Childhood development. Healthy eating and early learning. Part 1

Food and nutrients help to form strong teeth and bones, muscles and a healthy body. A balanced diet can also help to protect your child against illness. Children’s need for energy and nutrients is high, but appetites are small and children can be fussy, so it can be a challenge to get your child’s diet right especially when feeding them organic food. But there’s quite a bit at stake because healthy eating aids early learning and childhood development.

It’s useful to know that young children can usually regulate their own intake, so remember that pre-school children normally eat the amounts they want, even if it seems they’re not taking in very much. At this age, children are often good at regulating their appetite. If they’re not hungry, insisting on larger amounts of food can create a battle, which you’re likely to lose.

Food pyramid

Base your child’s intake on the following food groups to help ensure she’s getting all the important nutrients. Make sure your child has a balanced diet, with food from each of the key food groups every day. The food pyramid helps kids to receive all the nutrients growing children need each day from the five food groups. These are:

Fruit
Vegetables
Protein – this includes lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes
Grains – this includes bread, cereals, rice, pasta and noodles
Dairy – this includes milk, yoghurt, and cheese

They, and you, will need to eat a number of serves from each group depending on their age and how active they are. Growing children need the following number of serves from each group. Let Mindful Eating be a guiding principle. This table shows the suggested number of serves per day by age:

Age in years	Grains	Vegetables	Fruit	Dairy	Protein
Children 4-7	3 – 4	4	2	3	0.5-1
Children 8-11	4 – 6	4 – 5	1 – 2	3	1 – 1.5
Adolescents 12-18	4 – 7	5 – 9	3 – 4	3 – 5	1 – 2

Sample serves from the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating.

Carbohydrates

Young children have small appetites, so fibre-rich carbohydrates can be bulky and inhibit the absorption of some minerals. A good mindful eating tip is to gradually introduce higher fibre carbohydrate foods, such as whole wheat pasta and brown rice, so that by the time children are five, they’re eating the same fibre-rich foods as the rest of the family.

Fruit and vegetables

Where you can, serve fresh fruits. Alternatively, dried organic fruits, like Bellamy’s Certified Organic Apple Snacks, can be a convenient and none-messy way to get fruit into the lunch box.

Vegetables can be eaten raw or lightly cooked and slightly crunchy to preserve the vitamins and minerals.

If your child doesn’t like vegetables try to persevere, without fighting!