Eating a balanced diet is hugely important for growing kids and, like adults children need a wide variety of good healthy foods to be at their best. A diet that is not balanced can lead to problems with bones, lack of energy and many other diseases later in life. The recent National Childrens Food Survey showed that Irish Children were missing out on some of the key nutrients they need for development and that they are eating too much of certain nutrients such as fat. Overweight children are more likely to be overweight or obese as adults and it is very important that children learn how to make healthy eating choices and have lots of fun by being active. To maintain a healthy weight children should do at least an hour of moderate intensive activity most days of the week and eat balanced meals.
Below you will find some top tips for encouraging kids to eat a wide variety of foods:
- To boost calcium intake add plenty of milk to breakfast cereal and encourage children to use up all the milk in the bowl or try some milk based desserts such as custard with fruit or rice pudding.
- Lack of iron leads to lack of energy in kids so always serve a green vegetable with dinner, spinach, green beans and broccoli.
- Omega 3 fats play an important role in helping brains to work properly. The best way to get Omega 3 into your child is to get them to eat oil rich fish at least once a week such as salmon, trout or herring.
- If your child hates vegetables try liquidising homemade soups as this can help hide the vegetables or try getting them to eat more raw vegetables.
- Offer a wide variety of foods rather than the same food everyday, as children just like adults get bored.
- Serve meat or chicken with gravies or sauces to make the meal more exciting.