7 Healthy Food Swaps that Boost Baby and Toddler Nutrition
Baby and toddler tummies are small. In terms of volume, they don’t hold much.
As a result, it’s important to ensure that the foods we give them during these early years are healthy options that pack a lot of nutrition into a small amount of food.
By prioritizing nutrient-dense foods (or foods that offer many vitamins and minerals per calorie), we can help meet a little one’s nutrient needs and fuel the development of those growing brains, bodies and immune systems.
Unfortunately, not all popular baby and toddler foods support the goal of nutrient-density.
But with some simple healthy swaps for babies and toddlers, we can pack in the nutrition while laying the foundation for healthy eating habits down the road.
Keep reading for 7 simple, healthy food swaps you can make that will boost baby and toddler nutrition without much effort.
1. Instead of plain teething crackers, add a thin layer of nut or seed butter
So many babies love teething crackers, and parents often love them too because they feel more comfortable offering a meltable texture with low choking risk. But most teething crackers don’t offer much in terms of nutrients.
If your baby loves teethers but you want to level up the nutrition, try spreading on a thin layer of peanut or almond butter for added healthy fats, protein, fiber, vitamins & minerals AND an early exposure to a top allergenic food.
Offering top allergens like peanuts early and often during infancy (in conversation with the pediatrician) reduces the risk that babies will develop a food allergy to that food.
You can upgrade the nutrition and texture exposure another level by adding a sprinkle of hemp hearts on top for added plant-based protein, iron, vitamin B6 and folate.
Other great teething cracker topping options include:
Cream cheese + smashed raspberries
Seed butter + chia seeds
Tahini + sesame seeds
2. Instead of baby rice cereals, offer whole grain versions
Baby rice cereal is a common early food, perhaps because it is fortified with iron, easily spoon-fed, and people believe that it will help with weight gain and growth.
But the more we learn about infant feeding, the more we find that baby rice cereal doesn’t offer much nutrition and may actually end up replacing more nutrient-dense options in a child’s diet.
While fine once in a while, it’s also bland and uniform in texture, which when offered regularly isn’t helpful in expanding a child’s palate by introducing a variety of flavors and textures early on.
Perhaps most importantly, many rices and rice-based foods also contain elevated levels of arsenic (a toxic metal) due to the way rice grows.
If you want to offer your baby or toddler an iron-fortified infant cereal, a more nutrient-dense choice without the higher risk of toxic metal content are baby cereals made with whole grains like oats, barley, wheat, quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat.
Great alternatives to rice cereal for toddlers include regular oatmeal, plain oat “o” cereals, or shredded wheat.
3. Instead of sugary yogurt melts, choose Amara yogurt melts with no added sugar
Given the size of their bellies and the amount of nutrients they need to fuel growth and development, there is little room in a baby or toddler’s diet for foods that aren’t nutrient-rich. As a result, both the AAP and the recent 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend not giving foods with added sugars to babies and toddlers under 2.
Yogurt melts are a favorite among babies, toddlers and parents. Little ones love them because they taste great and have an easy-to-manage, meltable texture, and parents love them because they offer nutrients like potassium and calcium, and because they are light, portable, and travel-friendly. Still, many brands of yogurt melts for babies and toddlers have an average of 4-6 grams of added sugar per serving!
I was thrilled to hear about a new brand called Amara which makes Organic Smoothie Melts (affiliate link) with no added sugar for ages 9 months and up, made with simple, recognizable food ingredients in interesting fruit and vegetable combos like Beets n’ Berries.
They recently launched two entirely plant-based flavors as well (Carrot Raspberry and Mango Carrots).
Swap out sugary yogurt melts for Amara’s Organic Smoothie Melts (affiliate link) to help reduce the added sugars in your child’s diet and give them a chance to practice their fine motor skills by putting that pincer grasp into action each time they reach for a melt.
Find Amara’s Plant-Based Variety Pack HERE (affiliate link) and use my code MALINA for 15% off.
4. Instead of flavored, low-fat yogurts, offer plain, full-fat yogurts
Yogurt is a great protein-rich food for babies and toddlers.
It provides calcium and vitamin D to help grow healthy bones and teeth.
Yogurt also contains probiotics, a type of friendly bacteria that supports digestion and immune health.
However, most yogurts - even those for babies and toddlers - contain a hefty amount of added sugar as well.
Swapping out flavored, low-fat, sugary yogurts for plain, full-fat yogurts means that babies and kids still get all the wonderful nutrients yogurt has to offer (including fat, an essential nutrient for growing brains and bodies!), but without the added sugars.
If needed:
Swirl some pureed fruit into plain, full-fat regular or Greek yogurt for added sweetness
Add frozen or fresh fruit
Add a drizzle of almond or peanut butter for added nutrients, flavors and allergen exposures
5. Instead of regular ketchup, switch to a no-added-sugar version
While not a great choice for babies due to its sodium and added sugar content, ketchup can be helpful when feeding toddlers. Some kids are more likely to try a new food if they have the choice to dip it first in ketchup.
However, 1 tablespoon of regular ketchup contains 4 grams of added sugar. Choose no-added-sugar versions instead, like Trader’s Joe’s Organic Ketchup, Primal Kitchen Unsweetened Ketchup or True Made Foods Veggie Ketchup.
6. Instead of salt, sugar sprinkles, cinnamon sugar and other similar toppings, offer a variety of healthy “sprinkles”
In general, when it comes to sweets and treats, babies and young toddlers don’t yet know what they are missing. They are already conditioned from a young age to accept sweet flavors which are familiar, thanks to breast milk, formula and even amniotic fluid.
So, these early years are the best time to expose them to as many non-sweet flavors as we can, to help expand their palates and increase the likelihood that they’ll accept and enjoy a variety of different foods as they grow.
With that in mind, try filling some empty spice shakers with a variety of nutrient-rich sprinkly foods that offer some added fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fat, like:
Ground flax seeds
Wheat germ
Sesame seeds
Almond flour
Ground hazelnuts
Unsweetened shredded coconut
Poppy seeds
Ground pumpkin seeds
Role model “dressing up” cooked vegetables, fresh fruits, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, etc. with these fun and nutritious sprinkles for your baby, rather than using sugary or salty condiments.
And hand the “sprinkle shakers” over to your toddlers to sprinkle on the magic themselves!
7. Instead of regular or non-stick cookware, use cast iron pots and pans
What if I told you that one of the simplest swaps you can make to help meet your baby or toddler’s iron needs has more to do with what you use to cook their food than the actual food themselves?
For context, iron is an essential nutrient that plays so many important roles in baby and toddler growth - like helping form hemoglobin and contributing to both brain and immune system development.
Offering iron-rich foods regularly is the best way to ensure that your child is getting enough iron, but cooking in cast iron pots and pans helps boost iron intake as well!
A few things to know:
During the cooking process, iron gets absorbed into the food from the pan.
Acidic foods like tomatoes absorb more iron than non-acidic foods.
Foods cooked for longer absorb more iron than foods cooked for a shorter period of time.
Final Thoughts
A little added sugar here and there before age 2 isn't the end of the world.
But when it comes to feeding our littlest eaters, the more we can choose nutrient-rich staple foods in regular meals and snacks, the easier it will be to meet nutrients needs during these years of rapid growth and development.
What simple swaps have you found to be most helpful in when feeding your child? Please share below!
If you’re getting ready to start your baby on solids, download my FREE Baby-Led Feeding Essentials Checklist to make sure you have everything you need to get started. You might also want to check out my online course for parents, based on my best-selling book which will walk you through the whole process of starting solids using a baby-led approach.
Alternatively, if your baby is almost ready to start solids and you’re looking for someone you trust to map out the entire first 12 weeks of your baby’s solid food feeding journey, check out my Safe & Simple 12 Week Meal Plan! Over 30 recipes, weekly shopping lists, tons of balanced baby meals, a complete plan for top allergen introduction, plus lots of guidance (with photos) on how to safely serve each food.