Balanced Toddler Nutrition: Your Guide to Feeding Milestones

Raising a child isn’t a race, but it can include a lot of hurdles. One of them is balancing your toddler’s diet, or what some call the “food fight.” It’s that stage where your little one begins to transition from bottle-feeding and baby food to toddler-sized table foods.

This can be an exciting time for you and your toddler, but it’s also a learning experience that can come with new worries. What do you do if your toddler doesn’t like all the new foods you’re giving them? What if they aren’t growing at the same pace as some of the other toddlers in your life?

The following nutrition information can help you work through and guide your baby’s transition to solid foods in a way that helps make sure they get more of what’s right, with less fight.

As your growing child’s diet continues to become more complex, make sure your little one is getting the nutrition they need. Toddler drinks like Go & Grow 360 Total Care^® by Similac^® can help balance your toddler’s diet as you begin to serve them table foods.

See our Balanced Toddler Nutrition page.

Most likely, at age 1, your toddler will be eating on your family’s schedule, with 3 meals a day and 2 or 3 planned snacks. As you introduce them to table foods, they probably won’t like everything you give them. Again, patience and persistence will be key during this transition.

Be a role model—your toddler will watch what you eat. Eat together as a family, and let your toddler enjoy the freedom to be messy while feeding themself. You may have to serve your child a small portion of a new food many times before they will eat it.

Your toddler’s like for new foods will grow over time, so keep serving them with a smile. In the meantime, you may consider adding a toddler drink, like Go & Grow 360 Total Care^® by Similac^®, to help balance their diet. It’s a drink made to complement a toddler’s nutrition, with 28 key nutrients to help balance your child’s diet with just two 4-fl-oz servings.

By the time your little one is 18 months old, they will primarily be eating table foods, which might make you worry about your toddler getting the complete nutrition that was once provided by breast milk and/or formula. Here are some ways to help make sure your little one is getting the nutrition they need:

• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you give your weaned toddler 2 cups of whole milk from a sippy cup per day—up to 24 fl oz a day. Skim milk is not recommended.  
• Give them new foods at the start of each meal, when they’ll be most hungry.
• Create snack times using the same kinds of foods you serve at mealtimes.
• Make snack time fun with finger foods that are nutritious.
  
• You can step up their nutrient intake while they transition to table foods with Go & Grow 360 Total Care^® by Similac^®. Two 4-fl-oz servings* of Go & Grow 360 Total Care^® by Similac^® have at least 40% of a toddler’s recommended Daily Value^† of key nutrients. It also has our unique blend of DHA, lutein, and vitamin E, that helps support your toddler's brain and eye development.

An example of an average toddler-sized meal has 2–3 tbsp of beans, 1–2 tbsp of vegetables, 1–2 tbsp of fruit, and ¼ of a piece of bread.¹

If you are breastfeeding: When to stop breastfeeding is a very personal decision and depends a lot on your preference! The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends breastfeeding as the sole source of nutrition for your baby for about 6 months. The AAP supports continued breastfeeding after solid foods are introduced as long as you and your baby desire—for 2 years or beyond.

Ideally, this transition will begin when your baby is around 6 months old. Once you offer your child a cup for the first time, you can start reducing the number of bottle-feedings slowly, completing the transition somewhere between 12 and 18 months.

At this stage, a toddler has become a part of the grown-up’s table and is eating a broader range of table foods. Ideally, the bright yellows, reds, oranges, and greens of healthy fruits and vegetables are becoming their favorite mealtime colors...if only the appetite of a 2-year-old was so predictable, right? 

In the real world, your toddler’s appetite could change by the day, and not always for the better. Like you, they may want to eat the same foods over and over again. That’s normal!

What’s important is that you support healthy eating habits by providing them the wide variety of foods they need for brain and eye development and immune support. If this seems easier said than done, here are some tips to try:

• Stick with a feeding schedule of 3 meals per day, along with snacks. If your toddler refuses food at one meal, they will probably make up for it at the next. Fighting them won’t help.
• Keep your toddler’s food portion sizes at about ¼ of an adult serving. 
• Offer them foods in a variety of colors, textures, and flavors. Toddlers need a range of colorful foods from all food groups to meet their nutrition needs.

Here’s an example menu for a 2-year-old who weighs approximately 27 pounds:

• Breakfast: ½ cup nonfat or low-fat milk, ½ cup iron-fortified cereal or 1 egg, ⅓ cup fruit (for example, banana, cantaloupe, or strawberries), ½ slice whole wheat toast, and ½ teaspoon margarine or butter or 1 teaspoon jelly
• Snack: 4 crackers with cheese or hummus or ½ cup cut-up fruit or berries, ½ cup water
• Lunch: ½ cup low-fat or nonfat milk, ½ sandwich—1 slice whole wheat bread, 1 ounce meat, slice of cheese, veggie (avocado, lettuce, or tomato), 2-3 carrot sticks (cut up) or 2 tablespoons other dark- yellow or dark-green vegetable, ½ cup berries or 1 small (½ ounce) low-fat oatmeal cookie
• Snack: ½ cup nonfat or low-fat milk, ½ apple (sliced), 3 prunes, ⅓ cup grapes (cut up), or ½ orange
• Dinner: ½ cup nonfat or low-fat milk, 2 ounces meat, ⅓ cup pasta, rice, or potato, 2 tablespoons vegetable

If your child struggles to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, Go & Grow 360 Total Care^® by Similac^® can help supply key nutrients to support their development and balance their diet. It has many of the nutrients supplied by whole vegetables and fruits.

Get more information or purchase Go & Grow 360 Total Care^® by Similac^® Toddler Drink. 

* 1 serving is defined as 15 g powder reconstituted in 4 fl oz of water.
† Daily Value for 1- to 3-year-olds.

Reference: 1. Sample menu for a two-year-old. HealthyChildren.org. Accessed March 6, 2024. Updated December 21, 2015. https://healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/nutrition/Pages/Sample-One-Day-Menu-for-a-Two-Year-Old.aspx