Nutrition is important for your child. It depends on what your child eats and drinks. It is important as parents to encourage children to eat a nourishing, balanced diet right from early years of their life. Your child needs to consume the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vitamins. Educating them on healthy eating early in life will help maintaining good health and immunity for the long run.
The food Pyramid
They key to healthy eating is to enjoy all variety in the right numbers. Here is a display of food divided into 5 categories to help explain what should be eaten when. The five food groups are:
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Here is a bifurcation of the pyramid:
The bottom of the pyramid is the biggest part of the pyramid. It contains the foods you should eat in bulk:
- Grain foods: always choose wholegrain and/or high fiber varieties of bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles.
- Fruits and vegetables: They should make up a large part of your daily food intake. Ensure to encourage their consumption during every meal.
The middle of the pyramid contains foods you should eat some, but not too much:
- Dairy: the foods in this group are excellent sources of calcium, which is important for strong, healthy bones.
The top of the pyramid is the smallest part of the pyramid. It contains foods you can eat once in a while:
- Pulses: Helps to build proteins, maintain, and repair the tissues in our body.
- Sugar Contains: Should be taken the least as they contain a large amount of fats.
Now that we have bifurcated the food into different groups, to encourage your children to eat this you should always have incentives:
The food chart
All children love to be encouraged, so when they follow your diet chart you can always appreciate them with a star and grade them. This way they will want to be good kids and will want to follow eating healthy!
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Tips for healthy eating:
- Make school lunch interesting for the children:
Most of the time children spend is in school. Packing the perfect lunch box for your child could be a challenge. It is easy to run out of ideas and more importantly to give them something new which is tasty and healthy. Here are a few healthy Lunch Box Recipes:
- Oats Idlis
- Upma
- Bread Poha
- Paneer and Salsa Tortillas
- Multigrain Pizza
- Moong Dal Chila
Click on the link to get the recipes here – http://food.ndtv.com/lists/10-best-kids-lunch-box-recipes-1434784
- Breakfast is the most important meal:
Breakfast is the best way to refuel your body. It keeps your kids healthy and active during the day. Skipping breakfast makes your child tired and restless. Breakfast also can help keep kids’ weight in check. Breakfast kick-starts the body’s metabolism too. Here is a video which will help you understand the importance of it. – https://vimeo.com/122534561
- Involve your kids while cooking food:
If you involve your children into cooking or even let them help in preparing the meal with you then it will make them happier and also they will love to eat to eat the food they prepare. They will land up eat vegetables they refused to taste in the first place – https://vimeo.com/122534563
Mommies, we hope this helps you maintain a balanced but yet healthy diet for your children. Eat healthy, stay healthy!