This is a research paper on toddlers' nutrition with a questionnaire. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, barely ? of all toddlers and preschoolers today eat a balanced diet (Schaaf 2002) -- a serious health concern to all, especially to parents. Undersecretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Shirley Watkins ascribes the situation to the fact that, when these young children stop being breastfed and start receiving baby foods in jars, their regular servings of milk, fruits and vegetables do not replace the nutrients they used to get from breast milk and these jarred baby foods. There, too, is the greater nightmare called (a) failure to thrive (FTT), an alarming condition that develops from organic/genetic or environmental causes, or both. FTT is construed when a child's weight is less than 5% of the norm for his/her age, when she or he is 95% smaller than those of his/her age or weighs 2% less than the rest in his/her age group (Gale 1998). Nutrition is vital for children.
