The good news about giving your child healthy food is that it doesn't have to be expensive, exotic, or home-cooked. Milk, carrots, bread, and baked beans are all examples of perfectly healthy foods that are cheap, nourishing, widely available, and need virtually no preparation time.
Many people think a balanced diet for preschoolers is the same as a healthy diet for adults. It isn't. Young children up to two need considerably more fat in their diet. Young toddlers require less fiber than adults too day much can fill children up without providing sufficient calories, and can prevent the absorption of minerals such as zinc, iron, and calcium, all of which help to promote a healthy immune system.
Most adults follow a three-all meals-a-day pattern, but toddlers often prefer five smaller meals. This is fine, provided you establish set times for eating, rather than just allowing a child to nibble all day. A sensible pattern, for example, might be breakfast, mid-morning snack, ge lunch, tea, and supper. But of course, their most important thing is what's in the meals and snacks, not when your child eats them. Similarly, you want to provide a balanced diet, rather than on a day-by-day basis. So, within reason, you shouldn't worry if your child eats only one piece one day but has three pieces the next.
Healthy Diet for Toddlers
A child's diet should consist of the following combination of foods.
Carbohydrates for Toddlers
These are the main building blocks of your child's diet, giving energy and fiber, most notably starchy foods such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta, chapattis, potatoes, and couscous. A typical serving might be half a slice of bread for a two-year-old, and a whole slice for three, a four-year-old. It would help to encourage your child to alternate between wholemeal and white bread. This will get her used to wholemeal bread without giving her too much fiber.
Fibre becomes more important after age three, but even then, children should be given only a little. Never give children raw bran. Make sure to let your child go with breakfast. Most children love breakfast cereals, but low-sugar ones are better than sweetened varieties. Cereal with milk and chopped fruit is an easy, nutritious breakfast or snack. If your child will only eat sugary cereals, mix them with unsweetened ones and gradually reduce the amount of sweetened cereal.
Fruit and Vegetables for Toddlers
These are packed full of vitamins and help to prevent cancer and heart disease in later life. A typical serving for a child of two would be a third of an adult portion, whereas a four-year-old would need around two-thirds. One of the best ways to get children to eat their 'greens' is to set a good example. If your child sees you eating broccoli and hears you saying how delicious it is, she will be far more willing to try it herself. Most children enjoy coleslaw, tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers. The secret is introducing a wide variety of vegetables as early as possible and in as many forms as possible.
Youngsters with noses at raw watercress might enjoy it as a soup instead. Children who don't enjoy eating boiled carrots might prefer to have them raw with a tasty dip, while those who object to most vegetables may not notice them shredded in a lasagne or pasta sauce. Frozen vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh ones, but canned vegetables tend to lose some of their vitamin content in the canning process.
How you cook vegetables is key to your child's enjoyment of them let's face it, overcooked cabbage could be more appetizing! Overboiling also causes more vitamins to leak into the cooking water, so eating raw or lightly cooked vegetables is best. Steaming or microwaving are the best methods for conserving vitamins. Most children enjoy fruit, so try to keep a good supply handy. Some dried fruits, such as apricots and raisins, are valuable sources of iron and are easy to serve in small portions or to transport in pots. However, avoid giving dried fruit sprayed with sulfur dioxide (E220) to children with asthma.
Dairy Products for Toddlers
Calcium, found mainly in dairy products, is vital for forming healthy bones and teeth. An easy way to get it is through dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. If your child isn't a milk lover, help her to get enough calcium by adding milk to cereal or whisking it up with a banana and honey as a milkshake. Alternatively, your child can get all the calcium she needs by eating other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt.
A typical serving would be about 150g of yogurt or 25g of cheese. Tinned sardines are also rich in calcium. If you suspect your child may be allergic to milk, talk to your GP about it. Sometimes, people go on to drink lots of milk rather than fill it up with solid food. While some milk is great, a young child over one should gradually be weaned to 600ml a day.
Best High-Protein Foods for Toddlers and Kids
Lean red meat, chicken, turkey, fish, tofu, pulses, and eggs are good protein sources. One egg or 25g of lean meat is a typical serving. Choose lean cuts of meat rather than fatty meats like sausages or burgers. Children who turn up their noses at grilled white fish hall often enjoy tinned sardines, and tuna and salmon fishcakes. To maximize protein from plant sources such as pulses, combining them with a grain of beans on toast is a good example.
Healthy Drinks for Toddlers and Kids
The best drinks for toddlers are water and milk. Some nutritionists believe we drink far too little and that concentration and other skills would be improved if we only drank more. Water is ideal as it's easily available, cheap, and doesn't rot teeth. Although milk contains calcium and a wide spectrum of vitamins, once your child is over one, you should ensure she isn't consuming much more than 600ml daily.
Orange juice contains plenty of vitamin C and, if drunk with meals with a high iron content, is a good way to increase your child's iron absorption. But it is high in natural sugar and clings to the teeth causing decay so it's best to serve it only at mealtimes, and then heavily diluted. Apple juice contains fewer nutrients and should also be well diluted.
Squashes sometimes contain only 10 percent juice and a high proportion of sugar or sugar substitutes and additives, so they are generally a poor choice. Many fizzy drinks contain much sugar and virtually no other nutrients. Water or diluted fruit juice is much healthier and less likely to cause tooth decay. Tea and coffee aren't good alternatives because they contain caffeine and can interfere with absorbing vitamins and minerals.
If water, milk, and the odd fruit juice sound boring, there are many ways to vary them. Most children love smoothies with blended fruit juices made by whizzing soft fruit in a food processor or with yogurt or milk. Again, the odd fizzy drink or cup of weak tea won't matter. It's what is consumed regularly that counts.
Healthy Fat Foods for Infants and Toddlers
Although toddlers need more fat from their diet than adults, this doesn't mean they should be given lavish helpings of butter or deep-fried foods. On the other hand, they shouldn't be given a 'diet', low-fat foods either. Children under two should have full-fat milk but may switch to semi-skimmed at two if they're good eaters, although they shouldn't be given skimmed milk. Ideally, most foods should be baked, grilled, or steamed rather than fried. When you do fry, choose sunflower oil likely to get or olive oil rather than lard or butter, as these are better for your- and your children's arteries than saturated animal fats.
While having the odd cake or biscuit is fine, these should not make up your child's staple snacks as they contain high levels of artery-clogging fat and sugar. Try not to reinforce the sense that biscuits and cakes are a treat by using them as a reward or bribe!
Iron-Rich Foods for Toddlers
A child of two needs almost as much iron as a grown man, but many children don't get enough in their diet. Lack of iron is the most common childhood nutritional deficiency in Britain a quarter of schoolchildren are not getting enough, which means they are more likely to get tired and breathless and suffer from poor appetite. As iron is essential for a healthy immune system, low levels can also reduce a child's resistance to infection.
The best sources of iron are eggs, red meat, and liver. Plant sources such as spinach, breakfast cereals, dried apricots, raisins, lentils, and other pulses are also rich in it. Vitamin C is needed for iron absorption, so encourage your child to eat a food that contains vitamin C and an iron-rich food, such as dried apricots chopped up with melon, or an omelet with fruit juice. Vegetarians need to pay particular attention to the iron levels in their toddler's diet since children who don't eat any meat are three times more likely to suffer from a lack of iron than meat eaters.
Healthy Sweet Treat for Babies, Toddlers, and Kids
You may have noticed that cakes, sweets, and chocolate are not essential to a child's diet! That's because sweet treats generally contain oodles of sugar and a good fat dollop. Nevertheless, many of us remember the joy of being given a piece of ice- cream on an outing or demolishing a huge chocolate birthday cake with our friends.
Nutritionists divide into two schools on the question of confectionery. The purists say the best thing is never to offer sweet treats. Children can have birthday fruit salads rather than cakes. They won't miss them if they never get a taste for sweet treats. Other nutritionists disagree. They point out that the minute children get to nursery school age, other children will introduce them to the delights of sweets. And as forbidden foods taste the best, there's a strong chance your child will gorge on sweets the minute she has control over her eating.
Fussy Eating in Toddlers and Children
A child who has always eaten a varied and nutritious diet will become choosy about what she eats at age two. She may have a strict list of foods she likes and refuse to eat anything else. Faddiness may be linked to a child's attempt to control her environment by becoming selective. It may be attention-seeking behavior, or simply that she feels she has better things to do than eat. It can be frustrating for parents, and you may worry that your child isn't getting all the nutrients she needs.
Experts say that if your child chooses dull but healthy foods you needn't worry. A diet of milk, chicken, pasta, fruit, and vegetables is boring but perfectly nourishing. However, it is wise to be concerned if your child becomes a shopaholic. How should you deal with faddiness? Experts divide into two groups over this. There's the tough-love approach: you give your child's family food and if she doesn't eat you don't comment, get angry, or force her, but she eats nothing until the next meal. Eventually, hunger makes her less picky.
Then there's the compromise approach, whereby you offer your child a selection of foods she likes, with new foods introduced in small amounts at the side. Again, if the food isn't eaten you don't make an issue of it, but the child has to wait until the next meal to eat. Both experts agree that you should only let your child fill up on junk, sweets, drinks, or even milk between meals if she eats what she's offered.
While you may want to encourage your child to eat a varied diet, you need to be patient about the order. If your toddler wants to eat fruit before her main course or leftover pizza for breakfast, that's OK. Another way to encourage a persnickety child to eat is to invite friends with a bigger meal appetite. Peer pressure will often encourage your child to join in and a child who refuses particular food at home may well eat it quite happily at nursery.
Children are far more likely to be tempted by well-presented, colorful plates of food in manageable portions. Faces, things cut into simple shapes with biscuit cutters, and finger food are all popular with kids. Serve small portions so your child can ask for more if she's still hungry. Don't pretend the food is a plane or beg your child to eat - it gives her the upper hand and every meal becomes showtime.
Remember that children's appetites vary. your child picks at food one day but is ravenous the next, that's normal. And if a child is ill she may go off her food. If this happens, if the happens to let her follow her appetite, give her lots of fluids and small, frequent meals, and eventually, her appetite will return.
Toddler Table Manners
When children join family meals, they learn about table manners. Sitting at the table with the family helps a child learn about the sociable side of eating. Even if antisocial working hours mean family meals are rare during the week, try to eat together at weekends, or at least sit down with your child when she is eating.
It can help if you have reasonable expectations of your child demanding perfect table manners from a two-year-old is unrealistic. A 15-month-old may manage a spoon reasonably well but with plenty of misses. By 18 months she'll be able to suck from a straw and by three years she will probably be able to cut tender pieces of meat with a knife. By four, most children will have learned to manage cutlery reasonably well.
Even if your child is at the eating-with-fingers stage, she can still be trained to sit at the table. Most experts agree that you can expect a child over two to sit for 20 minutes without too much fidgeting. Expecting her to sit through a wedding feast is asking for trouble. Show your child how you eat and encourage her. Child-size cutlery can be helpful, as can lavish praise. And remember, children progress at their own rate.
Mealtimes must be enjoyable. Nagging doesn't improve grown-up appetites, let alone children's. If your child eats only some of her food, don't force her to clear the plate, and don't jump in with a range of mouthwatering alternatives. Leave her to her own devices and remove the plate without comment, but don't allow her to fill up on junk food later. It's best if children eat family food. If you've slaved over a hot stove to make a casserole just for your toddler and she turns her nose up, you may feel like throwing it at her, whereas if it's a casserole for the family and she doesn't like it, it hardly matters.
Introducing New Foods to Children
Most of us want our children to enjoy a variety of foods, and the secret of success is introducing a wide range as early as possible. Ideally, introduce a new food besides an old one so it's no big deal. Give lavish praise for anything that your child eats. Even if she rejects it when you first serve it, reintroduce the food a few days or weeks later. It can often take several tastings for a child to get used to a new food. Express your pleasure in that food, but never force it on her. And there's no point in serving up enormous helpings of something you know she doesn't like.
The best approach is to give small, attractively presented portions, which is much more likely to be successful. If you can get your child involved in making or selecting food, this will give her a vested interest in eating it. Even three-year-olds can add grated cheese to a baked potato, spread tomato sauce on aren't pizza, or make fruit faces.
Healthy Vegetarian Diets for Children
Children can have a healthy vegetarian diet, especially since vegetarian children tend to have more access to fruit, vegetables, and pulses than non-vegetarians. However, ensuring your child's diet is balanced, not too bulky, and provides enough calories is important. If you are a lacto-vegetarian, your child's protein and calcium requirements can come from dairy products, eggs, and plant sources. For you, the main concern is fulfilling your child's iron requirement.
Good sources include eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, raisins, dried apricots, spinach, watercress, lentils, and baked beans. If you are vegan, you must ensure your child gets enough iron, calcium, protein, and vitamin B complex vitamins,
especially B12 - found naturally in animal proteins - to fulfill her requirements. Some soya milks, yeast extract, soya-protein products, and most breakfast cereals are fortified with these nutrients but do also talk about your toddler's diet to your GP, who may prescribe a dietary supplement.
Food Allergies in Children
Although food allergies have become more common, they are still relatively rare. They can be triggered by nuts (especially peanuts), wheat, milk, and eggs, and some children can be allergic to berry or citrus fruits and some food additives. The symptoms of food allergies include rashes, facial swelling, hyperactivity, asthma, and a runny nose. Your child is much more likely to have a food allergy if you or your partner suffer from allergies or if there is a history of them in your family. Experts believe that the chances of developing a peanut allergy are reduced significantly by not introducing foods that contain nuts until the of four. Consult your GP if you suspect your child has a food allergy, as you can then be referred to a specialist dietitian.
Children Health Supplements
A wide range of vitamins is on sale, especially for children, but the question is whether children need them. Some experts suggest that most children would benefit from taking a 'child' multivitamin containing vitamins A, C, and D - the body produces vitamin D in sunlight, so a child who doesn't play outdoors much may need a supplement.
Vitamin supplements that are suitable for children are widely available from supermarkets, pharmacists, and child health centers. If you're on a low income, your child may qualify for free supplements up to the age of five. Discuss this with your health visitor or GP to find out if she is eligible.
