Brandon Heath, 22, attacked the girl at a house in Northwich while her mother gave a friend a lift on 30 August 2020, Cheshire Police said.
The 22-month-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died the next day.
Heath, who the girl’s mother described as a “monster”, was jailed for 13 years and six months at Chester Crown Court.
Emergency services found the toddler unresponsive, limp and struggling to breathe after Heath lied and said he found her “collapsed on the floor”.
The Crown Prosecution Service said he continued to lie about what happened and also blamed the toddler’s mother, despite the fact she was not at the house when her daughter was fatally injured.
The little girl was taken to hospital and underwent emergency neurosurgery but could not be saved.
A post-mortem examination revealed she had sustained a massive brain injury, as well as bleeding within and around her eyes, bruising to her body, rib fractures and damage to nerves in her neck.
Heath, of no fixed address, was arrested on 21 July 2021.
While he was cleared of murder following a trial, Heath was found guilty of manslaughter.
The girl’s mother thanked police for “bringing the truth to light and bringing that monster to justice”, but said her “heart aches every day”.
Det Insp Adam Waller said the medical evidence had “clearly pointed towards a sudden catastrophic assault” and the girl’s injuries were described by a pathologist as being “akin to a road traffic collision or multi-storey fall”.
He said the case was “indescribably tragic”.
