Tips For Parenting Toddlers

"As soon as I wake, I can’t wait to cuddle mummy and to play. Maybe I can see how the toothpaste squeezes out of the tube and swirls onto the bathroom floor. I can tip the washing from the basket onto the floor and make a boat. A car! A train! What happens when I shake the cereal over the kitchen and run my car wheels through it? I just want to squeeze that banana. Let me see if I can climb onto the windowsill or wobble the TV screen. I want to touch, to feel, to pull and play, play, play!"

"I haven’t had enough sleep when my precious little one wakes full of energy. Here comes another day with my incredible toddler! We’re just emerging the bedroom when he grabs the toothpaste and starts squeezing it all over the bathroom floor. Whilst I’m wiping it up, I hear the thump of the washing fall onto the floor. The washing is rapidly mixed into the toothpastey mess. I think he’s making a boat, no a car, perhaps it’s a train! As I make breakfast, he suddenly tips the cereal over the kitchen (another floor to clean!). I watch as he runs his car through the cereal. I must admit that it does look like fun but the endless list of household jobs starts to build in my head."

"I feel my breathing quicken as the overwhelm begins to settle in my mind. Before I have turned around there’s a squashed banana and he’s climbing, climbing everywhere. The windowsill, the TV screen…. he wants to play, play, play all day long. I love my little man and I want to cherish this time but sometimes it just feels too much. How can I make our days together easier? How can I focus on enjoying him grow and develop before my very eyes when sometimes all I can see is the mess and the chaos?"

Does this sound familiar? Here are my parenting tips for when you have a wonderfully energetic toddler. I hope they help to make family life a little smoother, a bit calmer and still, of course, full of energy and joy. 

Toddler Parenting Tip #1: Toddler Breakfast Ideas

You want to have a good day; your toddler wants to have a good day too. Family life will be much more peaceful if you can work together as a team. Let’s set our toddlers up for success. Avoid the busy supermarkets when he is tired or hungry. Keep screen time to an absolute minimum. Ideally, a toddler would have zero screen time as this is best for their brain development [1]. Yet, sometimes real life (like making meals, putting away washing or going on a long journey) will make it necessary. Please don’t make yourself feel guilty; we don’t live in a perfect world with perfect circumstances. 

Feeding your toddler healthy, wholesome snacks meals will help him to succeed. Toddlers are always on the go so you may find a snack plate a useful way of providing nutritious food in-between meals. Toddlers also like food which is visually appealing. Here are some ideas for food which will both release energy slowly to your busy little person and look good:

• wholemeal toast strips with a yoghurt dip

• pear, banana, nectarines, melon: cut into slices

• roast vegetable fingers: carrot, peppers, sweet potato

• homemade falafel or houmous (blitz chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, coriander and a smidge of garlic)

• homemade berry muffins (find your ideal combination of oats, wholemeal flour, eggs, milk, berries and yoghurt baked in the oven for about 15 minutes on a medium heat setting)

•  roast chicken or turkey

•  leftover tomatoey pasta twirls

  As always, check the food that you give your child is safe in terms of size, texture and without stones. 

  Don’t let your toddler get hungry. He will need plenty milk (breastmilk is, of course, wonderful if you are breastfeeding) and water throughout the day too. 

  When considering your child’s nutritional intake, it may be helpful to consider the week as a whole. One day your little one may want to eat lots of protein. The next, loads of fruit or veg. Another day; lots of carbohydrates in the form of beans on toast, dippy egg and soldiers or macaroni cheese. Rather than feeling stressed about his intake; aim for him to eat a healthy, balanced diet over the week as a whole. Hopefully this will take the pressure off you; and so, bring further peace to your family life. 

  Toddler Parenting Tip #2: Toddler Sleep, Glorious Sleep

  This brings me nicely onto my second parenting tip for setting your toddler up for success; prioritise and protect his sleep. The research into sleep tells us that good quality sleep is needed for healthy functioning including: emotional regulation, fighting illnesses, growth and development, for our metabolism to work correctly and to access our memory fully [2]. The impact of poor sleep on a toddler is detrimental to their daily functioning and their development. This, in turn, can have a really negative affect on the rhythm of your family life. 

  

•  Here are some parenting tips to help your toddler to have a good night’s sleep:

  • Allow lots of time for bedtime. You are less likely to feel stressed and more likely to be patient if you are not fighting against a deadline. 

  • Focus on play to help your child to move through the bedtime routine. Can your child open his mouth to let the toothbrush find and polish all the jewels inside? Will he be a fish diving into the bath? 

  • Enjoy time snuggled up enjoying a book together. 

  • Have a bedtime routine; toddlers function well when they know what to expect. 

  • Sing and pray together at bedtime. 

  • Introduce a special (suitably safe) bedtime toy for your child to snuggle with at night. 

  • If you are waking your child in the morning then he needs more sleep. We should wake naturally from our sleep. 

  • Some children like a night-light, others can only sleep when it’s pitch black; experiment and invest in blackout blinds if necessary. 

  • An older toddler may find a gro-clock or similar helpful for understanding when it’s time to get up.

  • Some children sleep better with a weighted blanket. 

  • Focus on a creating a calm, peaceful atmosphere; music, low lighting and a soft voice can help with this.

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    Toddler Parenting Tip #3: Play, Play, Play

  

   

   

  Children were created to play. Play is an innate, deep, essential desire of each and every child. Children play to explore; they play to learn; children play to discover more and more of who they are and what their passions are. Toddlers need tonnes of opportunity to play; they desire to play freely and happily. It is our job, as parents, to give them this opportunity and then simply to let it happen. Our children will be far more peaceful when they are fulfilled through play. Our family life will be more harmonious when our toddlers are supported to explore and play and run and jump to their heart’s content. Outdoor play provides the very deepest sort of play because it naturally enables the freest kind of play. Our children can truly play without constraints and expectations in nature’s most beautiful landscapes. So, when your day feels unmanageable, chaotic or like a matter of survival; my ultimate toddler parenting tip is to pack up a rucksack and go outdoors. Let the fresh air and the swaying trees bring peace to your child’s thoughts and to your family life. May the days with your toddler be full of exploration, cuddles, love and play – glorious play. 
  References[1]  AAP. (2016) American Academy of Pediatrics announces new recommendations for children’s media use. Available from: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/138/5/e20162591/60503/Media-and-Young-Minds?autologincheck=redirected[2] Espie, C. A. (2022). The ‘5 principles’ of good sleep health. Journal of Sleep Research, 31, e13502. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13502