Parents know the struggle of making a child eat healthy food or gulp down a glass of milk, especially if you have a fussy eater at home. You must have tried all the tricks, including adding the taste enhancers in milk, sneaking in the healthy veggies on food plate, and blackmailing them into eating added chapati or rice.
And the struggle doesn’t end here. With so much on a plate, parents might miss out on some healthy ingredients to add to the diet chart for kids. So, to make your work a little easier here are the foods you should add to a diet to make sure your kid’s growing healthy and well as per the kid’s growth chart.
- Grains
Grains are one of the essential ingredients that provide energy and nutrients for a child’s normal growth and development. So while making a diet chart for your kid, including a wide variety of whole grains and high fiber. You can include varieties of cereals, rice, pasta, bread, noodles, and oats. Bread and cereals are a really good source of carbohydrates, fiber, and protein.
Try to exclude grains like refined grain as much as you can. Also, control your kid’s intake of added sugar, fat, and salt in like cakes and biscuits.
- Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of water, vitamins and minerals, and fiber, sans high calories. That’s what makes it more important to eat fruits and vegetables every day.
- Milk and dairy products
Milk and dairy products are a rich source of Vitamin A, B1, B2, B12, D, and minerals particularly calcium. Thus, it’s important for your kids to at least have a glass of milk every day. Enough calcium intakes during the childhood and teenage years will help your kid achieve healthy bones.
- Meat and Beans
Meat, fish, eggs, and poultry, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds all supply a variety of nutrients especially proteins, and are an important part of healthy eating. Proteins are in immense need of your body to function. Thus, it is important to include enough amount of meat and beans in your diet.
Apart from protein meat is also a good source of iron and Vitamin B12. So, include these food sources in your kid’s diet chart. Because the right amount of iron will help you prevent iron deficiency anemia in your kid. If you are vegan, you can choose alternatives for meat like soya, beans, milk, cheese, yogurt, nuts, and seeds.
Now that you have a fair idea of the essential foods your kid needs to grow normally, you can easily plan your kid’s growth chart and feed all good and healthy to your fussy eaters.
