Infant Feeding and Eating Well for Toddlers

This chapter highlights infant feeding and the importance of eating well for toddlers. Nutrition during infancy and the second year of life (the first 1,000 days) is an important determinant of short- and long-term health. Exclusive breastfeeding provides the only nutrition a healthy infant needs for the first six months of life, and is recommended as the main milk drink alongside complementary foods throughout the second six months, for the first two years of life, and beyond. Infant formula is nutritionally adequate, but cannot replicate breast milk. Baby food pouches and baby-led weaning are recent, and increasingly popular, approaches to complementary feeding. Ultimately, adequate nutritional intake can be monitored using infant and toddler growth charts and monitoring of development around developmental milestones.