In the early days of feeding a toddler—or during a sudden shift in appetite or preferences—it can be helpful to step back and look at the big picture. This chart is meant to be a quick reference nutrition guide, and to offer reassurance.
Toddler Nutrition
So often, we parents find ourselves totally stumped with which foods are best for toddlers. And because it can be hard to remember baseline portion sizes—is one piece of broccoli enough? Two? Do they need a whole bowl?—this chart contains information on food groups and recommended serving sizes.
This is, I hope, a more helpful version of the handout you might get from your pediatrician. So if you ever need a little help figuring out what to offer your toddler at snack time or dinner time, you can simply glance at this.
Healthy Toddler Food Ideas
This chart contains the recommended daily intake for healthy foods for toddlers including fruits, vegetables, dairy, whole grains, meat/poultry/fish, legumes/nuts, fats, and iron-rich foods (which are too easy to forget all about even though iron is vital for proper development). There are also a few extra tips to help you keep these recommendations in context…because kids are not robots and will never eat exactly like a chart tells you they should!
How do I know if my toddler is eating enough?
Portion sizes are a tricky thing because they are easy to read on paper, but in reality, they don’t account for things like appetite shifts, growth spurts, preferences, illness, and natural inclinations to eat more at some meals than others. Some kids eat a huge breakfast and taper off as the day goes on. Some do the opposite! Some prefer 6 mini meals, others like 3 big ones.
So please use this guide with caution: It is meant to reassure you that your toddler is probably hitting the baseline serving size recommendations—but it’s 100% okay if they eat more or less than these amounts! Your toddler’s appetite is your best guide for serving sizes.
This is not a prescription diet plan. Kids are totally capable of deciding how much they need to fill their bellies if you surround them with healthy food options. In my mind—and that of the very respected feeding expert Ellyn Slatter—it’s your job to decide what and when to feed them and it’s their job to decide how much to eat.
Generally speaking, if your child is gaining weight, meeting milestones, and seems to be thriving, they are likely eating enough.
TIP: Read more about this trusted feeding approach known as the Division of Responsibility here.
Remember that Toddler Appetites Vary
Appetites of toddlers can swing widely depending on whether they are dealing with teething, a growth spurt, or another developmental milestone. And this can be confusing for us parents, who already worry so much about how much—or how little—our kids are eating. But for me, I know that it’s helpful to be reminded that it’s okay if my toddler only eats half of a piece of fruit, or just a few bites of meat, because that’s actually an appropriate amount for someone their age and size.
Try not to compare your child to siblings or little friends or kids plates you see on social media. Each child is unique and has unique hunger—and that’s fine!
TIP: Read about normal picky eating here.
Toddler Nutrition Guidelines…Are Just Guidelines!
Please know that my only intention for this is to give you a baseline, a starting point for thinking about toddler nutrition. This is absolutely is not meant to be a mandate or a structured meal plan. (Yes, I realize I’m repeating myself but I don’t want to stress anyone out!) And it should not take the place of any dietary concerns you have that would be better addressed by a pediatrician.
There will be days when your kids eat much more than these recommendations—and days when they falls short in one category or other, just like any adult would if you compared real intake with a piece of paper.
So keep the big picture in mind and aim for a balanced diet over the course of a week—and keep this guide to reference whenever you worry about whether or not your toddler is getting the right nutrition… of you can’t for the life of you figure out what to give them for their 4th meal of the day!
TIP: You can download and print a copy of the Daily Toddler Nutrition Guide here.
Source for chart information: American Academy of Pediatrics and the Mayo Clinic. Always talk to your pediatrician for medical advice.
Watch my video below for more thoughts on portion sizes.
hi! Thank you for this post! so in your guide, would that be the total amount per day a toddler could possible eat? meaning per day 2-3 servings per day of fruits, plus 2-3 servings per day of veggies and so on?
Yes, that would be total BUT this is not an upper limit nor is it prescriptive—which means those are very much averages and should not be taken to mean that every child will or should eat that exact amount each day. Kids naturally vary in their intake, so they may eat more or less of one food or another on any given day. This is just ballpark amounts, but in real life, it’s always more realistic to look at their intake over a whole week simply due to human nature. I hope that helps and gives more context!
Thanks for providing this and give such important facts from this charts . This post provided by you is very helpful for proper planning.
this is very helpful to me because when i want to make a food for my baby i usually get confused on which type of food to give a baby and i use to do repetition
thank you
Thank you for sharing these resources. I appreciate the time, effort, and experience that you put into the recipes and ideas. I especially appreciate how quick and easy they seem to be (i.e. oatmeal blended to oat flour) because it’s not easy to fit everything into each day AND spend hours cooking. Thank you for all you do.
my grandson is 3 years old. he is autisic only eats pizza chicken fries french fries and chips. how can i get him to eat food with iron?
It’s difficult to force any child to eat certain foods, and usually repeated exposure is the best way to help them eat a range of nutrients. With autism, and not knowing his specifics, it may be much harder and either a feeding therapist with specific expertise with kids on the spectrum or your pediatrician may be able to help. A vitamin with iron could also be a good safety net but do check in with his health care providers.
I strenuously disagree, as does our doctor. You have a toddler here eating double the servings of whole grains as of fruits and veggies, and all the options you’ve listed are processed, carb-heavy junk. Cereal, crackers, pasta, and bagels are NOT healthy options. ACTUAL healthy whole grains have their place, but muffins have no business in a toddler’s daily diet.
“Healthy” is a relative term and it’s possible to buy versions of those foods you mention here that are nutritious. I don’t think that muffins are inherently evil BUT I do appreciate you sharing your opinion. We all need to make the best decisions we can for our families and we all have competing factors that play into how we feed our kids and what we feed them.
Do you often have questions regarding food choices for your child? Get all your doubts cleared as Luke Coutinho answers the queries on nutrition.
https://www.parentcircle.com/article/nutrition-choices-for-easy-parenting/