A healthy child will grow up to be a healthy adult. As parents and adults, it is our responsibility to ensure that our children follow a healthy diet and engage in sports and other extra-curricular activities to live a healthy lifestyle which not only makes them physically active but also, it teaches them discipline, team spirit and responsibilities.
At their growing age, it becomes absolutely necessary to scrutinize children’s daily meals. A balanced diet is necessary for the physical growth spurts of a growing child, as well as for their brain and nerve developments. If not taken care of, there’s a high possibility of an unhealthy child facing health issues well into his adult life.
Nutrition for children
What does a child’s balanced diet look like?
Without a doubt, an individual needs all the nutrients to be consumed diligently in his daily meals. For a child, most important nutrient is Calcium. Calcium are the building blocks of a child’s body, and a child needs high levels of calcium for the growing bones. It’s very common for children to be averse to milk. But, milk is one of the main sources of calcium apart from eggs, beans, lentils, oats etc. parents must ensure that children have milk in sufficient quantities; even if they have to make the milk palatable by adding chocolate syrups and other flavoured variants. Best way to entice them into drinking milk is of course to offer them hot chocolate. Gender of the child also plays an important role in daily requirements of the calories and nutrient requirements. Where girls require more irons, boys require a slightly higher amount of proteins for their muscle growth. This however, doesn’t mean that the other nutrients can be conveniently ignored!
How to make sure that your child is making the right choices?
It becomes very hard to keep a watch on a child’s diet at all times. While under the watch, parents may be able to keep a check on them. But when the child is away for school or attending sports coaching etc, they may resort to junk food like chocolates, chips, carbonated drinks. These provide negligible nutrition and only add to increasing consumption of starch, monosaturated fats and sugar- this leads to unnecessary weight gain, lethargy and a general weakening of the body’s immune system, which requires whole grains, fibre, multivitamins to function properly.
It is very important to encourage children to make healthy choices when choosing what to eat. As children can be more inclined towards junk food and quite difficult about eating, try recipes which are healthier alternatives of the fast foods otherwise available, for example- whole wheat spaghetti made in homemade pasta sauce, low fat homemade lemon cakes, fresh fruit smoothies made from berries, burgers made of whole wheat buns and baked patties. Make it look pretty, but healthy!
The importance of an expert’s advise…
It is recommended that you visit a child nutritionist regularly. In today’s scenario, it is necessary to take every step to ensure that a child is growing up the right way. An expert’s advise will go a long way into securing a healthy life for your child. Happy parenting!
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