Read the ingredients - are they what you expected?

Choose processed foods that are closest to the natural food. Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are fine alternatives to fresh produce if added ingredients like salt and sugar are kept to a minimum. But if you are buying fruit punch or fruit snacks to get some fruit in your preschooler's diet, check the label. There may be no fruit ingredients at all.

Steer clear of processed foods with ingredients that don't belong. If you are buying a breakfast cereal, the first ingredient or, better yet, all of the ingredients should be cereal grains. If the first ingredient is sugar, or sugar ingredients appear multiple times on the ingredient list, it's not a great choice of a cereal. If you are buying yogurt, crackers, or a packaged meal, did you expect artificial colors?

Avoid added sugars. Sweet treats and desserts are fine for occasional use. But when it comes to the processed food aisles of the grocery store, even main meal foods and snacks are highly sweetened (particularly those marketed to kids). When buying breakfast cereal, cereal bars, drinks, yogurt and fruit snacks, choose those without added sugar or very low levels of sugar.

Health claims don't mean it's better for your preschooler

If vitamins are added, does your preschooler really need them? This is hard to know for sure. But if your preschooler is eating a variety of foods, takes a vitamin/mineral supplement, or eats a fortified breakfast cereal most days, chances are her nutrient needs are being met. Vitamin C added to a fruit drink and calcium added to a granola bar might not be a real benefit to a preschooler who eats an otherwise healthy diet.

Less sugar and lower sugar aren't always less sweet. Foods that are marketed as lower in sugar are often kept at the same sweetness level as the original food. This is usually done by using artificial sweeteners in place of some of the sugar. If you are trying to avoid artificial sweeteners or trying to serve foods that are truly less sweet, read the ingredients.

Avoid cartoon character packaging

We all know it's tough to avoid buying the food with the favorite cartoon or movie character when your preschooler accompanies you to the grocery store. Make a rule about which breakfast cereal, yogurt and snacks you will and will not buy and stick to it. A simple 'we don't buy that kind of ______' will work with time.

by Kati Chevaux

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Helpful Tips for Parents

• Serve new foods alongside accepted foods. A new food appearing next to something the child loves reduces threat and increases willingness to try.

• Never use food as reward or punishment. "Eat your vegetables and you can have dessert" trains children to see vegetables as a barrier and dessert as the goal.

• Family meals where everyone eats the same food are the most powerful eating behavior intervention available. Children whose families eat together have better diets across childhood and adolescence.

• Protein + fat + fiber at every meal stabilizes blood sugar and prevents the energy crashes that drive meltdowns, irritability, and inability to focus.

Frequently Asked Questions

My preschooler will only eat 5–6 foods. Is this concerning?

Accepting fewer than 20 foods is considered selective eating that may warrant attention from a feeding therapist. If a child eats 5–6 foods, is not growing appropriately, has intense anxiety around mealtimes or new foods, or has textures they physically gag on (not just dislike), evaluation by a feeding specialist or occupational therapist is appropriate. For children who eat 10–15 varied foods across food groups without significant distress, continued exposure without pressure is the recommended approach.

Related reading: See also our rainbow snack board guide and our cooking projects guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🧁 Kitchen Science & Math — Cooking is applied chemistry and physics: watching bread rise, butter melt, or egg whites stiffen teaches cause-and-effect science while measuring cups and counting portions deliver authentic math in context.
• 🥦 Healthy Food Knowledge — Learning about different foods, food groups, and what nutrients do in the body builds the food literacy that supports a lifetime of informed, health-conscious eating choices.
• 📏 Early Math Skills — Measuring ingredients, counting servings, comparing quantities, and dividing portions makes cooking and eating some of the most authentic early math experiences available to preschoolers.
• 😊 Positive Relationship with Food — Joyful, pressure-free food experiences build the positive relationship with eating that underlies lifelong nutritional health — and is far more protective against disordered eating than any restriction-based approach.

Your preschooler eats processed foods each day. What are processed foods? They are foods that have been altered in some way from the fresh form in order to preserve the food, enhance the flavor, or create new forms of food. Just about every food in the middle aisles of the grocery store is processed. Whole foods, on the other hand, are in the natural form, with minimal processing or added ingredients.

Making healthy choice from the thousands of processed foods can be a challenge. Many contain long ingredient lists, preservatives, artificial flavors, colors, and seasonings. A general rule for a healthy preschooler diet is to choose whole foods and ingredients often. But the convenience and taste of processed foods make them a hit with preschoolers, and most everyone else! When you need to rely on processed foods, take these tips to the grocery store.