Isn't it joyous to see your baby growing every single day? By 2 years of age, your baby will come up with one or the other thing that might just surprise you. Their curiosity and their energy level at this stage are beyond measure. 

Running throughout the day, they start to explore and discover the world on their own. They learn new things, learn to speak, ask hundreds of questions, and most importantly grow quicker than you realize. 

Any kind of deficit in their nutrition might hamper their growth. By 24th month of the baby's birth, they get familiar with most of the solid foods. So, you need to make sure to fulfil their nutritional needs one way or another. Know the nutritional needs of your baby further in this article. 

What to feed?

The stage of a baby after 24 months from birth is known as the Annada stage. During this stage, the baby begins a lot of physical and mental activities that need wholesome energy. You can feed your baby all kinds of cereals, pulses, fruits, and vegetables to provide them with enough nutrients to meet the energy requirements. 

Make sure to schedule a minimum of three proper meals a day along with snack time for your baby. After 2 years, you need to make sure that your baby's primary food is solid food and not milk anymore.

You must ensure the presence of the following in every meal. 

Vegetables that are rich in iron and protein should be included in a baby's daily diet. Giving them a variety of vegetables like spinach, potatoes, carrots, fenugreek, bottle gourd, etc. in various meals helps fulfil their nutritional needs. 

• Fruits

Just like adults, giving fruits every single day is very important for a growing child. Fruits that are rich in Vitamin C and iron should be a mandatory part of their everyday diet. You can give a bowl of fruits as a snack one time during the day. 

Now that your baby is good with solid food, adding grains, especially whole grains, to their daily diet is very important. Grains and cereal should make up half of at least two meals of the day. You can give wheat chapati one time and rice the next, along with pulses or vegetables. 

Even though you need to shift milk as the secondary food and introduce solid food as the main meal for the baby, having milk and milk-based products is very important for the baby. It fulfils the calcium requirements of the child. You should give them milk twice a day, or at least once a day with some milk-based product like curd, buttermilk, or cottage cheese. 

At this age and above, the baby, just like adults, needs to have a properly balanced diet to meet the nutritional needs and aid the development of the baby.

What does Ayurveda suggest? 

Ayurveda suggests some tips be followed while making a diet plan for your toddler or feeding him/her.

This is a very important thing to take care of after the age of two years. This kind of builds a disciplined routine for the baby, which is very good for them. Also, because the baby has started eating solids now, s/he should be given a proper interval in between two meals to digest the food properly. 

This is the time when you can introduce any and every kind of food to your baby. You can even introduce non-veg, eggs, or anything that is a part of your eating habit. But all this while, you need to make sure not to force the baby to do anything. 

You should not even force them to eat a certain amount of food. Let them understand what and how much they want. 

When you prepare their diet plan, make sure you include all the tastes, be it sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, or even bland. This will help you determine which flavours your baby prefers and will also help the baby become acquainted with all of the foods and tastes.

Try to feed your baby in creative ways. If your baby does not like something, simply leave it out and try something else. They include shapes in their food. Remember, they will judge the food first by looking at it, so it is important to make the food look good as well. 

Make sure you not only give your baby enough food but enough nutrition as well.