Health and Nutrition: Understanding Your Kids NeedsIn all relationships, problems occur when one or both parties are misunderstood. This is the same with your children. As a parent, it is your job to understand your child and everything he or she is going through during the different stages of their lives. Understanding where they are developmentally, socially, and emotionally will give you a better idea of who they are and the person they are becoming. This helps you make decisions, and it also helps you guide and shape them. If one of your goals is to raise children that naturally eat healthy, and choose healthy eating all the time, you have to understand both your child's state of development and their dietary needs. This will help you properly assess each situation, and navigate your way towards healthy eating for your children. Your child goes through several developmental stages, all of which correspond to a certain amount of both physical and cognitive growth. These growth changes in your child are fueled by the amount of nutrition they receive. For your child to meet their maximum potential, they will have to meet their nutritional needs. The best way to do this is through healthy eating. Healthy foods promote a child's growth, their brain development, their physical development, and the development of internal organs. Healthy eating assures you as a parent that your child's sources of nutrition are good, are being put to good use, and will promote optimal growth and development. Health and Nutrition in Infants During infancy, a child's basic needs involve eating, sleeping, and receiving affection. Infants are pretty easy to understand. All they need is love and attention. In the first two months of your child's life, their brain cortex grows by its most significant amount, 80%. Healthy eating for a child during infancy is actually dependent on what their breastfeeding mother is eating. Breast milk is truly good for babies, and in fact it is so important that we have many articles on the topic! Health and Nutrition in Early Childhood (1-5 years old) In early childhood your child becomes more complicated. They are experiencing some growth changes. They have started walking, can now properly grasp objects, and are starting to gain their own perspective on the world. By the age of two, children begin to speak, and the age of the “terrible twos” begins. At this stage of their lives, children are discovering their independence for the first time. Being able to walk around and communicate is thrilling for a child who once had to sit back and just watch the world around them. Now they are part of the world, they can interact in it the way they have seen everyone else interact. It is good for your child to express their autonomy. Developing their sense of independence will pay off in their later years. As a parent it is your job to strike the balance of allowing them to access their control and keeping them from hurting themselves or always getting their way. A child at this age will try to push you into what they want, and if you succumb they will keep doing so because it is what works for them. In the realm of healthy eating, you can address this developmental stage by only keeping healthy options in your home. If you offer your child a mango and he or she yells out “No! I want a strawberry!” then he is still getting proper and good nutrition. Doing this from time to time and allowing them to choose what they want to eat from the refrigerator is a good way to keep your child independent, though still eating healthy. Just remember, that you do have to flex some of your authority muscles from time to time because they will definitely try to get their way in other issues as well. Page 2: Health and Nutrition in Middle Childhood (6-11 years old) |
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How To Get Your Kids To Eat Healthy Food - Without A Fight!
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