The Best Vegetables to Feed your Toddlers

During the first year, your baby will start discovering food alternatives to milk.

Toddlers can be fed vegetables, the most appropriate of which are spinach, peas, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, asparagus and celery. These vegetables are easy to digest and you should start introducing them to the child’s diet at the age of 1 to 2.

At the end of the first year, the toddler should start eating vegetables cut in small cubes rather than purees. Naturally, you can give your baby purees but you need to begin making this transition.

Each vegetable must be prepared and served in a specific way, to make it easy for the toddler to eat and digest.

Refrain from giving your toddler complete peas. The child can choke on those or could experience difficulty digesting. Use a fork to mash the boiled peas. The same procedure can be used for the preparation of nearly any other type of boiled vegetable meal.

In the first year, you are likely to give your toddler vegetables that are easy to digest. These include boiled or stewed potatoes, carrots, peas and spinach.

When your child becomes 1-year old, you can start introducing vegetables that are more difficult to digest. These include cabbage, cauliflower and turnip. Boil these vegetables. Replace the water at least two times during the boiling process in order to make the taste of such vegetables softer.

Keep in mind that some toddlers love vegetables while others would never put purees and boiled vegetables in their mouth. Wait and introduce vegetables gradually. Refrain from forcing your toddler to eat vegetables that are difficult to digest, if the child frowns upon them.

Corn is a vegetable that you should give to your toddler after the age of 2. Young children might experience difficulties chewing corn and could swallow the complete grains.

Children that have good digestions will also enjoy peeled tomatoes, lettuce and green beans cut into very small pieces. All vegetables should be washed impeccably.

When getting started with vegetables, give your toddler just a small amount. You can use lemon juice or a little bit of salt to improve the taste of purees and mashed vegetables. If the child seems to like the particular vegetable, you can increase the amount.

Apart from boiled and mashed vegetables, you can give your toddler fresh vegetable juices. Make sure that your toddler’s digestive system responds well to the fresh juice. This is much healthier than boiled vegetables since all the vitamins and useful nutrients are preserved. Thermal processing can destroy many important microelements and vitamins.

Some children dislike intensely mashed vegetables and fresh vegetable juices. If your toddler refuses to eat those, you can try preparing vegetable soups or cream soup. The most suitable vegetables for soup preparation include peas, peeled tomatoes, onions, spinach, corn and celery. You can also use several vegetables to make soups.

If the toddler suffers from abdominal swelling or constipation, the intake of raw vegetables should be limited. Stop feeding vegetables to a toddler experiencing a digestive infection or chronic abdominal pains. In such instances, you will have to introduce a special diet.

Never feed your child canned vegetables. These are usually marinated or conserved using chemical substances. Buy only fresh vegetables and cook them yourself to make sure that your toddler stays healthy.




Jamie Highland writes about various family and baby topics, including baby showers. For more info or to check out the Peas in a Pod Baby Shower Theme or some baby shower gifts, visit My Baby Shower Favors. If you want more articles, visit our site and click on the Contact Us link.