Contents:
- Medical Video: Teaching Activities About Good Nutrition for Kids : Fresh Kitchen
- Breakfast is important
- Lunch at school
- Foods that need to be limited
- Delicious food and environmental influences
- Snack after school
- Meal time with family
- Drinks
- Sports and activities
- Healthy tips for school-age children
- Important to remember
Medical Video: Teaching Activities About Good Nutrition for Kids : Fresh Kitchen
School age is the right age for children to learn about healthy food, the body, and activities. In school, children will begin to be preoccupied with social life, have their own pocket money, and start choosing their own lifestyle. Children of this age learn quickly and are easily influenced by their friends and trends that are currently popular. Children need a variety of foods for balanced nutrition. The amount of physical activity they do in a day will be an important factor to determine how much food they need. When children are busy and active, snacks are important for maintaining high energy needs. Healthy snacks in the morning, at rest, and after school are usually needed every day.
Breakfast is important
It is important to eat breakfast for children. A good night's sleep followed by breakfast in the morning helps your child to stay active and maintain their concentration in school. This condition also makes your child not too hungry in the morning and can help them move around at school. Be a role model and let your child see you breakfast too. A bowl of cereal with milk and fresh fruit or boiled fruit is good for starting the day for the whole family.
Lunch at school
Many schools have canteens that offer a variety of food choices. Most schools follow government guidelines to provide healthy food choices.
The food that your child chooses may be expensive and contains a lot of energy, but low in nutrition. Another alternative is stock from home, which is a good way for your child to learn about healthy food and to help you prepare it. Here's a suggestion for lunch:
- Cheese and lean meat sandwich, with salad
- Biscuits with jam and cheese slices and fresh or dried fruits or vegetables
- Cold water or a box of milk, especially in hot weather
Foods that need to be limited
Sweet, fatty, and salty processed foods should only be given in small portions on your child's food. Foods that need to be restricted at school for daily lunch include:
- Processed meats like smoked meat, ham, sausages
- Chips, sweet biscuits and muesli biscuits and breakfast biscuits
- Fruit biscuits and fruit candy
- Boxed fruit drinks, juice and soda
Delicious food and environmental influences
The influence of other peers to eat foods that are popular at this age is very strong. Allow your child to eat these types of foods occasionally, such as at parties, special events, or when the whole family also enjoys them. Limiting the amount of children's pocket money to go to school or on the way home is the best course of action.
Eating lollipops, a bag of chips or other snacks to occasionally not hurt. However, if they eat this food too often, you will find your child:
- Don't eat enough nutritious food
- Have signs of being overweight or obese
- You spend a lot of money. It's better to provide homemade snacks and lunches.
- You lose the opportunity to teach your child about healthy eating
Snack after school
Children of this age can experience changes in appetite depending on the level of activity, so let them choose how much food they need and offer a variety of healthy foods. Some children only eat small amounts at night, so make sure that your child gets a nutritious snack in the afternoon.
Nutritious snacks that are not only high in energy, such as:
- Sandwich with a glass of milk
- Cereals and fruit
- A bowl of soup and toast.
Meal time with family
For school children, family meal time is an opportunity to share and talk about today's activities and events. Shared dinner is an important time to do this. Here are suggestions for eating with family:
- Give time to chat and share stories about daytime activities
- Avoid disturbances such as television, radio or telephone
- Let your child decide when they are full, don't argue about food
- Allow children to help prepare food and shopping
- Teach some simple nutritional facts like ‘milk to make your bones strong, you know '
Drinks
What you can do:
- Encourage children to diligently drink water
- Sweet drinks such as flavored drinks or fruit juices are not needed for a healthy diet and are not recommended
- A glass of milk (or yogurt or a piece of cheese) is the same as consuming dairy products. Three servings are needed every day to meet calcium needs
Sports and activities
Physical activity is an important part of forming good health. Try to teach your child to move actively every day, such as doing hobbies, playing games (not console games or computers), or exercising. Some parents may also worry about their child's weight. For elementary school children, 60 minutes of activity is recommended every day, and it is recommended no more than two hours to watch TV, DVD or computer games.
To increase your child's activity, try to:
- Limit the amount of time spent watching television for the whole family.
- Do physical activity and be active together
- Watch your child exercise
- Teach to do daily activities, and not just exercise
Healthy tips for school-age children
You can do the following:
- Children need a variety of different foods every day
- Snacks are an important part of a healthy diet for active children
- Make nutritious snacks, not just foods that are high in energy
- Plan to eat with family
- Enjoy time chatting and sharing stories at mealtimes.
- Let the child tell you when they are full
- Prepare your child's lunch to bring to school
- Let the children help prepare food
- Regularly do physical activities for the whole family
- Encourage children to drink enough water
Important to remember
- Snacks are an important part of a healthy diet for active children, so offer nutritious and high-energy snacks
- Let the children help prepare food
- Breakfast is the most important meal time, because a good night's sleep followed by breakfast in the morning helps your child stay active and concentrate at school
- Limit time watching TV and recommend doing some physical activity every day.
