Serve proper nutrition for preschool children

Preschoolers are active, lively clowns. While generally friendly and fun, it is perfectly normal, 3, 4 and 5 years to be opinionated - especially concerning food.

Here are some tips from the experts how to avoid food fights of the playground.


The preschool children will eat, what eats the rest of the family, said Melinda Johnson, MS, RD, a pediatric nutrition expert and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. Assuming that family meals provide a variety of healthy foods in moderation.
Depending on their age, the energy of an opponent's Active preschooler, some adult women. Although there is no need to track calories burned is a boy, it is important to count calories.

A toddler diet should consist primarily of healthy foods like lean meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and legumes, whole grains such as bread and whole grains, at least two servings of dairy products per day, and few fresh fruit or processed vegetables.

There is room for treatment, but it is limited, said Kathy Mitchell, MD, practicing pediatrician at Harvard Medical Vanguard Associates in Watertown, Massachusetts


Regular family meals provide opportunities for good nutrition, and more. Encouraged to eat around the table and how to encourage the development of language and conversation. If you minimize distractions from the TV and turn on the answering machine, show your child that food is to enjoy a healthy diet and maintaining critical data relationships.

During the ceremony, scheduled meals, it is comforting for children to eat with preschool children can be chaotic and confusing. Expect a few spills and snacks only your child's feeding skills sharp. Minimized refrain from a process of cleaning with or without food stress.
Too much can be serious at the table Clean your child feel bad beat in the milk or food market for clothes, because, says Johnson.

Do you accept your child, baked potatoes instead of fried, and prefer milk with soft drinks, then it also.


Children love to imitate adults, and that mimic your eating habits, whether good or better. Take advantage of replacing the natural curiosity of young people with healthy food on the table. Chances are it will, what you need, after food horizons broadened, and a minimum of distrust.


* Couscous instead of white rice, sweet potatoes for white potatoes * * * Canadian bacon, bacon mashed potatoes with reduced fat milk for French fries * fig bars for cookies * Tube lean yogurt (frozen to facilitate handling, First Out ) on ice * Reduced-fat cheddar cheese for regular.


Planning meals and snacks contributes to a healthy diet for preschool children. The problem is that young children do not always follow a rigid diet plan. Ear infections and colds, fatigue, and stages of development may temporarily change the frequency used and the amount of your child.

Snack between meals to help fill gaps in the diet food is while. The best snacks you eat nutritious foods in quantities take the sharpness of their son or your daughter to death. Do not worry if you are not hungry at your next meal.

If you offer nutritious snacks, your child gets what they need, so it does not matter if you do not eat much at dinner, says Mitchell.
Feed your child in a particular area, such as the kitchen or dining room. Sits down to eat, and eat only helps children pay attention to their feelings of fullness, says Mitchell.


* 1 / 2 Sandwich * Good cooked vegetables and dip * Low-fat whole wheat crackers and cheese, yogurt, smoothies fruit * * * * chopped milk boiled and scrambled eggs * Dry cereals, muesli with milk * Low-microwave popcorn fat (4 years).


Your child is still young, but not too early to help achieve a healthy weight. The compliance of preschool child is able to decide how much we eat and where it is vital to the effort. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study shows how children are able to regulate the supply of C and how adults can interfere with this innate ability.

When researchers at the nursery was a double portion of macaroni and cheese, children took more bites and ate more. But when researchers raised the double size in a bowl and let their children serve the children chose the appropriate amount of food for his age: 1/2-cup at a party for 3 years and 3 / 4 cup for 4 to 5 -years-.

Restrictions on television - even educational shows - even preschoolers improves the chances of a healthy weight. Three years have two or more hours per day watching television were almost three times more likely to be obese than children who are less happy, according to recent studies in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
It is tempting to see a preschooler on television, so that it can take several minutes of good, but it's a hard habit to break, says Mitchell. And while Mitchell, a mother of two children do not expect parents to ban television, is connected and the TV Food created rigid.

What is the problem with food in front of the TV? Writing in the journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers have recently discovered that preschool children of normal weight often eat and watch TV, eat more, perhaps because they differ from the normal signals the completeness rather distracted.


Preschool children can be choosy. You can use the same food for several weeks at the end, despite your efforts on diversity. You can not prevent their children from the noise for food, but you control how you react to the demand for chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese every day.

The temptation is just the food that is sure to be ready to accept your child. But resist the urge.

Johnson, also a mother, a minimizing food preferences while remaining rooted in a wide variety of choices.
Most children will eventually become boring, selecting a start for other foods that we offer as you can not enforce them in a power struggle at the table, he said.

It is normally involved when a child decides to limited supply even further. While you're waiting, grab routine maintenance of your child is assured by taking a daily multivitamin tailored to the age of your child. Multivitamins, fill small gaps in the provision of nutrients is a critical eater, especially for iron - an element is the development of the brain essential for the immune system and energy a child.