Children’s Nutrition

Discover how to promote healthy eating among youngsters and about their nutritional needs

You will discover how to balance macronutrients, identify food sensitivities, differentiate between adult and child nutrition, and be food- and health-positive with kids in this course.

Once established, nutritional habits might be difficult to change. In comparison to a youngster reared on a balanced diet of fresh fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, and dairy, a child who develops a sweet tooth and a hatred for veggies would find it much harder to maintain a healthy diet throughout their later years.

This course takes a comprehensive approach, concentrating not only on what to feed kids but also on eating habits and nutritional needs from preconception to adolescence.

ACS student feedback “I had a great time in this course. As I hadn’t studied in ten years, I was a little nervous. The staff was really helpful, always had insightful feedback, and responded with lightning speed. I now have a renewed motivation to learn more after taking this course. I had no idea education could be so entertaining. I am looking forward to my next learning experience with ACS”. Nutrition for Children, Rhonda Rae

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Child Nutrition
   • Scope, Nature and History of Nutrition
   • Effect of Culture and Family Background on Nutrition
   • Importance of Nutrition in Early Childhood
   • Basic Nutrients needed in a Child’s Diet
   • Key things to Remember about a Child’s Diet
   • Nutrition Tips for Children
2. Nutrition for Pre-Pregnancy
   • Pre-Conception Diet – Maternal Weight, Maternal Nutrient Status
   • Paternal Health and Nutrition
   • Effect of Nutrition of Parents at Conception
   • Making Diet Changes Pre-Conception
3. Nutrition in Pregnancy
   • Early Pregnancy and Morning Sickness
   • Tips to Help with Pregnancy Nausea
   • Nutrition through Pregnancy – RDI
   • Caloric and Fluid Intake through Pregnancy
   • Calorie Demands for a Pregnant Woman
   • Foods to Avoid While Pregnant
   • Hypervitaminosis
   • Pregnancy Complications that Relate to Nutrition (Neural Tube Defect, Morning Sickness, Constipation, Gestational diabetes, Hypertension, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
4. Nutrition in Infants
   • Breastfeeding
   • Formula Feeding
   • Feeding for the first six months
   • Starting on Solid Foods
   • Adequate Vitamin C and Iron Intake in first year
   • Progressing with Solid Foods: protein, dairy, finger foods, etc
   • Nutrition for Toddlers
   • Snack Packs, Small Meals, Meal Alternatives, Being creative, etc
   • Allergens
   • Weaning
5. Nutrition in Childhood
   • Caloric Intake
   • Mineral Intake
   • Vitamin Intake
   • Encouraging Good Eating Habits
   • Breakfast
   • Morning and Afternoon Snacks
   • Packed Lunches
   • Eating Habits
   • Puberty
6. Nutritional Concerns
   • Scope and Nature of Nutritional Health for Children
   • Healthy Snacks and Re-hydration
   • Underweight
   • Malnutrition
   • Anaemia or Iron Deficiency
   • Dental Care
   • Eating Disorders : Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating
   • Fast Food and Junk Food
7. Healthy Eating Behaviours
   • Influencing Children’s Eating
   • Teaching Healthy Eating to Children
   • Health Snack Ideas
   • Childhood Food Sensitivities
   • Food Intolerance
   • Food Allergies
   • Relevant Research
   • Food and Autism
   • Food and Child Behaviour Problems
   • Diagnosing Sensitivities : skin test, blood test, diet
8. Issues in Child Nutrition
   • PBL Project: Develop a presentation to be given to a group of families, where a child has been recently diagnosed with an illness/disease of your choice. The purpose of the presentation is to inform families and sufferers about the disease, and to provide clear, simple guidelines for dietary intervention to improve health, correct the condition or prevent deterioration in health.
9. Childhood Obesity
   • Cause of Childhood Obesity
   • What is Unhealthy about Childhood Obesity?
   • Guidelines for Child Weight Loss
10. Diet Plans
    • Special Nutritional Needs
    • Childhood Diabetes
    • Vegetarian and Vegan Diets
    • Normal Eating Habits for Children

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Examine the nature and reach of modifying a child’s diet to suit their requirements and background.
• Describe the diverse dietary requirements of the father and mother before to conception.
• Describe the diverse dietary requirements for the mother and unborn child throughout pregnancy.
• Describe the diverse dietary requirements for infants from birth to two years old.
• Addressing numerous concerns and challenges, describe various dietary elements of developing children.
• Identifying and resolving issues with children’s and teenagers’ nutrition.
• lists many strategies for promoting children’s wholesome eating habits.
• Describe a few of the prevalent problems, such as food allergies and child nutrition.
• Identify the reasons of and recommendations for preventing childhood obesity.
• Make a list of food guidelines for children in good health and specialised diet programmes for kids who need particular nutrition.

How You Plan to Act

• Ask parents about their children’s diets, including what they provide them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as for snacks (they can be family or friends).
• Interview pregnant women (family or friends) and inquire about their daily diets.
• Create a meal for each of them based on the information they provide. Write down what they mentioned and how you might change their diets.
• To create a delightful and nutritious weaning mixture for a six-month-old infant, do some research. With the knowledge you have collected, create your own weaning mixture.
• Create a three-day nutrition plan for a child who is 11 years old.
• Compare the nutrition information on various retail staple items (for example breakfast cereals, stir fry sauces or pasta sauces, fruit bars). Compare natural sugars versus added sugars.
• Find out what children and teenagers are actually eating by conducting a poll. Report on your survey in writing. (You can get information for your survey by speaking with kids, teens, and their parents, reading articles in magazines and newspapers, or conducting an online search.)

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IMPORTANT FACTORS FOR CHILDREN’S NUTRITION

 

• Search for factual support for remarks and ideas by gathering information from a variety of sources.
• Variety is crucial. A diet that is monotonous will always be deficient in some nutrients.
• The sources of dietary preferences and behaviours are parents and carers. Toddlers want to mimic your actions, even though they don’t always do as you suggest.
• Encourage kids to feel engaged in meal preparation and food selection. This encourages curiosity in various foods and cookery and lays the groundwork for a positive relationship with food.
• Avoid giving young children meals that are high in calories and low in nutrients. They won’t want what they don’t know about. The first few years of a child’s life should be spent surrounded by a range of healthful foods.
• Make sure the kids are properly hydrated. Provide children water on a regular basis rather than waiting until they want it.
• For young toddlers, small, frequent meals are frequently preferable. Don’t give them huge quantities or make them finish their dishes.
• Dietary fat is crucial for kids. Keep dairy products full fat up until the age of two, at the very least.
• Be imaginative. Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches, fruits, and veggies into unique shapes.
• Utilize a variety of flavours, temperatures, and textures.
• Continue introducing new meals, but don’t make them eat anything they don’t want to.
• Establishing healthy habits and preferences early on provides a foundation that can help parents cope with the effects of fast food advertising and peer pressure in the future.
• Keep in mind that poor diet can cause a range of ailments, including sickness, a higher risk of contracting various diseases, lethargy, impaired cognitive function, behavioural issues, and others.

 

Children’s nutrition advice

Breakfast
Breakfast is literally the breaking of an overnight fast, making it the most significant meal of the day. Energy and nutrition should be available for breakfast. The ideal breakfast options are those high in protein or fibre because they make you feel satisfied or full. Grain-based foods like cereal and bread are the most popular breakfast options for kids. These are good breakfast options as long as they are made of nutritious grains and don’t contain sugar or other unhealthy ingredients. In rare situations, meats may be served for breakfast; normally, these are highly processed meats, deli cuts, bacon, sausage, etc. that contain elements that are best avoided when serving young children, such as preservatives. As long as the quantity size is suitable, there is no reason a warm meal of meat and veggies cannot make a nice breakfast. In fact, it is typically advised that breakfast and lunch be the two heavier, larger meals of the day, with evening being the lighter meal. Eggs (ideally not fried) and egg-based recipes are other healthy breakfast options. Whether combined with cereal or made into a smoothie with cereal, fruits are another healthy option that can make a great breakfast. The quickest, simplest, and most practical midweek breakfast is typically cereal with milk or toast with a spread. Many busy families just do not have the time to prepare a weekday breakfast.

Advice on making a wholesome breakfast for kids:

• Check to see if the cereals are whole wheat. Avoid sugary cereals because they usually have little nutritional value and will make kids hungry soon after eating. Wholegrain toast is preferable to white toast. Peanut butter and spreadable cheese make excellent breakfast spreads. Honey is suitable, however
• it contains a lot of simple sugars. Try serving it with peanut butter to see whether kids like it.
• Avoid processed meats since they frequently contain excessive levels of salt, sugar, and other preservatives, as well as fat.
• If you have time, you can serve breakfast meals that include meat, heated vegetables, or tofu. While various foods are eaten for breakfast in many nations, cereal has become the cultural standard in western nations.
• An excellent breakfast-on-the-go option is a fruit smoothie made with milk, cereal, and yoghurt.
• Let kids to select items from a fruit platter.
• Consider layering yoghurt, fruit, and muesli for breakfast or making whole wheat pancakes with fresh berries.
• If you can, start preparing the night before.
• Strive to have breakfast and lunch as your primary meals each day. Give it the same importance as dinner.
• If you need to eat breakfast quickly, wholesome leftovers like homemade pizza can work.

Lunch

It can be simpler to instill excellent lunch habits while kids are small and at home. When they reach school-age, they will unavoidably be surrounded by other kids who pack lunches full of processed meals, candy bars, and other things that might make a whole wheat chicken salad sandwich and an apple appear less enticing. The important thing to remember about lunch is that it should be one of the day’s two main meals, along with breakfast. In general, small children don’t need as much energy because they typically nap after lunch; yet, it is necessary to supply energy for afternoon school work and play. Youngsters sleep better when they are satisfied and have a full (but not overfull) stomach. Children who eat a lot of simple sugars may become irritable and uneasy during naps, and the same is true for youngsters who are overstuffed. If you stick to healthy whole wheat, low fat options, staples like sandwiches or leftovers can make excellent lunches. Some recommendations are:

• Avoid white bread as it contains little fibre and is high in sugar. Change to whole grain or wholemeal bread.
• Replace bread with whole wheat wraps, flatbreads, or pita pockets instead.
• To help you consume the recommended daily servings, attempt to add some protein and vegetables in your lunch.
• Meat and salad sandwiches, homemade vegetable pizzas that have been reheated with a little low fat cheese, pizza toppings stuffed into pita bread and heated briefly to melt cheese, yoghurt with muesli and fruit puree, mini filo pastries filled with lean meat and vegetables, sushi rolls, and tubs of chicken salad with a light dressing are all fantastic and interesting lunch options.
• Think about the child’s breakfast and lunch choices. Yogurt, muesli, and fruit make a delicious meal, but if your child had yoghurt or fruit salad for breakfast, it’s even more crucial that they eat some veggies and protein for lunch, for instance. Pies and pastries can be substituted in advance with healthier options.
• Be imaginative and present the meal in an appealing way. Foods in packages often contain substances that change the flavour, colour, and scent. This can be accomplished organically by putting fascinating foods together, cutting things into interesting shapes, and packing lunches that won’t go bad before lunch. A fruit salad might look beautiful in the morning, but after half a day in a school bag, much of the fruit will brown and squash, giving it a less-than-appetizing appearance.
• Properly store food. Warm temperatures and dampness are ideal for bacteria. To limit bacterial development and avoid food poisoning, seal containers and place an ice brick in the lunchbox.
• Sweeter foods are a good alternative for lunches at home and during the school day. Why not try a rice cracker with low-fat cream cheese, strawberries, and a drizzle of honey instead of a straightforward piece of fruit? To produce healthy sweet choices, slice up fruits or toast flat bread and serve with a sweet yoghurt dip. You may even make fruit kebabs.
• Your child is mature enough to grasp nutrition and food in general when they are school-age. Make an effort to explain to them how eating well-balanced foods can result in healthier muscles, improved academic performance, and enough of energy for playing with their friends.
• Consider making lunch with your kids in the late morning when you have them home from school.

Dinner

In Western nations, dinner is frequently the main meal of the day. As a result of children’s extracurricular activities, shift work, and long hours, family time is increasingly being rushed and pushed into the schedule to fit around other responsibilities. Making dinner a regular family occasion will help ensure that kids consume their food and are satisfied. Having supper while watching TV encourages bad posture and, if you are not paying attention to what you are eating, can frequently lead to overeating. It also implies that the opportunity to unwind and relish time spent conversing and socialising is missed.

Dinner is the ideal time to expose kids to new foods, serve buffet-style dinners, and give kids some say in what they eat. It can be a fantastic opportunity to explain to the kids what you are eating, all the nutrients, and why they are good for them. Portion size is an important factor that is sometimes ignored when having dinner. Serving up a large portion and expecting the child to finish it before rewarding them with a bowl of ice cream presents a number of issues, including overeating, frustration with food, lack of enjoyment of meals, the development of poor eating habits, psychological issues with food, and the use of desserts as the yummy treat and the meat and vegetables as the hurdle to get the sweet treat.

Here are some suggestions for kid-friendly dinners:

• Buffets. Although it may seem like a lot of labour, it isn’t necessary. Instead of serving several different recipes, simply keep the ingredients separate and offer the youngster some leeway in choosing what to eat. Provide a variety of veggies, a meat, a few sauces, and perhaps a starch like rice or pasta. Also, it teaches kids about serving sizes.
• Give them a taste of new foods you cook. If they don’t like it, don’t make them eat it, but keep providing new and interesting foods so that their diet is more diverse.
• Try preparing foods you don’t like in different ways. Some kids will like a certain texture, and others may not like the look or scent of a meal. Consider baking, stir-frying, serving certain foods uncooked, blending various components, and other techniques.
• Like with any meal, you will typically have better success getting kids to consume the finished result if you can involve them in the preparation. The night before, dice some cooked meat and veggies, and then bring them out of the fridge for kids to choose from while they build their own pizzas. Let them to have fun with the vegetables, sauces, and perhaps herbs while maintaining control over the cheese. Try using pita bread, flat bread, whole-wheat bread, or even bake your own, as pizza foundation.
• Presentation. Serve less popular or unknown foods in a familiar manner. Even though a youngster might not like spinach on its own, serving it in a filo pastry shell to resemble a small pie and combining it with low-fat ricotta, grated leek or onion, pine nuts, and low-fat grated cheese may persuade them to try it. A nice technique to introduce new vegetables to kids is to serve them in large quantities in pita pockets that they can choose from and eat with their fingers. A smart method to introduce new meals to kids is by adding ingredients to their favourite recipes like rice, pasta, or noodles.
• Have a fun dinner. Children will learn to link supper with boredom and stress and will rush through it so they can do something else if parents appear and behave bored, agitated, or rush through the meal. Eat enthusiastically and try not to moan about the meal, especially if you are around young children. Profit from the fact that young children love to imitate their parents and desire to be just like them. With children, first impressions matter. If they try something once and don’t like it, it can be very difficult to convince them to try it again. Similarly, if infants overhear a parent or caretaker complaining about how much they detest veggies, they will frequently infer that they do too and refuse to even try even the most popular foods, such sweet corn or potato mash.
• Think about whether lunch or dinner should be the main meal of the day. Because of this, young toddlers frequently go to bed an hour or two after eating. For families, eating heartier, more substantial meals for breakfast and lunch can be a wise choice. When they are not overstuffed or irritated from a difficult mealtime, kids sleep better. A lighter meal will take less time to prepare and cook, and you might be able to include some of your favourite dishes more easily, making the meal much more enjoyable.