The little engine of a toddler is constantly burning fuel, and your toddler will benefit from small meals spaced out during the day. Healthy, fun snacks will provide toddlers with energy to burn.

One year olds

So many different tastes, textures and colours of foods to discover! A one year old is often more willing to try out new tastes than a two year old: so offer him or her a wide selection of snack foods:

• Chopped banana.
• Avocado on toast fingers.
• Hummus on small pieces of Lebanese bread.
• Small cubes of watermelon and cheese – a striking combination!
• Mango and yoghurt smoothie.
• Warm brown rice mixed with grated cheese.
• Sweet potato made into chips.
• Apple and celery puree – mushy but yummy.
• Steamed peas and broccoli – yes as a snack on their own!

Two to three year olds

For some frustrated parents, their two year old will seem to exist on nothing but cheese sandwiches and arrowroot biscuits. Two year olds may want lots of different foods one day, and refuse those same foods the next day. Three year olds will often have firm food preferences, and may protest indignantly if a ‘yukky’ food is placed before them.

It’s important to allow your toddler to decide how much they eat over the space of a day. Offer a selection of nutritious foods: if the foods are rejected try presenting them in different and more interesting ways. Try these suggestions:

• Mini-pizzas: halved English muffins topped with tomato, grated carrot and cheese, and grilled
• Honeydew melon, mint and ice blended together – a summer sensation!
• Crackers with cheese and vegemite.
• Berries and orange juice in a high-speed blender make a fun sorbet.
• Fruit & yoghurt pops (mix bananas or strawberries together with yoghurt & freeze).
• Frozen seedless grapes are a cool treat (cut in half first as whole grapes could be a choking hazard).
• Baked beans on ‘boats’ (the boats are halved boiled eggs with the yolk taken out).
• Fruit skewer: pineapple pieces, strawberries, orange slices and all kinds of fruit on a skewer (let them do it themselves – supervise carefully!).
• Cooked chickpeas and sweet potato blended together makes a yummy dip for crackers.
• Bubble and squeak: leftover mashed potato, eggs and whatever else is handy cooked into patties. Just don’t tell your toddler it’s called ‘bubble and squeak’ or he or she may be expecting it to be a whole lot more exciting!

Your older toddler may enjoy:

• Helping to mix and bake things like carrot muffins, pikelets and banana bread.
• Cutting sandwiches with fun cookie cutter shapes.
• Making ‘veggie’ people: celery legs, long cucumber section for a body, round piece of carrot for a face, alfalfa hair… let your toddler get wildly creative!
• Growing some alfalfa, mint, parsley, cherry tomatoes, strawberries – these can all be grown in small pots and are fun to pick and eat!
• Making spinach and cheese pinwheels. Spread the filling over a length of puff pastry, then roll up into a log. Cut the log crossways to make ‘wheels’. Cook the wheels in the oven.
• Spin the colour game: set out six or more different coloured, nutritious foods (such as avocado, cooked egg, strawberries, lightly steamed carrot) and play spin the colour, with a spinner that has six different colours on it. (spinners can often be found in children’s board games, or make your own!) Whichever colour you spin, you have a spoonful or bite of a food of the matching colour food.

Involve your toddler in food preparation where possible, teaching them things about healthy eating along the way. Get them tasting and trying different foods. Plan to start when they are babies: slowly introduce your baby to a wide range of healthy foods in the months after they start on solids - by the time they reach toddlerhood the task of feeding them the same meals as the rest of the family often becomes much easier.