Parenting Tips for Your 33-34 Month Old Toddler
The nutrient that is often low in the diet of toddlers is iron. Iron is a very important nutrient for healthy red blood and for energy. You can make sure that your toddler is getting enough iron by giving her foods that are good sources of it.
Look over the list of foods below and ask yourself, “Does my child eat at least two or three of these foods every day?” If he doesn’t, he may not be getting enough iron.
Foods with lots of iron include:
- Beans, such as kidney beans, pinto beans, red beans, great northern beans, black-eyed beans, navy beans, small white beans, and lima beans
- Lentils
- Organ meats like heart and liver
- Sunflower seeds
Foods with some iron include:
- Dried fruit, such as raisins, apricots, and prunes; cut into small pieces to prevent choking
- Egg yolk
- Enriched macaroni, noodles, and rice
- Enriched breads and cereals
- Whole wheat breads and whole grain cereals
- Beef, pork, chicken, fish
- Nuts; remember to break these into small pieces to prevent choking
- Split peas
- Spinach, greens, broccoli, and green peas
Vitamin C helps your body use iron, so offer some orange juice when you serve iron rich food. As an infant, your child probably ate iron-fortified baby cereal. Now she probably eats adult cereal. To find out if a cereal is high in iron, look for the nutrition label on the side of the box and see how much iron each serving of cereal has.
The amount of iron will be given as a percentage of the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances (U.S. RDA). Try to give your child only those cereals that have at least 25 percent of the U.S. RDA for iron. Take your child to a doctor for regular checkups to see if your child is getting all the iron he needs.
