Early Childhood: Nutrition
Healthy eating makes for healthy kids
The foods you offer can make a big difference in babies’ and young children’s eating habits, food preferences and attitudes toward new foods.
Nutritional Guidelines
- Mother’s milk is the baby’s first and healthiest food.
- Introduce only one new food at a time in order to identify potential food sensitivities.
- Introduce vegetables before fruits, so babies acquire a taste for veggies.
Be aware of, and avoid or modify, foods that are choking or swallowing hazards.
- Limit foods that are high in fat, sugar, or salt.
- Avoid sugar-sweetened beverages.
- Limit 100 percent juice to no more than 4-6 ounces per day.
Serve only nonfat or low fat milk to children over two years old.
- Make drinking water freely available to toddlers and preschoolers throughout the day.
- Provide healthy food choices at regular meal and snack times, then allow the child to decide how much to eat.
- Never use foods to bribe, reward or punish a child.
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the best, most nurturing way of feeding your baby and something special you can do for your child.
The MDH Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program offers information useful for all mothers as they plan to breastfeed. Click here for more information.
Resources you can use:
- Minnesota Parents Know
- MyPyramid for Preschoolers
- Finding Your Way to a Healthier You
- Eat Smart. Play Hard. Healthy Lifestyle
- Let’s Move – Eat Healthy
- AAP Healthy Children
- We Can! Families Finding the Balance
- Head Start Body Start for Families – Eat Right
Breastfeeding:
What's New
What can you do to get your kids to try new foods?
Watch this video
- healthykidshealthyfuture.org
This new site is a the powerful opportunity to instill healthy choices that could help prevent childhood obesity from the start.
For questions about this page, please contact us at: health.healthyeating
@state.mn.us
