When it comes to little tummies, they are still developing and growing every day and this has an effect on digestion and toilet behaviour. As caregivers, you have the important job of trying to keep things regular, which will help prevent discomfort for your little treasures.
Here are a few tips you can keep in mind when planning meals for your younger family members.
Encourage a varied diet
The first way you can try to keep things regular is to encourage them to eat a varied diet. A typical varied diet of fruit, vegetables, carbohydrates such as grains, and protein and calcium rich foods, whether it be meat and dairy or plant-based alternatives, will help those little bodies to grow and develop at a healthy rate. This will help make sure their bodies are developed enough to help with potty training success.
Fibre is King
Although it’s not a recent discovery, it is important to note that fibre is key to help with regular toilet trips. That being said, it can be a parent’s best friend when potty training and can help to prevent your child straining when they’re sitting on the potty.
If your child is a fussy eater, the idea of trying to squeeze in more fibre to their diet without putting them off their food may seem particularly daunting. However, there are ways you can get fibre into their diet without them having to step too far out of their comfort zone. Perhaps you could try sprinkling some linseed over their favourite cereal or switching their bread to one that is higher in fibre.
Fibre content should always be printed on the back of ingredients, so if you’re trying to make decisions in the supermarket on similar products, you could check the back of the packets to see which has higher fibre content, and then opt for that one.
Prunes aka ‘baby superfood’
Although us adults may squirm at the thought of eating prunes, you would be surprised how many children love prunes. They are also widely available in a range of baby and toddler foods.
As your child reaches toddler age, it’s not uncommon for them to get a little fussier with food. They may also form opinions of foods based on other people’s reactions. It is therefore important that where possible you do not talk negatively or turn your nose up about particular foods such as prunes in their company, as this may put them off.
Keeping hydrated
Although we tend to focus on food when we speak about diet, your child’s liquid intake is also important. I suppose it’s safe to say that it doesn’t take a genius to work out that liquid intake can affect the frequency of potty trips too.
Naturally enough, as we drink more water we will need to dash to the loo a little more and there is no exception for children. It is worth keeping in mind however that if you are potty training you may want to encourage your child to stop drinking after dinner time. This will leave them plenty of time to go to the potty before bed, which will help ensure they stay dry during the night.
On the topic of keeping hydrated, it’s worth noting that even as adults we can often forget to keep hydrated, so it is important that you help remind your child as well as yourself to drink up during the day.
We hope these helpful tips will help you plan your little one’s meals, so that their diet works hand in hand with potty training.
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