Toddler Nutrition: Essential Nutrients & Feeding Tips

Worried your finicky toddler isn't getting his nutritional requirements? Follow these suggestions and you may be surprised at how easy it is to meet a toddler's nutrient needs.

Things You'll Need

• Carrots And Other Orange Vegetables
• Lean Ground Meats
• Whole-grain Bread
• dried beans, fish, eggs and poultry
• strawberries, kiwi, cantaloupe and oranges

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Instructions

• 1

  Serve kid-pleasing, protein-rich foods like scrambled eggs, smoothies made with tofu, baked chicken legs and bean soups. Toddlers need 16 grams of protein a day.

• 2

  Build those tiny bones with 500mg of calcium a day. Toddlers can get that much from two (8-oz.) cups of milk.

• 3

  Drink up milk for vitamin D, too. Young children need 400 IU per day.

• 4

  Pump up the iron in your toddler's diet with lean meats, poultry, fish, dried beans and whole grains. Little ones need 10mg of iron every day.

• 5

  Beef up on zinc with (you guessed it) beef and other zinc-rich foods like poultry, fish, eggs, beans, whole grain breads, crackers and cereals. Toddlers need 10mg of zinc per day.

• 6

  Snack on oranges, kiwi, cantaloupe or strawberries. These yummy fruits are rich in vitamin C, and toddlers need 40mg per day.

• 7

  Crunch carrots for vitamin A. Kids can get the needed 400mcg per day from carrots and other orange fruits and vegetables.