Feeding Your Young Child (1-5 Years Old)

A family meal is when everyone sits together and shares the same food. You don’t need to serve the meal at a table, and it doesn’t need to be fancy. Families that eat together eat better!

Eating together can help your child:

• Explore new foods.
• Learn to like a variety of foods.
• Enjoy spending time together.

Tips for family-friendly meals:

• Offer your child the same foods you serve the rest of the family.
• Make mealtimes pleasant, relaxing, and focused on connection rather than worrying about what or how much your child eats.
• Let your child see you enjoy a variety of foods, helping them develop a positive attitude toward food.
• Serve food “family-style” in larger dishes so everyone can serve themselves based on their hunger and preferences.
• Remove distractions like TV, phones, tablets, and toys to help your child focus on eating.

For more tips, visit the Family Meals page.

Young children thrive on routine. As your child transitions from baby to toddler and to preschooler:

• Offer three meals and 2-3 snacks at about the same time each day to help your child come to meals ready to eat.
• Offer snacks every 2-3 hours between meals. Serve snacks at the table.
• Offer only water between meals and snacks to avoid spoiling your child’s appetite.

Use Canada’s Food Guide to plan meals and snacks for your family. Offer a mix of tastes, textures, and colours, including:

• Vegetables and fruit
• Whole grain foods
• Protein foods

Children under four are still learning to chew and swallow, so you may need to cut up or prepare some food differently to reduce the risk of choking. Check out Healthy Eating for Your Toddler Age 12-24 Months to learn how to reduce choking risks.

Include foods with healthy fats at meals and snacks to help meet your child’s energy and nutrient needs. Healthy fats are also important for your child’s development.

Allow your child to experience a food’s natural flavour by preparing foods with little or no added:

• Salt (sodium)
• Sugar
• Saturated fat

Offer your child water for thirst. They do not need sugary drinks such as:

• 100% fruit juice
• Soft drinks
• Fruit drinks and punches
• Sweetened milks
• Sports drinks
• Sweetened water

For more information, visit Canada’s Food Guide’s Healthy Eating for Parents and Children page.

Be mindful when planning meals but avoid catering to your child’s likes and dislikes.

• Prepare one meal for the family. This helps your child learn to enjoy the same foods you eat.
• Include one or two foods your child typically eats alongside other mealtime foods and allow your child to explore foods without any pressure to eat.
• When offering a new food, start with a small amount and let the child decide if they want to try it. Pair the new food with one or two familiar foods to keep them from feeling overwhelmed.

Let your child’s appetite guide how much food to offer.

• Start with a small amount at meals and let your child decide how much they want to eat, if any. Young children often have small appetites, and offering too much food at once can make them not want to eat at all.
• Offer more food if your child is still hungry. Your child knows best how much they need.
• The amount of food your child eats may vary from day to day based on things like:
  • activity level
  • growth spurts
  • emotions like excitement or sadness
• Trust and respect your child when they say they are full or still hungry.

For more information, visit the Raising Your Child to Eat Well.

Even with the best intentions, we sometimes pressure our children to eat. Pressure can come in many forms – anything that makes your child feel like they have to eat something they don’t want to. Even things that seem encouraging or playful can create pressure.

Examples of pressure:

• “Stay in your chair until you eat your carrots”
• “If you don’t eat your meat, we won’t go to the park”
• “Eat your orange because it’s good for you”
• “Have one more bite”
• “If you eat another bite of broccoli, you can have an extra bedtime story”
• “Here comes the airplane” when bringing a spoonful of food to their mouth.

Did you know?

Pressuring your child to eat doesn’t help them develop a positive relationship with food and may cause them to avoid certain foods.

Give your child the time and space to explore new foods at their own pace. Allow them to decide if they want to try something new. Children often need to see, smell, and touch a food many times before they are ready to taste it. They may need to try a food several times before they eat it.

For more information, visit Raising Your Child to Eat Well.

• Plan out meals and snacks with your child.
• Get your child involved in making meals and snacks.

Children who are five years of age and under are at a higher risk for food poisoning and related health complications. Check out Safe Food Handling for Children Ages 5 and Under to learn how to reduce your child’s risk of food poisoning.

While fish is a good source of nutrients for young children, some types can have high levels of mercury. Limit fish that are high in mercury, like:

• Tuna
• Shark
• Swordfish
• Marlin
• Orange roughy
• Escolar

Check out Mercury in Fish – Questions and Answers to learn more.

Iron is essential for your toddler’s growth and development. From 12 to 24 months of age, make sure to offer iron-rich foods at every meal, such as:

• Meat, poultry, fish, and wild game
• Eggs
• Legumes like beans
• Tofu
• Peanut butter and other nut butters
• Iron-fortified infant cereals
• Iron-fortified ready-to-eat breakfast cereals

If you are breastfeeding your toddler, your breastmilk meets all their milk needs. Continue to give them a daily vitamin D supplement of 400 IU (10 µg) until they are 24 months old or they stop breastfeeding.

If your toddler is not breastfeeding, offer 500 mL (2 cups) of whole milk (3.25% M.F.) each day to help meet their nutrient needs. Offer whole milk until your toddler turns two, as the fat supports their energy needs. After age two, you can switch to lower-fat milks.

Be mindful not to offer too much milk. Limit it to 750 mL (three cups) per day to leave room for other essential foods.

If your toddler can’t have cow’s milk due to medical, cultural or religious reasons, contact 811 Dial-a-Dietitian to discuss suitable alternatives. Soy, rice, and other plant-based beverages do not have the same nutritional content as whole milk.