how to meet your child's nutritional needs

As a loving and responsible parent, you are worried at your child’s consistent refusal to eat anything given to him, no matter how appetizing it may look. Children are unpredictable at best and it is left to you to ensure that their minimum nutritional needs are met at any cost.

Though the chart shown below is a review of how much your child must eat and looks great, it is impossible to maintain it on a regular basis on account of your child’s unpredictable food cravings. So, what next?

Kids’ eating guide (Adapted from 6^th edition - Pediatric Nutrition Handbook)

Food Groups	2-3 Years/Portion	Daily	4-8Years/Portion	Daily	9-12 Years/Portion	Daily
Milk, yogurt, and cheese	1/2 cup	2 cups	1/2 cups to 3/4      cups	2-3 cups	1/2 to 1 cups	3
Meat, fish, poultry, dry beans, eggs and nuts	1-2 oz	2 oz	1-2 oz	3 oz	2 oz	5 oz
Vegetables	2-3 Tbsp     cooked/ few pieces raw	1 cup	3-4 Tbsp/few  pieces raw	1.5 cups	1/4 to 1/2 cups/several pieces raw	2 cups
Fruit	1/2-1 (small) 2-4 Tbsp canned 3-4oz juice	1 cup	1/2-1 (small) 4-6 Tbsp canned 4oz juice	1 cup	1 medium pieces 1/4 -1/2 cup canned 4oz juice	1.5 cups
Grains	1/2 to 1 slice bread 1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked cereal and 1/2- 1 cup dry cereal	3 oz	1 slice bread 1/2 cup cooked cereal 1 cup dry cereal	4 oz	1 slice bread 1/2-1 cup cooked cereal 1 cup dry cereal	5 oz

Every child has different eating habits. It does not matter what they are as long as your child’s diet has iron, potassium, calcium, carbohydrates and fats.

Children usually take fortified cereals for breakfast. You could add fresh juices or milky smoothies or soy milk along with it.

Strawberry smoothie

5 to 6 large strawberries, ½ cup yogurt (flavored), 1 cup milk and 3 ice cubes.              

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend it until it turns into a smooth drink.

Serve right away.

Chocolate & Raspberry smoothie

Fresh or frozen raspberries-1 cup, banana (ripe)-1, cream soda-1 cup, milk-1 cup, 2 tablespoons instant chocolate pudding powder and ice-2 cups

Blend all the ingredients well in a blender and serve garnished with a little chocolate pudding powder sprinkled on the top.

Tofu/paneer/cottage cheese is extremely rich in protein and good fats. Include paneer snacks (read how to improve your child's nutrition - part 2) to improve your child’s protein deficiency. Chicken is also a good source of protein. Make some delectable chicken snacks that your child will definitely love.

Chicken tikka

Boneless chicken pieces cut in small even pieces-800 gms, 1 tsp each of ginger and garlic paste, ½ tsp of paprika/red chilly powder, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, ½ cup unflavored yogurt and salt to taste.

Marinate the chicken piece in all the ingredients for about 20 minutes. Put the chicken pieces on skewers (4 pieces in one skewer) and place them on a greased tray and grill them in the oven at 220 degrees for 15 minutes. Check on them after 10 minutes and baste them with oil to keep them juicy and grill them for another 7 to 8 minutes. Serve with chutney (read  how to improve your child's nutrition - part 3) or ketchup or a mayo dip.

Cheese is a good source of calcium. Cheesy snacks will go down faster than plain cheese. Try these.

Cheese cutlets

100 gms each of processed cheese & refined flour, ½ tsp each of fresh pepper powder & mustard seeds, ½ cup each of milk & finely chopped coriander leaves/parsley, 2 tsp yogurt (unflavored), salt as required and oil for deep frying

Mix together all the ingredients in a big bowl. Add a tsp of hot oil to it and leave it aside for an hour. Make equal portions of the mixture and shape it into a small ball or pat it flat, as you prefer. Heat sufficient oil needed for deep frying in a pan and fry the cutlets till it turns golden brown all over. Drain on an absorbent paper and serve hot with ketchup or a mayo dip.

Note: You can make several variations of cheese cutlets by adding veggies like cauliflower or capsicum or carrot or green peas. All other ingredients and method of preparation will remain the same. You can also add 1 tsp each of chopped green chillies and ginger, but it is optional. 

Dry fruits are rich in dry fruits. You could give your child homemade granola bars that are tasty and nutritious (read  how to make tasty treats to make your child's immune system strong)

Children are tired of being served the same stuff every day. They always find food served in the neighbor's house far more appetizing that the food served in their home. Haven’t you heard of “familiarity breeds contempt”. Well, it certainly applies to food too, I would say.

Rotate your child’s meals periodically every week. On days, when lunch or dinner has a meal your child likes, serve a side dish that is new and vice versa. It is important to expose your child to all kinds of food in order to make your child more adaptive in his later years. It is alright for your child to skip the odd meal or if he has a bad day.

Keep track of your child’s eating patterns and juggle his food around in a way that your child ends up with a balanced meal. If he is picky about vegetables, add them (grated) to your bread dough and bake it. Alternately, you could add grated veggies to the pancake batter. Make sure you add only one kind of veggie, each time.

Feed your child with nutritious food in the first half of the day, as they tend to get quite tired and cranky at night and will not eat well. Give them veggies and fruits along with different side snacks.

In my next post, I will post some savory fish snacks in order to fill in your child’s need of fatty acids like EPA & DHA.

Read my article on  How to Improve Appetite in Your Child And Make Him Say, "Mom, Can I Have Some More"?

Here's a video to show you how to make bread omlette, which is a salty savory item. The process is quite similar to French toast where the bread is dipped in the milk & egg mixture and lightly fried in a pan.