Food and nutrition guidelines for healthy kids

All parents are very much concerned about the growth and development of their child, which they plan meticulously. Still, they tend to forget that a nutritious diet plays a vital role in the child’s development.

Parents try to choose healthy meals having adequate nutrition, vitamins, and minerals in the diet of their young ones. However, it is not an easy task to plan the menu for the kids due to their faster metabolism than adults and their picky habits. Also, they have special nutritional requirements for their growing bodies.

Healthy eating benefits child energy in many ways; it stabilises their strength and improves their mind and mood. Plus, it helps prevent many chronic diseases, including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Read on this healthy kids food nutrition guide to learn more!

What are the guidelines for child nutrition?

Learning healthy eating habits in childhood stays with your child throughout life. But you should follow some guidelines for better nutrition for kids as this will provide them with healthy eating patterns to stay away from various chronic diseases listed above.

Take a balanced breakfast

Children should start their day by eating a healthy, balanced breakfast with protein. Protein helps children to stay full of energy throughout the day at school. If you are a teenager, you can lose weight indeed.

You hardly have much time in the morning, for which you can serve the following healthy food items for kids:

• Whole-grain toast with peanut butter,
• An apple, hard or semi boiled eggs, and toast with a glass of milk.
• Whole-wheat bread egg sandwich
• Yogurt with almonds.

Furthermore, you can serve various Indian healthy food for kids that are delicious as well. These may include dhokla, ragi cookies, oats idli, surti jawar wada, and the likes.

Mealtimes for children should be the priority.

In addition to serving nutrition food for kids, proper mealtimes play a massive role in their overall health. When you sit down with your kids at the table to eat, you help them learn healthy eating habits.

• It helps children to have a set routine for eating with family, so they avoid procrastinating.
• You can monitor your kids, whether they are eating properly or aren’t leaving food unfinished.
• You can prepare food carefully with adequate nutrition and make habits of children adopt healthy eating habits.

Make small changes in your children’s diet to include healthier foods

Try to replace unhealthy items in your fridge with healthy food for kids. You don’t have to rebuild your complete meal plan though; you can make slight swaps:

Limit the sugar intake of children

Try to reduce the consumption of sugar in your child’s diet as it negatively impacts healthy kids nutrition. Excess sugar can have detrimental consequences like type 2 diabetes, hyperactivity, obesity, and mood disorders. Follow the tips below to control their sugar intake:

• Instead of saying no to children for sweets and pastries every time, arrange these delicacies on special occasions only.
• Secondly, avoid drinks with sugar preservatives as one can of soft drink has 10 tsp of sugar, which is around 7 tsp more than the limited amount.
• Provide natural sugar to children in the form of fruits and make desserts of fruits as well.
• Try to lower the amount of sugar in recipes you make at home.

Be choosy about fats for children

Fats are an essential part of the diet at a young age, but only healthy fats are useful in the food of kids.

Healthy fats are unsaturated fats, like almonds, pumpkin seeds, omega-3 fatty acids, avocados or olive oil. These are good for the memory of children and liven up their mood as well.

Try to limit trans fats like baked goods, margarine, snacks, packaged foods or foods with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Create interest in fruits and veggies

Try to make food more appealing so children love to eat it. Also, you should avoid keeping packaged food like potato chips at home that children can prefer over home-cooked food.

• Keep a bowl of fruit in a place where it looks appealing, and the child can easily see it and pick it if feeling hungry.
• Try to hide veggies in other foods, like you can make a stew of zucchini or carrots that your child will never know what they are eating.
• While you take them to the grocery store, let them decide what food item they want to pick.
• You can also use your imagination to create a scene of food on the plate, as you can serve them broccoli as a tree.

Healthy food and nutrition for kids must include plenty of raw veggies and fruits.

Involve your children in the shopping and plantation of food

Bring your children to a grocery store while shopping for foodstuff. Teach them about reading food labels of various food items to pick; by this, they learn about the nutritional value of foods. Indeed they get a chance to comprehend what they are eating at home.

Maintain a kitchen garden at home and encourage your children to participate in the plantation of various vegetables and herbs in the kitchen garden. Not only does it give them a lesson but a chance to plant and harvest their food.

Amandeep Hospital – The best child hospital in North India

Amandeep Hospital is one of the best and most advanced child hospitals in North India to get a consultation from expert doctors about food and nutrition guidelines for healthy kids.

You are available with all in house amenities like ultrasound, X-ray, CT scan, and general laboratory for tests to get timely help.

Our child doctors fully comprehend guidelines to do counselling with parents for their children’s health and wellbeing.

Amandeep Hospital is a gateway for people to get the right consultation and treatment for a healthy lifestyle and proper growth and development of their children.

If you are concerned about your child’s health or want to understand guidelines for their healthy lives, contact us to meet the best child specialist in North India.