It’s an old sailor’s disease and he was not eating anything with vitamin C and it’s quite hard that to eat anything with vitamin C, he is living a perennial of cereals. Wendy Turner: Now I am not saint as a parent but presumably I mean bad parent is. Dr.Su Laurent: Why is it its all about parenting this eating habit thing is a little about parent thing, and understanding that not eating as for as your child is concern in eating any one they want to eat, its all about power and some times you have to stand back and say to yourself who is the one who is in charge in this family is it me or is my 2 and a half year old, and if you suddenly realize that your 2 and a half year old is completely dictating what they eat when they eat how they eat and you are just filling in with that were fitting in with that arrangement. And you have think ah aha lets just stand back for a bit and think about how we can change this. Wendy Turner: what are the absolute for no no’s? Dr.Su Laurent: The absolute no no’s are frequent snacks of crisp sweets chocolates and no major meals, I mean the way to change the toddlers eating habit is to just go back to work adults do which is you have breakfast, you have lunch and then you have supper meals should be taken if at all possible as part of the family, that always it isn’t always possible to do that, but just sitting a child on their own at a table and expect them to get home with it without sitting with them and supporting them and being part of that, it’s a bit of lonely thing mix meals in to bit of a non pleasant experience, but it is easy with the family its a very good way of having coaching a child how good eating habits. Wendy Turner: Also I suppose well just again from personal experience of my elder son and Jack who is 6 has never had a fizzy drink and in his life, wherefore if he is and just had a little sip he doesn’t like it because he’s never got use to and he prefers to have a fruit juice. And I suppose it is what we are putting in front of our children from them in early ages what we are getting them use too. Dr.Su Laurent: It is its all about what we are offering them if you never offer them a chicken nugget, and they wouldn’t want a chicken nuggets, because they wouldn’t know what that was all about. So its all about what we offer them and making sure the right from the very beginning, we give them a good combination of all the main foods that you need the main food groups and most babies will actually eat very well you start them on solid foods at around 6 months and you can get the many old things spinach and you can get them and you remember that and take it because that’s what you know that’s what they expect that our little baby buds only just take what we give the. But as soon as I start to reject things if you then say okay he doesn’t like this anymore we’ll go on to something else after while suddenly find you have gone from many few foods. Wendy Turner: Yes you certainly got a very narrow field. Dr.Su Laurent: And you realize yes that you are hardly any variety to your child and you are missing out major things and some children that get to see who reach that point really have a sort a food a big a food problem and it’s a quite challenge to move them back in to good eating habits. Wendy Turner: So really once a parent has recognized that they have go on that slippery slow from really narrow the field down, and made her up so and back is it to match of then just slowly pops introducing these new healthy food and its diets. Dr.Su Laurent: Yes its setting goals for the parent and for the Childs so it’s going back to the three meals a day, it is sticking to 15 minutes per meal, not sitting them there for hours and hours, hours, over something cold and congealed and still ready to met because making food on to unpleasant experience, is not the way for it as well, its giving them more you can offer them more you can offer them and then saying will okay that’s okay you don’t have that, but there wont be anything else until the next meal, so its no little snacks to fill them up in between that’s the next thing to say. And also many, many childrens survive on milk I called them milkcoholics so they just survive they will go from bottle to bottle to bottle and they will be drinking milk through out the night as well and that will be eating very little solid food. So it’s reducing milk to a total of 1 point a day maximum that includes what you put in cereal, so that they can carry some other stuff. Wendy Turner: What’s the danger of being a milkcoholics? Dr.Su Laurent: What’s the danger of being a milkcoholics? Wendy Turner: Milkcoholics yes. Dr.Su Laurent: Well Wendy Turner: Because my little 2 and half year old is I recognized that milkcoholic. Dr.Su Laurent: It is a only danger of being a milk milkcoholic as if you don’t you know having enough of everything else, because milk contains no iron so the average milkcoholic who have plenty of calcium in their body and they are probably get enough calories because its quite little calories in milk if you drink enough but they will not get enough iron and they will become very anemic. An anemia is certainly not a good condition to have for in term of development of your brain your general development anemia can’t be quite at mental so it’s very important to recognize if have got a milkcoholic and then not eating enough of the other things. Wendy Turner: Could you try water in the milk down? Or to trying vein them out. Dr.Su Laurent: Yes I mean you can try water in the milk down to be vein them off, it reaches the point were it taste smell the disgusting, and obviously If you are not giving them the milk they need the fluid in some other form, so ideally you give them water but if wouldn’t drink water some very dilute fruit juices is the nice forward. Wendy Turner: So I have make juice with my little boy its being a milkcoholic I have started to notice that is not heel does it heel warmth as much water but its he wants the comfort of the teat of the bottle. Not the milk, he wants the teat. Dr.Su Laurent: I guess he is 3. Wendy Turner: He is 3 in January. Dr.Su Laurent: Right okay, so you might want to say if that’s what he really wants to milk and you want to change things and if you are change things just give it in the bottle. Wendy Turner: Get cold turkey. Dr.Su Laurent: Get cold turkey. Actually, what’s quite interesting is If the children know that you have absolutely resigned that this is what you are going to do and there is no getting away from it, another wise you showed them that this in the bin and its gone out in to the dust bin and there are now no long any bottles in the house but terribly accepting about that very often. Wendy Turner: Yes Dr.Su Laurent: If you put it in to the back of a cupboard and they know but if who else if I Scream lot enough I will get the bottle back, then they will get it. Wendy Turner: we should personally take him to the bin and when it’s been Monday Dr.Su Laurent: In front them my burnt burnt all her bottles in dummies on the burn fire. Wendy Turner: Really? Dr.Su Laurent: In a sort of rich holistic product, she decided just do this to show and but everyone standing around it to show that they would no more dummies and no more bottles in this house. And the children never ask them again because they knew that were left. Wendy Turner: Right big a dietary point again its call personal to me both my boys are vegetarian, I actually think that I think harder about their food. Dr.Su Laurent: I am sure you do. And I have find the vegetarian parents often much more informed about food because they think about their own food, they think about making sure they include a great variety of vegetables and sources of protein and they tend to know what’s in certain vegetables so they are getting enough for the various different vitamins and folic acid that sort of thing. And there fore they think about that childrens food more and I find vegetarian parents often much better thinking about food than the non vegetarians. Wendy Turner: Make it yes definitely think harder about the balance. Dr.Su Laurent: Exactly Wendy Turner: I think you mentioned earlier supplements vitamins supplements, and of course we will see on the you know shells that you can know only get adult vitamin supplements but if also a children and I see which is it’s a same a argument is with adult shouldn’t you be really be getting this stuff from your diet. Dr.Su Laurent: I think that yes exactly, and I think this is with the general sort of government format of health advise is the children under the age of 5 should be given vitamin supplements and the reason for that is the really we are so bad of feeding good diets to our children as a nation. But if you are shown you are giving your children a good variety of food and, and you are not concerned about your childs intake. When they don’t need have vitamins supplements so certainly my children who have never been given better than supplements. Wendy Turner: Do you see an increasing in number of children who you don’t think have got to good eat good diet. Is it an increasing problem or we getting more lazy about the food? Dr.Su Laurent: I think we are, I think that fast food I mean nothing with the life styles we lead and I will you know certain speak from myself as well, because I am very much full time mother and I will often try in reach for the fastest things to cook when I get here even cooking for my children, and I think its very easy to stuff something, out of the freezer In to the oven rather than just thinking of you little bit more and getting variety and one of the tips that I find is cooking if your children are eating separately from you cooking enough for you as adults so that you can save some for the children so if you making some sort of a casseroles or something or some nice dish over that just making enough so the children can have some on the next day. Is an easy way of sorting on our problem? Wendy Turner: Another quite good tip I think offered and always we depended on the age of the toddler is to get them to help in some way with the preparation of the food. Dr.Su Laurent: Yes, exactly. Showing them where food comes from making them excited about food, and making them and then very often I mean if your children who have come home from school with things that they have made but certainly my little one has recently who is so proud of if you will eat it all eaten with something they wouldn’t normally eat. Wendy Turner: Yes that’s right. Dr.Su Laurent: And also eating with us, they will definitely eat much more variety or eating with other adults. And also you’ve being sort of encouraged and praise first of trying new things, so important to encourage them to try new things but in small quantities so they fill a child playing with spinach because I will take and I will get yeah and say I just have given you a little because I know you’re such a good boy and I know you’ll have a little go and show us everyone else how good you are that and they will be so proud of themselves and have a little good and I will say how was that and he say that was yuk and I will say that’s fine but you tried that’s really good or he might say that was actually that was really nice mummy and in which case will guys got another time. Wendy Turner: well excellent advice as usual Su, thank you very much indeed for talking to us. Dr.Su Laurent: Thank you.