Any woman who’s had gestational diabetes can tell you all the ways it can affect your pregnancy. From small things like changes in your diet to the more “annoying” aspects such as checking your blood sugar every few hours - not to mention the potential affects the disease can have on your baby.

Being as there is no history of diabetes in my family, I can pretty much blame myself and my sweet tooth. And although I tried to change my eating habits (as in not eating as much “sweet” stuff) to more fruits and veggies, the natural sugars in fruit just added to the problem I already had.

Luckily I didn’t have a sever case, and it did not carry over after my son was born. Although the increase in sugar did speed up his growth and in turn I ended up with a 10lb baby!

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The labels on the food we buy our children help us determine how foods fit into our kids overall diet. But most nutritional labels are based on amounts for kids 4 and older and/or for adults - not for toddlers.

This is why its important to know what to look for when picking out foods for your kids. But how do you know what you’re looking for while reading a nutritional label?

Here’s some helpful tips:

• Be sure to look at the serving size since its the basis for all the nutritional information on the label. Remember to adjust nutrients according to the number of servings you feed your child.

• If the Nutrition Facts panel is not designed specifically for toddlers, offer your toddler about 1/4 to 1/2 of the recommended serving size, and of course always watch for signs that your child is full.

• Look for foods with 300mg (or more) of potassium (10% of the 3,000mg toddlers need per day), and 2g (or more) of fiber (10% of the 9g they need per day.)

• Look for foods that provide at least 10% of the Daily Value (DV) of iron, zinc and vitamin E, since toddlers need more of these nutrients. But keep in mind that the 10% DV on an adult label may not be the same DV for a toddler.