Think Toddler Sized Challenge: Take Part & Win

Most parents will know that one of the biggest challenges with young children is food. We constantly ask ourselves if our children are eating enough of the right kind of foods so that we can give them a healthy balanced diet. All children are different so there is no clearly defined toddler diet that you can follow. You may have read a post I wrote previously about “How much food is too much food for toddlers?” which showed that from a survey by the Infant and Toddler Forum, we are feeding toddlers too much too young.

The Forum lead a campaign to rethink portion sizes by using their ‘tot it up’ tool to ensure your kids are eating the right types of food and the right amounts. This year the Infant and Toddler Forum are inviting people to be part of the biggest ideas sharing activity in the UK, developing a tool that all parents can not only use but can help create.

I was asked by the Infant and Toddler Forum to help get things off the ground by submitting an idea for the Toddler-Sized Portion Challenge. As parents, we love things that simplify our busy lives so I wanted an idea that would not only help parents with portion sizes for their toddlers but was something simple and easy to use. Most people have access to a smartphone or tablet these days so I thought it would be great to have an app that could be easily opened and used by parents to help in determining appropriate portion sizes for their children.

Looking at the Infant and Toddler Forum website they show the recommended portion sizes for different types of foods, depending also on your child’s age. I thought that it would be great to have an app where you could compare the recommended portion size with the portion you are about to serve your child.

On opening the app, a parent simply takes a photo of the food about to be served and selects from a predefined list of food types (e.g. cereal, carrots, potato). The app then displays your photo alongside a photo of a plate with the recommended portion size. The app will allow your photo to be manipulated using a pinch action in order for you to adjust the scale to make it a fair comparison. Of course, without exact measurements and making the process much more complicated, it is difficult to be 100% sure that you have served exactly the right amount, but even if the portion looks roughly like the recommended amount that could really benefit parents and avoid largely undersized/oversized portions.

I decided to mock up an image of how my app might look when you are using it. After that, I uploaded it alongside a description of my idea to the Toddler-Sized Challenge website where all of the ideas are listed. Each of the submitted ideas can be read and voted for by the public. The Infant and Toddler Forum, through this Toddler-Sized Challenge, are trying to create something that will help parents and carers when it comes to providing portion sizes.

You can see my idea HERE. If you like it, it would be lovely if you gave it a thumbs up or if you left a comment it would be even better!

HOW CAN I TAKE PART?

Signing up to submit an idea is easy, just follow the steps below for your chance to win £1000.

1. Click ‘Join Co-Creation Community’ to sign up and either login with your Facebook or Twitter account, OR click ‘Register for a new account’ to sign up with your email address
2. Once you have registered, scroll down to their ‘Featured’ Toddler-Sized Challenge and click ‘View Full’ to see the competition in more detail
3. Once you’ve read more about the competition and looked at the Toddler Guidance page, click ‘Add your Idea’ to submit your idea
4. Your idea will be reviewed and a decision will be made on whether to take it forward to the next stage.

Don’t have an idea of your own, but still want to get involved?

You can register for an account by following the steps below, vote and comment on ideas for your chance to win Love2Shop Vouchers worth £100. How fantastic is that?

1. Click ‘Join Co-Creation Community’ to sign up and either login with your Facebook or Twitter account, OR click ‘Register for a new account’ to sign up with your email address
2. Once you’ve registered, scroll down to our ‘Featured’ Toddler-Sized Challenge and click ‘View Full’ to see already submitted ideas to vote and comment on
3. Click on any idea and vote if you like it by clicking the ‘thumbs up’ symbol or post a comment into the comments thread.

This is all you have to do to take part in this challenge. I really hope you do as it is a fantastic initiative. The announcing of the winners (£1000 for winner and two £500 runners-up prizes) will be done in a few months around September. There will be also some spots cash prizes of £100 for commenting and engaging. So what are you waiting for?

What do you think of this challenge? Would you like to take part? How do you normally manage the portion sizes of your toddler’s plates? 

*Disclosure: This is a collaborative post

Thanks for stopping by,

Love you all ❤️

Franca  💋

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