Are you looking for easy tips on how to raise a healthy toddler? Then you’re in luck! The following five tips will have you off to a great start!
If you ask a parent how they want their children to grow up, they’ll probably tell you several things. Parents want their children to be loved, joyful, empathetic, smart, kind, and so much more. Another thing parents often want their kids to be—as children, as teenagers, and later as adults—is healthy.
How to Raise a Healthy Toddler
A healthy child is a happy child, and with everything going on in the world, parents are probably even more concerned about raising happy, healthy children. Learn some essential tips on how to raise a healthy toddler below.
Encourage Play Development
Children go through quite a few development stages in all areas of their life: physical, mental, emotional, relational, and more. Another one of these developmental areas is play.
When you encourage different stages of play, you’re rounding out all areas of your child’s life. Sensory play, for example, is vital for children’s development. It can provide them with the sense of the autonomy they need to develop.
Set Healthy Habits
The sooner you focus on building healthy habits in your toddler, the better. You certainly don’t have to start them on any sort of diet or fitness regimen.
Instead, start small with habits that will stick, such as washing hands, brushing teeth, wearing sunscreen outside and helmets while riding bikes, and sticking to a regular bedtime schedule. These are all little habits that will lead them on a healthy path.
Explain Nutritional Health
When it comes to raising a healthy toddler, nutrition is the first thing people think of and there is a good reason why! Your child’s nutritional health is another essential thing you’ll need to develop as a parent.
Eating healthy is a life long habit that is best started young. Talking with your toddler in age-appropriate ways will help to set up their future dietary health.
You will need to tailor your discussion to your child. This may seem hard when they’re a toddler, but the more open you are about food and nutrition, the less chance they have of developing issues with food later on.
For example, if you’re having trouble with portion sizes for the kids, look at Jennifer Anderson’s site Kids Eat in Color. There are so many excellent references for talking about food with your kids—you just need to find them.
Help Them Understand Emotions
Emotional maturity is something even the oldest living people can still struggle to obtain. Helping your children understand their emotions is incredibly beneficial. Emotional maturity is a vital part of your child’s overall health.
Help them become a little surer in their feelings by explaining different emotions. Give them examples of healthy and unhealthy ways of expressing, for example, what it feels like to be angry. Rather than teaching them to push away their emotions, help them delve into them instead.
Urge Open Communication
Mental health is another prime focus of overall well-being. You might decide your child is too young to go to therapy, but that means you’ll need to encourage open communication even more. Kids have a lot running around in their little brains.
If they don’t feel comfortable talking about something as children, then they’re going to store all of that up in adulthood. Do your best to encourage a constant supportive environment for communication.
Raising a Healthy Toddler
With these five easy steps, you’ll be able to raise a healthy toddler with ease. As for keeping their pull-up on, that’s a conversation for another day! If you loved this post, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter below and check out more of our parenting articles.
