Feeding a toddler can be quite an adventure! These early years are important for your child’s growth and development, and for establishing lifelong healthy eating habits. By creating a regular schedule of meals and snacks, offering a variety of foods from Canada’s Food Guide, and making mealtimes positive family experiences, you can help your toddler grow and thrive. Here are some tips to set your little one up for success: Encouraging Healthy Eating Habits Building a positive relationship with food and mealtimes early on can help set your toddler up for better eating habits later in life. Here are some ways you can foster a balanced approach1: Eat together as a family: When you share meals with your toddler, it not only gives them the chance to observe healthy eating and social behaviors, but it also helps shape their food preferences and eating habits based on the choices and attitudes they see. Keep a consistent routine: Serving meals and snacks at regular times each day helps your toddler understand mealtime expectations and feel more secure. Offer a variety of foods: Introducing different flavours, colours, and textures early and often can help increase your toddler’s acceptance of new foods and prevent nutrient gaps. Create distraction-free meals: Turn off screens and put away toys during mealtimes. This helps your toddler focus on eating and learn to listen to their natural hunger and fullness cues. Transitioning from Bottle to Cup Switching from a bottle to a cup is an important developmental milestone that supports oral and motor skill development. With your help, you can make this transition smooth and positive2: Start early: Around six months of age, offer small sips of water from an open cup to help your baby begin developing drinking skills, alongside breastfeeding or formula-feeding. Make it gradual: Gradually offer an open cup at mealtimes, giving your toddler small amounts of fluid while slowly reducing bottle feedings. Choose healthy beverages: In the first year, breast milk and/or infant formula should remain your baby’s main source of nutrition. Between 9 and 12 months, you can start offering whole (3.25% M.F.) cow’s milk once your baby is eating a variety of iron-rich foods. Toddlers need lots of energy so continue to give them up to 500 mL (about 2 cups) of whole milk per day until they are 2 years old. If your toddler is thirsty, offer water instead of fruit juice. Managing Picky Eating Picky eating is a common phase in toddlerhood, but with patience and consistency, you can help your child develop a healthy, balanced diet3: Be patient with new foods: It’s normal for toddlers to need multiple exposures before accepting a new food. Keep offering a variety of healthy options without pressure. Be a role model: Your toddler is more likely to try new foods when they see you enjoying them too. Get them involved: Let your toddler help with simple tasks like washing vegetables or stirring ingredients. Being involved in meal preparation often makes them more excited to eat. Stick to a routine: Offering regular meals and snacks at consistent times helps your toddler know what to expect and supports better eating habits. By creating a positive, structured mealtime routine and offering a wide variety of foods, you can support your toddler’s healthy growth and set the stage for lifelong positive eating habits. Toddlerhood is an important time for building healthy eating patterns. For more information, additional support, or if you have any questions, speak with your healthcare provider. Footnotes: 1. Health Canada, Canadian Paediatric Society, Dietitians of Canada, & Breastfeeding Committee for Canada. 2014. Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants: Recommendations from six to 24 months.2. HealthyChildren.org, 2023. From Bottle to Cup: Helping Your Child Make a Healthy Transition. Accessed February 2025. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/feeding-nutrition/Pages/Discontinuing-the-Bottle.aspx3. HealthLinkBC, 2022. Helping Your 1 to 3 Year Old Child Eat Well. Accessed February 2025. https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthlinkbc-files/helping-your-1-3-year-old-child-eat-well

By months nine or ten, you’ll notice how quickly your little one is developing. They’re exploring the world in new ways and showing off their growing motor skills. It’s an exciting time, and it’s easy to get caught up in these big, beautiful moments. But amid all the changes, don’t overlook physical activity! Incorporating active play into your baby’s daily routine helps lay the foundation for a healthy, active lifestyle as they grow. Health benefits and beyond Being physically active every day is essential for your baby’s healthy growth and development. It provides many benefits, including: Building strong bones. Boosting their mood and self-esteem.1 Supporting their heart and lungs. Improving their flexibility. The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that infants should be physically active several times a day, including at least 30 minutes of supervised tummy time, which helps baby build the muscles they need to sit and crawl.1 When your baby becomes a toddler, they should reach 180 minutes of physical activity throughout their day, including structured and unstructured activity. Starting now will make the transition smoother. Tips for encouraging active play Here are four easy ways to keep your baby active and engaged. 1. Flex those muscles: Encourage your little one to be physically active throughout the day. The good news is that you don’t need fancy toys or equipment. Spending supervised time on the floor together, while baby crawls, rolls, and reaches for toys, will get those tiny muscles working! 2. Wiggle and wriggle: Try not to let your baby sit in the same position in a stroller, car seat, or highchair for too long. You want to keep them moving as much as possible, so aim for small, frequent bursts of play throughout the day. 3. Drink up, cutie pie: Active play can make your baby thirsty, so encourage sips of water throughout the day. Teach them good habits by drinking water alongside them. 4. Snooze on: A well-rested baby is a more active baby. At 10 months, your little one should be sleeping 12-15 hours in a 24-hour period, including naps.2 This will give your baby the energy they need to move and explore.  Top takeaways By making physical activity part of your baby’s day through play and supervised movement, you’re helping them build strength, flexibility, and confidence—and setting them up for a healthy, active future. 1 Canadian Paediatric Society, Caring for Kids. Physical activity for children and youth. Accessed April 2025. https://caringforkids.cps.ca/handouts/healthy-living/physical_activity 2 Canadian Paediatric Society, Caring for Kids. Healthy sleep for your baby and child. Accessed April 2025. https://caringforkids.cps.ca/handouts/healthy-living/healthy_sleep_for_your_baby_and_child

Introducing your baby to a variety of tastes and textures is a wonderful way to support their physical and sensory development. One of the most exciting milestones is when your baby starts eating finger foods. These early experiences go beyond simply feeding; they offer a chance to introduce your little one to new textures, flavours, and smells that will shape their relationship with food for years to come. When to offer finger foods Around eight months of age, babies may start to show interest in grasping small bits of food. At first, they’ll likely use their whole hand, but with practice they may refine their skills and start using their thumb and forefinger to pick up smaller bits of food with their pincer grip. This is a natural step in developing fine motor skills. Encourage them to try different foods in the next few months. The more they experiment with different tastes and textures, the more they’ll build diverse food preferences as they approach their first birthday.  At the family table When introducing finger foods, make sure your baby is seated and supervised while eating. Giving baby a sturdy plate or bowl with large openings will help them pick up food with their fingers more easily. And don’t worry about the mess! Finger feeding is not only fun, but an important way for your baby to learn about food, develop hand-eye coordination, and nurture their independence. Snack and meal ideas Babies have small tummies, so small meals and snacks work best. When introducing finger foods, it’s best to start with soft, easy-to-grasp options. Offer bite-sized pieces of soft foods like steamed veggies or fruits, like ripe banana pieces. Foods that dissolve quickly in the mouth and are easy to pick up, like well-cooked pieces of pasta, can also be introduced. When your baby starts to get the hang of chewing soft foods, you can gradually introduce more textured foods like grain snacks and bits of toast. Between eight to 12 months, your baby may be able to bite, and chew chopped foods and a greater variety of finger foods, including small pieces of soft meats, poultry, scrambled eggs, and cooked beans. You can also start offering foods from family meals (if they are made with little or no added salt or sugar). As you introduce finger foods, always be mindful of choking hazards. Avoid foods that can be swallowed whole, like grapes, whole nuts, or chunks of raw veggies. Keep track with our Baby Feeding Log A handy-dandy way to keep tabs on all of baby’s feeds, wet diapers, and sleep patterns is with our free printable tracker. It makes logging baby’s feeding journey a breeze! Download Feeding Log Top Takeaways: Embrace the mess! Introducing finger foods is an exciting time in baby’s development. Though it may get messy, this stage is essential. The textures and colours of baby’s food will stimulate their senses, and the variety of flavours they experience will lay the foundation for healthy eating habits in the future. So, embrace the mess and celebrate every bite with baby! Please consult your doctor if you have any questions about your baby’s feeding progress or diet.  HealthLink BC, 2024. Baby’s First Foods. Accessed April 2025. https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthlinkbc-files/babys-first-foods

Months seven and up with your little one bring a whirlwind of new discoveries and milestones. Your baby is becoming more independent, curious, and is eager to test and explore their growing motor abilities and social skills. Here’s what you can expect to see in the exciting months ahead, along with tips on how to encourage baby’s development. Milestone moment: It’s time to move Hold on to your hat, your baby is on the move. At seven months, your little one may be sitting up on their own already. From the sitting position, your baby may lean forward on their hands in a tripod position to support their body. Your little one will also start to stretch, bounce, and may even try to stand, especially when perched on their behind. They’re full of beans! To support your baby during these active months, engage in playful games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. When your baby is leaning forward from the sitting position, offer toys they can reach for and bang together to boost the fun! Baby’s motor skills are also developing quickly, and they may start reaching for toys and even show frustration when playthings are taken away from them—which shows that their cognitive skills are growing. And here’s a pro tip: when you want to calm your little one down and get some rest, playing some classical music may do the trick. Top takeaways: Stay active and engaged with your baby. Encourage their exploration by creating safe spaces for supervised playtime on the floor. Milestone moment: Coordination in motion  By eight months, your baby is becoming more coordinated. They may be able to transfer objects from one hand to the other and will likely begin turning toys upside down to investigate them (so cute!). Baby’s fine motor skills are also improving, and they may start picking up smaller objects and “raking” them towards themselves. Stacking and nesting toys, such as cups and sturdy blocks, will provide your baby with hours of engaging play. At this stage, sitting up alone may no longer be enough to satisfy them. They might begin crawling, scooting along, and even pulling themselves up to stand. Top takeaways: Encourage your baby’s development by letting them explore more freely. While small bumps and tumbles are inevitable , these exploratory experiences will teach them valuable lessons about spatial awareness and balance.  Always supervise your baby during their active time.   Milestone moment: The social butterfly emerges  By the time your baby reaches nine months, their communication skills are blossoming, and their understanding of language may be growing by leaps and bounds. Your little one may start to recognize their own name and respond to familiar words.  At this stage, they may start to understand simple requests like, “Give mommy the toy, please.” They’re also discovering that communicating their needs may help them get what they want.  Top takeaways: This is a great time to introduce more word and rhyming games, and to read to your baby as often as possible. Encourage babbling, which is how babies learn to use their voices. Keep playing music, too, as babies instinctively respond to rhythms and enjoy bouncing to the beat.  Every baby is unique Always remember that these milestones are general guidelines. Every baby develops at their own pace, and it’s completely normal for some babies to reach milestones earlier or later than others. Don’t hesitate to talk to your doctor if you have any questions about your baby’s development. Canadian Paediatric Society, Caring for Kids. Playtime with your baby: Learning and growing in the first year. Accessed April 2025. https://caringforkids.cps.ca/handouts/behavior-and-development/playtime_with_your_baby