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Feeding Cues & Concerns

Your Toddler's Hunger and Fullness Cues

About the Author
by Gerber Baby Experts

2 min read
Toddler (12+ months)

Knowing When to Feed

Your Toddler wants to be heard. Expressing their desire to eat and having you respond is important to their social and emotional development. Listen to their Toddler feeding cues and accommodate them best as possible, but don’t let them make the rules. At this stage, parents and caregivers should establish a regular routine of meals and snacks, observing your child's hunger and fullness cues at each occasion.

Toddler hunger cues:

  • Resorts to crying, fussiness, banging toys and temper tantrums if hunger takes over.
  • Your Toddler's sounds, words and hand gestures are ways to get your attention and say, “I’m hungry."
  • Enthusiastically reaches for food wanting to feed themselves.
  • Expresses desire for specific foods with words or gestures.

 

Recognizing When They Are Full

Being independent means letting you know very clearly that they are done eating and want to move on. Using their fullness cues when they are done eating, your Toddler will shift gears, becoming uninterested in food from one bite to the next. It’s your little one's way of making decisions and taking control.

Toddler fullness cues:

  • Turns away or shakes their head to say, “no more” or “all done."
  • Playing with or throwing food means mealtime is over. It’s playtime!
  • Covers their mouth or face with their hands.
  • May cross arms to show refusal of more food.
  • Chewing slows down and their attention is off somewhere else.
  • May spit out foods that they usually like.

 

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