The importance of offering your toddler new and challenging food textures

12 to 24 months
From about 12 months old your toddler will have progressed to being able to eat most adult foods, so long as they are cut up into small, manageable pieces. You may also need to modify some of your usual recipes for family foods. As with flavour, continuing to introduce your toddler to a variety of food textures will help them to become a confident eater and less picky¹ later in life.

Encouraging your toddler to try new textures

• Your toddler will learn good eating habits by copying you and the rest of the family. So try to eat together whenever possible, and try to eat the foods you want your toddler to eat.
• Encourage your toddler to feed themselves with a spoon or their fingers. Giving your toddler a variety of different finger foods is one good way of getting them used to a variety of textures.
• Serve up meals on a plate so your toddler can learn to recognise and taste each ingredient. Let your toddler explore the different tastes, shapes and colours of their food, too.
• Praise your toddler when they eat well. This will encourage them to enjoy their food.

Never leave your toddler unsupervised while they are eating and avoid giving them foods that could cause choking, such as whole cherry tomatoes, whole grapes, popcorn and whole olives.

Take your cues from your toddler
Every toddler is an individual and all children develop at different rates. By watching your toddler as they eat you will be able to tell when they are ready to move on. So try not to worry if your toddler is not progressing as fast as you think they should be. You can discuss any concerns you may have with your health visitor.

Notice your toddler's preferences
While you should encourage your toddler to eat as many different flavours and textures as possible, remember your toddler has individual tastes too. They may, for example, prefer food in sauces to dry food. Or they may like each food kept separate from the others on the plate. Tastes will change over time, so keep offering your toddler all the foods the family eats but, where necessary, you could offer alternative foods from the same food group.

24 months and beyond
From around two years old, you can encourage your toddler to get involved in shopping for, preparing and cooking food. This will help them to learn more about food and continue to enjoy it.

¹ 2008 ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition. Complementary Feeding: A Commentary by the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 46:99-110