Kids Food Pyramid: Child Nutrition Guide (Ages 2-6)After your child passes their second birthday, their diet should be similar to yours. Your child can now have three whole meals and two snacks each day. These are the recommended portions. However, a combination of three whole meals and one snack is also okay, especially since it may fit better into most family schedules. Usually children of this age group do get a mid-morning break at school, and you can pack a healthy snack for your child. When they get home, they can have their second snack after lunch. This keeps the two snacks a day, but it isn’t a strict rule. In this age group, it is common that children are picky with what they eat, and may not be adventurous. Study your child’s taste buds or which foods they tend to favor. For example, many children have a sweet tooth. You can choose sweeter fruits and vegetables to encourage them to eat vegetables and fruits, as well as meet their daily requirements for vegetables and fruit each day. Don’t give them raw vegetables like carrots and celery right away. Little children have not perfected their chewing skills yet, and may not be able to properly chew these raw veggies till about the age of four or five. Remember that at this age quantity is not as important as quality. As long as your children are eating good quality food and continue to grow at a normal rate, they are doing just fine. Before your child reaches this age group, whole cream milks and fatty food are perfectly okay. Remember that your child’s brain and other organs are still developing. In fact before the age of two, their bodies are going through crucial development. While you should already start them on healthy eating, you don’t have to monitor their fat intake till after their second birthday. If your child continues to drink milk as their source of calcium or dairy nutrients after the age of two, switch them to 2% or low fat milk. You can also make them drink soy milk. These choices offer your child their needed dairy servings without the now unnecessary fat. Some children do not like the taste of soy milk or 2% milk. Try to ease them into it. If your child doesn’t like the taste of milk at all, you can turn to calcium fortified orange juice or cheese, and this can help them reach their daily recommendations. Just make sure to read the nutrition facts and serving suggestions on the labels so your children get the proper serving sizes. Butter also helps, but go easy on the butter as it can be quite fattening, and can be a source of bad cholesterol. Grains are usually easy to feed children at this age as they naturally go for it. Try to feed them whole grains once in a while during the early stage, just to get them used to its taste and texture. Whole grains can be very filling, and young children can miss out on other needed nutrients from other food groups by filling up on whole grains. Just get them used to its taste to prepare them for when they transition into a grains diet that is composed of 50% whole grain. The protein group is probably the easiest to feed your child. Stick to lean meats, beans, nuts and fish for your child. These are good sources of protein. Some children may be allergic to poultry or eggs, fish, and nuts. If they are you can try serving these again when they are older. Next Article: Kids Food Pyramid - Child Nutrition Guide (Ages 7-11) |
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How To Get Your Kids To Eat Healthy Food - Without A Fight!
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