Nutrition Diet For Childerens

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Nutrition Diet For School Children

• Dr. Preethi Sharma, Consultant Pediatrician, KIMS
  Cuddles, Kondapur

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Diet For School Children

• Child should eat breakfast every day. Skipping
  breakfast leads to poor concentration and energy
  levels. Many schools also provide breakfast. The
  breakfast should include milk, some form of
  cereal, fresh fruits. Parents can give children a
  handful of nuts along with this.
• Make sure your child eats a variety of foods in
  order to have adequate nutrient intake. 
• Choose a diet with plenty of grain products,
  vegetables and fruits. 
• Give the child a big bottle of water for school
  and insist that they finish at least that much in
  school. Teachers should also give regular water
  breaks. Many times children suffer from
  constipation, urine infections because of poor
  water intake.

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• Water cannot be substituted by fruit juices etc 
• For snacks include at least one fruit every day.
  Frequent snacking may result in loss of appetite
  during the main meal. A healthy snack should be
  less in size or quantity to the amount of a
  regular meal and taken at least 2 hours before a
  regular meal. Avoid salty snacks and sugary
  snacks. Many Indian parents give biscuits during
  snack time they are a very bad choice.
•  Snacks sent to school should be based on the
  same principles.
•  Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and
  cholesterol.

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• Make sure growing children get a good protein
  diet everyday eggs/ daals/ chicken/fish/ soya or
  other protein-rich food. 
• Avoid giving large amounts of sweet desserts,
  soft drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, sugarcoated
  cereals, chips or candy, as they have little
  nutritional value. And these junk foods are a big
  cause of obesity.
• Eating out should be restricted to just one meal
  in a week or 2 weeks. The latest trend in big
  cities is to eat out for 3-4 meals in a week
  particularly weekends. This is a very unhealthy
  practice. Home cooked food is the best for
  children. Make sure you choose the right food for
  your child while eating out. Do not let them
  binge on high sugar content food and other
  high-calorie foods.

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• In case the child is not eating well at school or
  getting back the tifin, do not shout at them or
  punish them for that. This may result in your
  child lying or throwing away the remaining food.
• Children should be educated about healthy food
  choices from a very young age. Parents should
  pack their tifin based on the child's preferences
  also. They should be involved in the decision of
  what they want to take for school lunch. This
  results in a higher chance of the food being
  finished in school. There can be a reward system
  for finishing their school food.