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Nutrition plays a major role in the development of child. Check out guidelines regarding healthy nutrition for child.

Nutrition and child development are two terms that often go hand in hand. The more nutritious diet your child consumes, the healthier your child would be. The nutrition requirement of a child differs from that of an adult, because the child witnesses the phase of growth. It is owing to this fact that there arises a need to encourage healthy nutrition for child.

Here are presented some child nutrition guidelines:

* Offer your child a wide variety of healthy nutritious foods like green leafy veggies, fresh fruits, legumes etc.
* Encourage your child to eat plenty of cereals, but prefer inculcating the habit of eating wholegrain.
* Milk and other milk products are a must for the growth of child. They act as fabulous sources of calcium that ensures your child's healthy bones and teeth. Going in for low fat skim milk is not recommended for children under the age of 2, but young children and adolescents can definitely opt for low fat milk varieties.
* As far as intake of non-vegetarian food is concerned, encourage your child to go in for lean meat, fish and poultry.
* Alcohol intake is not at all recommended for young children.
* Choose foods that are less salty and less spicy.
* Avoid foods that are high in sugar and fat content.
* When it comes to cooking, prefer going in for cooking techniques like steaming, boiling and baking, rather than going in for frying, because that tends to involve extensive usage of oil, thus making the food item high in calories.


Healthy Drinks for Kids

There are plenty of beverages that you can go in for, but not all drinks are healthy. The market is stocked with various kinds of sweet drinks that contain high sugar content. The term sweet drink is a broad concept that encompasses plenty of drinks, like fruit juices, soft drinks and cordials. Sweet drinks do not contain any nutritional value and thus should be avoided. Instead, it is preferable to check out healthy beverage choices for kids. Read further to explore information about child nutrition drinks…

Sweet drinks can become a cause of many kinds of health ailments like tooth decay, diarrhea and reduced appetite. Milk occupies an important position in the list of healthy drinks for kids, as it acts as a rich source of calcium that is required by the body to ensure healthy, strong bones and teeth. There are several milk varieties hitting the market like full cream milk, skim milk etc. Skim milk is low in calories and thus is recommended for adolescents and adults. However, kids under the age of 2, should be given whole milk, owing to their energy needs. Consuming milk in excessive quantities can lead to poor appetite, so limit your intake to 2-3 glasses per day. Artificially sweetened milk drinks should be avoided.

Encourage your child to eat fresh fruits, rather than going in for fruit juices. They contain high sugar content and are not apt for children, who are on their weight loss diet. There is a need to put a stop to your child's consumption of soda, as it contains caffeine, which is harmful for the body. Soda should be like a total no, especially for preschoolers. Water is one such natural beverage that is absolutely fatless and calorie free. Its advantages are many, so make it an integral part of your daily routine to drink loads of water, at least about 8-10 glasses per day.


Child Nutritional Requirement

Kids today don't really pay attention to consuming healthy foods that provide the essential nutrients required by the human body. Here, it becomes necessary on the part of parents to take care of the child nutritional requirement. It is vital to possess a complete knowledge about nutrition requirement of child, because ignorance on your part can prove to be harmful for your child's health.

Here is presented a meal plan that can enable you to meet your child's nutritional requirement:

* Breakfast is ideally supposed to be king size, as in, it should contain rich diet, containing loads of fiber and other vital nutrients. Going in for cold whole-grain cereal or instant oatmeal with raisins is just perfect for breakfast purpose.
* Your daily meals should consist of about two servings of food high in protein content. The nutrition requirement of a four- to six-year old child is about 24 grams of protein per day and 28 grams of proteins are required by seven- to ten-year-olds.
* Offer your child about 3-4 servings of calcium rich food. Children in the age group of four- to eight-years need 800mg of calcium. Nine- to thirteen-year-old kids need 1,300mg.
* Sunlight acts as a good source of vitamin D, so encourage your children to go out for play. Kids need 5mcg of vitamin D per day.
* For intake of iron, you can offer your child lean meats, poultry, fish, dried beans and whole grains. Kids need 10mg of iron every day.
* Vitamin A helps in improving vision. Green veggies server as fabulous sources of vitamin A. Children in the age group of four to six years, need 500mcg of vitamin A, whereas children in the age group of seven to ten years, require 700mcg of vitamin A per day.
* Kids need 45mg of vitamin C per day. Good sources of vitamin C include blueberries, oranges, kiwi, cantaloupe and strawberries.


Healthy Snacks for Child

Here is presented a list depicting healthy snacks for child:

* Dried fruit and nut mix
* Fresh or canned vegetables or fruit served plain or with low-fat yogurt
* Chopped raw vegetables and dip
* Pretzels or popcorn
* Toasted whole grain breads
* Soy yogurt
* Tofu hot dogs
* Chunks of avocado, cucumber, or cooked sweet potato
* Small rice cakes with peanut butter
* Fresh soybeans
* Homemade muffins or cornbread


Child Growth Nutritional Supplement

Are you tired of your child's wrong feeding habit? Worried about his/her lack of nutritional content diet? Most of the parents, today, are tensed about their kid's unhealthy lifestyle. While fast foods have become the order of the day, highly-nutritious food such as green vegetable and fruits find their way out of the window or more sadly, into the dustbin. As if this were not enough, waking up late in the morning and almost negligible fitness exercise add to the growth and development problems. All this has risen to one common result - lack of even minimum nutrition.

Combating against the 'all yummy, but least nutritional' fast food, parents have found a helpful alternative to provide their children with nutrients, i.e. in the form of supplements. Nutrition supplement play a major role in filling up for the deficiency. Though it is not necessary for consuming health nutrition supplements, lack of nutritional diet makes it inevitable. The markets, today, have been flooded with distinctive kinds of kid nutritional food supplements. These provide the essential nutrients that the body requires. However, before getting one, you should always check with the doctor.

Before purchasing the supplement, ensure that it is free of preservatives, contains no fillers or artificial dyes and does not contain any added sugar or sugar substitutes like aspartame and saccharine. One more point that you should keep in mind, is that you should not give excessive dosage of health nutrition supplements, as they can cause harm to your child's body. Another important consideration to make is that supplements, which have proven to be beneficial for you may not be beneficial for your child. So, the best deal would be to consult a doctor about the whether your child needs to consume nutritional dietary supplements at all or not and if yes, then always look for labels for proper doses.

These days' child growth nutritional supplements are available in variety of forms and flavors. Right from ones that are in the form of a tablet to those that can be added to water or milk; the options offered are many to suit to the liking of your child. These supplements are full of the essential vitamins and minerals that your child needs on a regular basis. Despite all the benefits of nutritional supplements, you need to realize that you cannot substitute healthy eating habits for a supplement. Children should know the value of healthy eating habits. Also, you need to make them consume fruits and vegetables and limit the intake of sugary and fatty foods.