Stage 4

Your toddler is growing up incredibly fast, thanks to all that tender loving care and a great diet. Your child has progressed from being an adorable baby to an even more loveable toddler.

By twelve months, your child can eat a large variety of foods and most family meals and foods with small, bite-sized pieces are perfect at this stage. Your toddler will also probably be coming to grips with using a small child-friendly mug and spoon. These new tools can be used to attack new textures and tastes!

Try out some soft raw vegetables, such as shredded carrot or lettuce. Legumes such as peas, baked beans and dried beans are also suitable, as well as lentils. For dessert, how about some ‘fruit-fingers’ soft fruits cut into pieces that are easy for your child to handle. You can even feel free to add whole egg to your toddler's first birthday cake: you can now use both the yolk and the white.

By now most of your child's diet should generally be solids, but your toddler may want some kind of milk too. As long as both mum and child are comfortable with it, you can still breastfeed (the best choice). If you still use formula, now is the time to change from infant formula to toddler formula, and you can also fully introduce cow’s milk to the mix if you wish, as your child’s kidneys can process milk without a problem. (However it is less nutritious than breastmilk or toddler milk.)

One final note on milks at this stage: be aware that your child is used to drinking various kinds of milk as a large part of their diet. But at this stage, if they fill up on milk they may be too satisfied to try out all these new foods you are putting in front of them. So like most things, moderation is key.

Both you and your child have really made great progress over the last year, and soon your world will grow even larger, with both walking and talking on the way!