My mistakes in feeding my toddler are my constant reminder that I need to be thorough and aware of the consequences of my negligence when these mistakes happen. My toddler is the number one priority along with the others, I am hands-on in taking care of her and preparing food until she can eat on her own without help and distractions. 

Sometimes I am overconfident enough not to be too particular when serving her food which made me feel guilty afterward about my mistakes in giving food.

My 7 Mistakes Should Be Avoided in Feeding Toddlers.

To avoid these mistakes I want to share awareness of my experience so that all first-time moms like me can be watchful, responsible, and good examples to their little ones even while silently struggling daily in their silent battles.

1. Unpeeled Grapes

Because of busyness or being in a hurry to give her the grapes after washing them, I just gave them to her unpeeled and not sliced. I know it’s not right, but I thought that maybe she could eat and chew it in smaller pieces when I gave her more than a dozen grapes and she just chewed it happily. We had so many grapes at that time in 3 days and she was just eating grapes as a snack. On that 3rd day, she had diarrhea because of indigestion from eating unpeeled grapes. It was my fault for doing it the wrong way. I thought it was okay to have her unpeeled grapes.

Tips In Feeding Toddlers: Never do what mistakes I did in giving food such as grapes unpeeled to avoid indigestion. How my toddler chewed the grapes cannot guarantee it will be all digested, especially since she eats more than she is supposed to.

Peel the grapes and slice them vertically to minimize choking and indigestion.

2. Feeding Apples Cut into Cubes

There was this one time she had given an apple that is not sliced appropriately according to her age. She coughed and I panicked that she got choked. But it’s a good thing she recovered easily and I got rid of the apples and gave her the slice of apple appropriate for her age which is thin slices.

If there is someone who wants to try to give them apples, better teach them to avoid accidents and mistakes in feeding toddlers.

Tip in Feeding Toddler: Cut apples into a vertical thin slice.

3. Poor lighting when feeding fish

We sometimes feed her fish at dinner time and I made sure it was deboned but in my carelessness, I used poor lighting. She coughed and coughed in the middle of her dinner and then kept on vomiting afterward all she had eaten. Then I just realized why I did it wrong.

TIPS: Our eyes can’t see clearly if there was a bone left in the fish meat in such poor lighting. So to avoid possible mistakes in feeding the toddler and if you also serve or feed fish during dinner make sure to use good lighting so no incidents will occur. Double-check always before serving the fish.

4. I Let Her Watch TV When Eating

This mistake to avoid feeding my toddler is my problem because it is not right to watch tv during mealtime. Her father let her watch tv while eating. 

Now she doesn’t want to eat her meal if there is no Tv and the worst part is she only eats when she likely wants the episode on a streaming site. I get caught up sometimes but all I need is a lot of patience. 

I already tried many tricks and one of them is that she needs to be busy so she will eat. She’s not the girl I pictured that is always focused on her food but when she has the appetite to eat then she keeps praising the food for how yummy it is.

TIP: If you’re starting to feed your baby I suggest letting him eat on his own until she gets older with no distractions. Be creative as you can to entertain them and get food more appetizing for a longer attention span.

5. I Do Not Introduce Beef as Early as possible when she was 6 mos. Old

My little girl didn’t like to eat beef at all. I was late in introducing her to the beef because of how it will be processed to puree. I will need a processor and at that time I had a hard time purchasing it.

Ps: she will eat beef seasoned perfectly but she will not eat beef soup recipes

TIP: Create a meal plan or menu daily when weaning the baby so all of the foods are introduced early.

6. Not sitting at a table while having a meal

We usually don’t eat at the table before. And she observed it every day, which is why I can’t get her to eat at the table. That is the problem now. But I plan to do it as soon as possible before she turns 3 this coming December. 

TIP: A Family that eats together stays together.

7. She likes to eat junk foods

Why? I can’t deny that the family loves to eat junk food every day for snacks like chips and curls. It’s on the checklist when we’re going to the grocery store.

And my little girl loves the taste of junk foods, and this is a mistake that I didn’t avoid in feeding my toddler. I let her observe and eat junk food but not too much as we have, of course. 

Well, it is not a healthy food for her and maybe it also triggered UTI because she was diagnosed with it last month. Then after that, I avoided letting her eat chips and curls that she loves to eat with her sisters, father, and sometimes me. And now, I give her fruits as a snack and I am lucky because she loves to eat fruits.

TIP: Get rid of junk food as much as possible at let them eat healthy yet delicious food during snack time, especially fruit.

Final Thought

As First-time moms, we have these Mistakes that are hard to avoid in feeding our toddlers but we can do it right if we try the tips for feeding the toddlers.

No one but only us can help ourselves in our daily struggle to make the day as smooth as we expected from waking up to going to bed in the evening. Remember that bad experiences teach lessons.

This is the mother’s part of the journey in motherhood and tries to avoid it as much as possible so your toddler will always be healthy, happy and of course, you are stress-free.

When we learn from our mistakes such as feeding toddlers in the wrong way, we can come up with an idea of what is the best to do! So, keep on learning now and then.