Childhood Nutrition

Proper childhood nutrition can be a daunting task for any parent. You want your children to be well fed and healthy, but at the same time many children can make balanced nutrition extremely difficult with their picky food preferences. Thankfully, childhood nutrition does not have to be a war between you and you children.

Here are some important things to take into consideration as you child grows to ensure he or she is getting the nutrition needed at any age:

Baby - Baby nutrition is relatively simple since they eat mostly formula or breast milk. The most important part of childhood nutrition you need to be concerned about is when these foods are integrated into their diet and in what amounts. Questions you may want to ask include:

When to start on solids?
Homemade or store bought baby food?
When to start on liquids?
When should your baby start drinking milk?
Water or juice?
When can your baby begin eating table food?

Toddler - It can be difficult to get children of this age the nutrition they need because kids can become very picky eaters. Some tips for ensuring toddlers get the childhood nutrition they need include:

Some kids will eat less than 3 meals a day when they are toddlers. This is normal. Just try to provide them with milk or juice, several snacks, and 1-2 big meals a day.
Continue to offer a variety of foods. They may not be interested in them all at first, but they will eventually try to eat different foods.
You should be more concerned with their nutritional average for the week than each specific day. The way toddlers eat, they will have very healthy nutrition days and some that are less so; what's more important is that they average out to more healthy choices for their childhood nutrition.

Children & Young Adults - It is important for older children and young adults to take their nutrition seriously, but it is not as difficult as younger children. Ways to maintain health at this age include:

Exercising regularly
Maintaining a balanced diet

If you have any questions about childhood nutrition, your doctor or an experienced nutritionist or dietitian can help you choose the correct foods for your child at any age to ensure balanced, health nutrition for years to come. You can also rest assured that by taking an active role in their childhood nutrition and explaining nutrition basics and the nutrition pyramid to them, you have set them up with healthy eating habits they can use for the rest of their lives.