Every parent wants to give their child the very best. We look for the best kindergartens and the right schools, choose tasteful clothes, teach good manners and try to feed the right food. And if most of us manage to cope with clothes and kindergarten, then with proper nutrition we often fail.
How to teach a child to eat healthy and balanced/5 helpful tips for parents of beloved ones
Statistics show that up to 60% of children do not eat very well. Not everyone loves vegetables, many refuse fish, few agree to eat oatmeal or omelet in the morning. Nutritionists offer some tips to help teach kids to eat healthy foods.
Cook together
Put together a menu, buy all the food you need, and cook breakfast, lunch or dinner together. It is possible that the child will like to taste the dishes prepared by himself and he will decide to try them, even if he has never tasted fish before and refused vegetable soup.
Removing temptations
Eating a vegetable salad and meat cutlet is much easier if there are no unhealthy foods at home, such as fries or frozen pizza. There will be no temptations in the form of cookies, sweets and other sweets – the child will not snack on them and will more readily agree to carrot sticks or apple slices.
We offer a choice
If you have to choose between a sandwich with chocolate spread and oatmeal with berries, then the choice will most likely be made in favor of chocolate – and parents will not always like it. But the choice of topping for porridge is another matter, the child will be more willing to have breakfast with oatmeal, if he decides himself, sprinkle it with raisins, berries or pour a spoonful of honey.
Setting an example
If parents eat this or that dish with appetite, then there is a chance that the child will agree to try at least a small portion. Let the new healthy product be in the public domain – it is possible that the child will decide to try it, if not at a common table, then secretly, when no one is looking at it.
Adding new products
It can be difficult for a child to decide on tasting celery or another vegetable, but he may well agree to try it in a vegetable smoothie. Some parents do not at all announce to their children the full composition of the dishes that they have just tried, because they know that zucchini in cutlets will definitely be rejected. In the event that the cutlets receive approval from the strictest critic, the recipe with the secret ingredient will become permanent, and the baby’s nutrition will be healthier.
Vitamin Patrol
However, all these tricks do not work with all children, and therefore many of them continue to eat not too varied.
However, it’s not just the variety and quantity of ingredients – an unbalanced diet can lead to vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies. Specialists from the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences studied the diet of preschoolers and schoolchildren from different Russian regions and found that 90% of them had a vitamin C deficiency, 40-80% had a lack of B vitamins, 70-80% had iodine, and 30- 40% – iron and calcium, more than 40% of children – lack of vitamins A, E and beta-carotene. In many children, nutritionists have discovered several vitamin deficiencies at once.
The lack of vitamins does not have the best effect on health, and for a child’s body this may be critical, because growth, physical and mental development directly depend on the intake of the most important nutrients. So, for example, iodine deficiency can lead to malfunctioning of the thyroid gland, low growth, and iron deficiency can provoke anemia. A deficiency of vitamin C and zinc will cause problems with the immune system, a lack of B vitamins will not have the best effect on the functioning of the brain, and a decrease in the level of beta-carotene will negatively affect visual acuity.
Particular attention should be paid to cognitive functions – the ability to solve problems, attention, memory. In the event that a child is not easy at school, he quickly gets tired, does not sleep well and does not cope with tasks in the best way, it is necessary to contact a specialist and identify the cause of such problems.
A doctor can diagnose attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the occurrence of which is also associated with a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in the body. Most of these fatty acids are found in sea fish, olive oil and soy. Children are not big fans of such products, and therefore the likelihood of developing a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in their body is quite high.
The intake of vitamin and mineral complexes will help to provide the child with the necessary vitamins and microelements, which are so necessary for his normal growth and development. For example, products from the Doppelherz® Kinder children’s series:
