Children's Nutrition

Some Basic Ideas

By Karsten Alexandria, ND

Positive Steps For Growth

1. Offer small, child-sized portions, and seconds only if the child asks for them.

2. Have children pay attention to smells, textures, flavors, and temperatures of foods as they chew.

3. Allow time for eating.  Do not rush children.  A child will begin to feel full about 20 minutes after starting to eat.  The average time it takes children and adults to finish a meal is 12 minutes.

4. Teach and model slow eating for children.  Avoid gobbling the food;  enjoy and savor the food during meal and snack times.  Chew slowly and thoroughly before swallowing.

5. Offer snacks which are low in fat and sugar.  Avoid soft drinks, pastries, cookies, candy, and salty or greasy food items.  Serve these only occasionally.

6. Use fruits, vegetables, yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, 100 percent fruit juices, finger sandwiches, low-fat crackers, low-sugar cereal, toast, and enriched breads for snacks.

7. Increase play activity and decrease television time.

8. Do not allow children to eat while playing, listening to stories, or watching television.  This may lead to eating without paying attention to eating (what's called "unconscious eating") and past the point where the child feels full.

9. Avoid overfeeding children.  Set reasonable limits to seconds or portion sizes, especially for foods which are popular with children.  Avoid allowing the child to drink too much juice.  Offer water if the child is thirsty.

10. Learn when each child is full or whether the child knows when he or she is full.

11. Have children pay attention to what they are feeling while eating to increase the awareness and the enjoyment of eating, and have children tell when they are feeling full and satisfied.

12. Encourage children to drink water when they are thirsty throughout the day.  Sodas, diet beverages, and powdered drinks are not recommended.

13. Avoid using food as a punishment or reward.

Tips on Managing the Underweight Child

1. Give children the time and attention they need during meal or snack time.  This has a big impact on the amount they eat.

2. Provide direction and skills on how to eat food well.  This will improve the child's ability to eat the foods and nutrients needed.

3. Give formation and direction on how to eat new or unfamiliar foods.  This increases the child's comfort level to try new food.

4. Reinforce a child's attention to the meal time activity.  This will increase how much the child is eating.  This works well for children who are easily distracted.

5. Provide the properly sized cups, plates, and utensils.

6. Provide child-sized portions and amounts.

7. Serve foods at proper temperatures.  Children will generally not eat food which is too hot or too cold.

8. Avoid offering sweets, chips, sodas, or other empty-calorie (poor nutrient-rich) foods to a child whom you feel has not eaten enough during the day.

9. Offer small meals and snacks.

Dietary habits are an important skill learned during childhood.

• Adults must set good examples and provide the nutritional needs of young children.

• Children will learn to eat a variety of foods if offered a variety of healthy foods.  To get complete nutrition, a child must eat a variety of foods.

• The foods children eat provide the calories and nutrients needed for development, growth, and daily well-being.

• Children need extra calories for growth and increased activity and metabolic rate.

• Lifelong beliefs, attitudes, and habits about food and health are established in early childhood.

• A child's day-to-day early experiences with food and eating mold the way they think and feel about nutrition for the rest of their lives.

Set a good example.  If kids see others eating a food, they will want to try that food.

• Don't reward kids' good behavior with sweets or use them to offer solace when unhappy;  this carries into adulthood.

• Kids have a natural interest about food and their bodies, and are thus an open learning window.

• A child's mouth has more taste buds and is more sensitive than an adult's.  They are not tasting like an adult does.

• The brain runs on glucose, and thus if a child is hungry, his or her behavior and academic performance can very well be altered.

• The liver is smaller on kids -- it stores less glycogen -- so feed kids at least every 4 hours.

• Don't ask a toddler what she wants to eat -- she will just tell you her favorite food.  Put a variety of different foods on the table.  If she doesn't like them say okay.  Don't be a fast-order cook.

• Let children feel, mash, look, and smell their food.  Don't let them play with their food to get you to react.  If they do, then get them down from the table.

• Kids like to eat with kids at small tables and chairs with little plates and utensils.

• Kids like raw crunchy vegetables better than cooked vegetables.

• Kids love soup, bread, muffins, shakes/smoothies, yogurt, seeds, and nuts.

• Frozen snack ideas:  fruit juice popsicle, 1/2 banana on a stick.

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