Why would you use a toddler milk?

Before having children I had no idea about the plethora of products that I would end up finding useful and toddler milk falls into that category. While toddler milk isn’t an essential food, it has many benefits, not all from a nutrition perspective, that make it a welcome addition to our increasingly busy lives.

Convenience! It is so great to be able to make a nutritious milk drink anywhere and anytime. In warmer weather, or when travelling, toddler milk is ideal. Popping the required amount of powder into a small container means you can prepare the milk when it’s needed.

Milk is an important food at any age, particularly for growing children, which is why it is recommended by the Ministry of Health that toddlers have two servings, or a total of 500 ml, of milk each day.

Establishing the two serves of milk a day as a daily habit is one way that you can ensure your child always has a good calcium intake. Fonterra has worked hard to produce Anmum PediaPro 3, a toddler milk that can boast to contain no added sugars. It has a great milky taste which both mums and toddlers love – making it great for transitioning to plain milk later on.

Toddler milk is a fortified milk, providing many of the essential nutrients toddlers need. Using a toddler milk, means you are helping to provide a good proportion of the daily requirements for iron, zinc and vitamin D, nutrients that a toddler’s diet may not always be rich in.

A common concern that parents have at this stage, is that their very active little one doesn’t seem to be eating as much as they once did. It’s reassuring to know that there’s a good reason for this. Their rate of growth is slower than in the first year of life and proportionally energy requirements are less.

The toddler stage is also when your child is learning to say ‘no’ and they are regularly demonstrating how independent they are, especially around meal times! Fussiness can mean they become selective in their food choices, and a limited range of food can also mean limited nutrient intake.

Including a toddler milk in their daily diet provides reassurance that they are getting a unique bundle of nutrients that have been put together to support your curious toddler on their every day adventures.

NZ Ministry of Health Nutrition guidelines for infants and toddlers recommend the following:

• Breast­milk is the best food for babies.
• Breast­milk is specially made for your baby and is all your baby needs until they are around six month of age.
• If you are not breastfeeding, use an infant formula until baby is 12 month old.

Give babies and toddlers plenty to drink.

Toddlers should be offered drinks throughout the day. Breast milk, whole cows milk or water. Toddlers may need extra drinks:

• When the weather is very hot
• If they have a temperature and are feverish
• If they are vomiting or have diarrhoea.

Milk is still important in your toddlers diet but needs to be balanced with the amount of solid food that your toddler eats.

PediaPro 3 is a formulated supplementary food for young children and is designed as a supplement a normal eating plan, to address situations where intakes of energy and nutrients may not be adequate to meet an individual’s

This post was sponsored by Fonterra.