Nutrition

Overall Nutrition Advice

Nutrition advice to keep your child healthy:

• Eat only enough calories to maintain a healthy weight for your height and weight: don’t overfeed.
• Eat a variety of foods. Research shows it may take as many as ten tries before a child accepts a new food. Don’t give up.
• Serve a variety of fruits and vegetables daily, while limiting juice intake.
• Serve whole-grain/high-fiber breads and cereals rather than refined grain products. Look for “whole grain” as the first ingredient on the food label.
• Eat foods low in saturated fat and trans fat. Around 30 percent of calories for children should come from fat so choose healthy (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) fats like fish, nuts, avocados and vegetable oils.
• Choose a diet that provides enough calcium and iron to meet body requirements.
• Eat only moderate amounts of salt and sugar.
• Serve fat-free and low-fat dairy foods. (after age 2)
• Introduce and regularly serve fish as an entrée. Avoid fried fish.

Helpful hints:

Research shows that children are more willing to eat healthy foods and be active if they see their parents and other family members doing these things first. For this reason it’s important to get the whole family involved.

• Be active and get your family involved. Go for a walk... have fun together.
• Establish a routine. Set aside time each day as activity time.
• Stock your home with fruits and vegetables and lowfat and less sugary foods.
• Don’t use food as a reward, pacifier, bribe, or punishment. This leads to unhealthy psychological associations and poor eating habits.
• Accept your children’s decisions when they say they are full. Never force them to eat everything on their plate.
• Eat together as a family and offer nutritious choices. Limit eating at fast-food restaurants. When eating at fast food restaurants explain how to make healthy choices there.