23-Month-Old Child

A food by any other name tastes… sweeter, actually. Just like you’d rather have a Niçoise salad than “pile of lettuce,”  your toddler may be more tempted to take a bite of “egg sand” rather than egg salad — especially if it’s scooped up with a “shovel” cracker.

Or, maybe your child would prefer meatloaf if it were baked in a muffin tin (“meat muffin,” anyone?). What sounds unappealing to you might just sound tantalizing to him.

Toddlers are naturally egocentric — and let’s face it, at this age, the world really does revolve around them. It won’t be until they get older that they realize that other people have feelings too — and it’ll be much later still until they learn to empathize with those feelings.

In the meantime, you can try teaching your toddler the fine art of taking turns. When you’re eating dinner, take turns biting into your sandwiches or sipping your drinks. Keep the practice sessions fun, and he’ll get the hang of it … eventually. 

Your toddler woke up in the middle of the night with a shriek — so was it a bad dream or a night terror? Around the age of 2, both types of episodes can appear, and unless you know the differences between the two, it may be hard to identify which one it was.

Nightmares are realistic, bad dreams that happen during REM sleep (which is lighter), but your child won’t really start panicking or crying until he wakes up. When you go into his room, he’s likely to cling to you, and (if he’s talking) try to describe what happened.

During a night terror, a child will be fully asleep (i.e. in the deep sleep, non-REM phase), but will look as if he’s awake: His eyes may be open and he may scream, cry or even walk around. Essentially, part of the brain is trying to wake up while the other part stays asleep.

While nightmares are usually brief and wake the child, night terrors can last 10 to 30 minutes and children often sleep through them. Don’t attempt to wake your tot up or hold him during a night terror, as most kids settle back down, stay asleep and won’t remember having one the next morning.

While both nightmares and night terrors seem — and look — scary, they’re common ways toddlers process emotions. There’s not a lot you can do to prevent them, but just know that most children eventually grow out of them.

Many toddlers are natural vegetarians: bigger on carbs than they are on meat. The good news: Just because meat is off the menu (voluntarily or involuntarily) doesn’t necessarily mean your child is missing out on any nutrients. 

Toddlers who eat dairy products and eggs should meet their daily requirements for protein, no problem. Vegans might have a harder time hitting their quota, however, so offer up protein-rich complex carbs such as quinoa and soy products like tofu and edamame.

Congratulations may be in order, but chances are, your toddler won’t get the memo. At this age, most children won’t understand what you’re talking about when you tell them you’re pregnant with a new baby (“How can a baby live in a tummy?”) — and even if your tot can, he’s more likely to experience mixed emotions than positive ones.

Not sure how to break the baby news to your toddler? Try reading your little one an age-appropriate picture book, like Before You Were Born: The Inside Story!, which will help illustrate the concept more than your words can. To demonstrate what his soon-to-be sibling will look like, give your child a baby doll to play with.

You may be your toddler’s best playmate, but that doesn’t mean you have to play with him every second of the day. In fact, round-the-clock attention may keep your child from learning how to entertain himself.

To kickstart your toddler’s independence, try demonstrating ways to use his toys — how to make a block tower or use the shape sorter. Or, get your little one started with an activity (pushing a toy car across the table) before backing off. His streaks of self-sufficiency won’t last very long at first, but with time, they’ll grow longer — or at least, long enough for you to do a load of laundry.

Your toddler probably won’t be ready for potty training until after the age of 2. Still, it never hurts to start laying the groundwork early on. Here are a few ways to introduce the idea of potty training.

1. Pick out a potty. Choose a kid-size potty or seat that attaches to your toilet, and point out what the potty is for when you pass it.

2. Model the behavior. You could tell your toddler how to use the toilet, but you may just want to bring him into the bathroom and give him a demonstration if you’re comfortable with that. 

3. Read about it. Read a potty-training book like Once Upon a Potty or A Potty for Me!, which will help teach your tot what to do once he’s on the toilet.