Introducing the Toddler Menu Planner // AD

This post is in paid partnership with ITF

From past experience, feeding toddlers isn’t as easy as just giving them a plate of food and hoping for the best. Back in 2017, the Infant and Toddler Forum asked parents and carers for their help in turning their evidence-based guidance on feeding toddlers into something practical and useful, it became one of the biggest ideas sharing activities in the UK! There were hundreds of ideas put forward which led to the creation a brand new simple and visual guide for families; introducing The Toddler Menu Planner.

The Toddler Menu Planner

The Toddler Menu Planner is an excellent resource for all parents and would be especially useful for parents who are new to the next stage of feeding their toddlers after weaning. The Toddler Menu Planner has been developed to meet the growing needs of children aged 1-4, as their smaller tummies need more nutrients per mouthful than adults. It includes 67 delicious yet nutritious recipes that have been developed by a paediatric dietician. It gives guidance on how to combine a variety of meals and snacks to ensure that your toddler is receiving a balanced diet every day. There are ideas for children who are following a vegetarian diet too.

Helpful 14-day meal planner

Included in the guide is a really useful 14-day meal planner which sets out a days worth of food over 14 days. Throughout the day, parents are encouraged to offer three main meals; a breakfast, a light meal and a main family meal plus 2 snacks.

These toddler meal ideas include meals such as mushroom omelette with toast squares and mini pizzas with tomato, red pepper and carrot sticks. The healthy toddler snacks include fruit and baked goods. Using the menu planner is a great way of adding variety to mealtimes and ensures they are eating a variety of foods from the 5 food groups. These food groups are all well explained at the beginning of the book and are colour coded throughout the menu planner and recipe cards to help you identity which food groups the particular food belongs too.

A useful recipe card and visual guide

The Toddler Menu Planner includes 67 recipe cards that detail exactly what ingredients are in the meal, step by step how to’s and serving tips. The recipe cards also include photographs of the recommended toddler portion size for each recipe and snack ideas for children. This is really insightful for parents who are unsure of the portion sizes for their children and gives ideas of what food items can be grouped together in a meal to ensure that their child is receiving a balanced diet every day.

The Toddler Menu Planner also includes tips and tricks on how to get the most from your food budget, money saving ideas on groceries, ordering and shopping for food which is always useful to read up on. I really like the store cupboard essentials list as it gives a good idea of different items that are included on the menu planner. It’s always easier to meal plan if you have different ingredients in the cupboard, fridge and freezer.

My thoughts on the planner

Meal planning for toddlers and small children can be, in my experience, exhausting, tiresome yet hugely rewarding. The pressure to make sure you are feeding your children a healthy nutritious meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner can be immense so having a guide that offers ideas on what meals to create is so useful.

Both my children loved a variety of foods as babies. They both really enjoyed tasting new flavours and textures but as they grew, their tastes changes and the range of foods they enjoyed got smaller. My children are aged 2 and 7 and mealtimes can be really tricky as there’s always something one of them has decided they don’t like any more. The planner is going to be very useful for our family in the next few months as life returns to normal and we try and broaden our children’s favourite foods.

This menu planner is a fantastic resource for all parents, especially those with infants and toddlers who are moving from weaning to eating bigger portion sizes. It’s a really handy guide with lots of information, guidance and advice. The Toddler Menu Planner is priced at £4.99 and you can find out more here.