Often at meal and snacktime, there is a frequent struggle for control between parents and children of what to eat, how much to eat, and even when to eat.
Children have different physical and emotional needs than adults. Recognising these differences can help minimise tensions centred on food and make mealtime more pleasant.
Here are a few tips to assist parents in meal planning and food selection.
- Children require smaller portions than adults. About one tablespoon of each type of food for every year of a child’s age is an ample portion size in most cases.
- Young children need to snack throughout the day in addition to regularly scheduled meals. Keep the snacks small and provide water instead of juice or milk so your child will be hungry at mealtime.
- All children over the age of two are advised to follow the same low fat, low saturated fat, and low cholesterol diet as an adult. This is less than 30 per cent fat, less than 10 per cent saturated fat, and less than 300mg of cholesterol daily. This does not mean you need to eliminate all high fat foods from your child’s diet.
- Choose lower fat foods more often and when choosing high fat foods aim for the child-size portions of healthy fats like avocado, nuts or olives.
- Give children time to try new foods and recipes. If your child does not like them right away, try them several times over the course of several months before giving up. It can take a child more than a dozen times to enjoy new tastes.
- A food may not be appealing due to its natural form or because of the way, it is presented. Often, raw, crunchy vegetables are preferred over hot ones or finger foods are more desirable than those needing utensils.
Remember, children have their own internal signals for hunger, satiety, and nutrient needs that guide them in making appropriate decisions about food.
Forcing your child to try every food or clean their plates is not helpful and may be harmful to a child’s future relationship with food.
Try to provide balanced, varied and tasty meals and snacks.
Offer foods from all the food groups: Whole grains such as wholewheat bread, wholegrain pastas and wholegrain cereals.
Offer five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily, lower fat and non-fat milk products; lean trimmed meats and skinless poultry, fish, dried peas, beans and nuts.
q Information obtained from www.superkidsnutrition.com
