ToddlerBites: The Meal Planning App for Everyone Feeding a Toddler

#devchallenge #muxchallenge #showandtell #video

DEV's Worldwide Show and Tell Challenge Submission 🎥

This is a submission for the DEV's Worldwide Show and Tell Challenge Presented by Mux

What I Built

ToddlerBites is a meal planning and tracking app for anyone feeding a toddler — parents, nannies, daycare workers, and grandparents. It focuses on the multi-caregiver problem: keeping everyone informed about what a child ate.

Demo

Live Demo

The Story Behind It

Parents deal with picky eaters, allergies, and limited time every day.

The harder part: when multiple caregivers are involved, no one knows:

What the kid already ate today
What they liked or refused
Which ingredients to avoid (allergies, textures, dislikes)

This leads to repeated meals, unsafe food choices, and constant texting between caregivers asking "what did she eat for lunch?"

I built this because I had this problem.

The Solution

ToddlerBites keeps all caregivers on the same page. One app. Shared history.

Features

Multi-Child Profiles

Save each child's allergies, dislikes, texture preferences (smooth, chunky, mixed), and age group. Recipe suggestions filter automatically based on these settings. Supports multiple toddler profiles per user.

Meal Logging & History

Log what they ate, how much (none/some/most/all), and their reaction (loved it, tried it, refused). Rate meals 1-5 stars and add notes. All caregivers see the same timeline.

Recipe Discovery

Browse 30+ toddler-friendly recipes filtered by:

Allergies (gluten, dairy, nuts, eggs, etc.)
Meal type (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack)
Prep time (10-min meals to longer weekend cooking)
Difficulty (easy, medium, hard)
Texture preferences

Pantry Tracking

Track what ingredients you have at home across categories:

Produce, Protein, Dairy, Grains, Snacks, Condiments

Filter recipes by "pantry only" to find meals you can make without shopping.

AI Recipe Generation

Generate custom recipes based on:

Your pantry ingredients
Your child's allergies and preferences
Time available
Meal type

Uses OpenAI to create recipe suggestions for your specific situation.

Voice Read-Aloud

Listen to cooking instructions hands-free via ElevenLabs text-to-speech. Four voice options:

Rachel (female, default)
Adam (male)
Bella (female)
Josh (male)

Shopping Lists

Generate shopping lists from recipe ingredients. Items grouped by category. Check off items as you shop.

Favorites

Save recipes your toddler likes. Filter by child.

What Makes It Different

Most meal planning apps target adults. ToddlerBites addresses:

Toddler-specific needs — picky eaters, texture sensitivities, small portions, choking hazard awareness
Multi-caregiver access — parents, nannies, daycare, grandparents all see the same data
Allergy filtering — every recipe filters against the child's allergies

How It Works

Create a profile for your toddler with allergies, dislikes, and texture preferences
Browse recipes or generate AI suggestions from your pantry
Use voice read-aloud while cooking
Log meals after feeding — track portions and reactions
All caregivers see the same meal history

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	Flutter (iOS, Android, Web)
Navigation	go_router
State Management	Provider
Backend	Firebase (Auth, Firestore, Cloud Functions)
Analytics	Firebase Analytics + Crashlytics
Payments	RevenueCat
AI	OpenAI API (GPT-4 for recipe generation, Whisper for voice transcription)
Voice TTS	ElevenLabs
Fonts	Google Fonts (Poppins)

Architecture

Firebase Auth for Google/Apple/Email sign-in
Firestore for real-time data sync across caregivers
Local storage (shared_preferences) for offline access
RevenueCat for subscription management

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge	Solution
Ingredient Matching	Fuzzy matching for variations (plural forms, "cheddar" → "cheese")
Multi-Caregiver Sync	Firebase real-time listeners
Voice Integration	ElevenLabs with offline audio caching
Allergy Safety	Strict filtering that blocks unsafe recipes
UI for Busy Parents	Large tap targets, minimal steps