Children need a different kind of diet
Your child’s nutritional needs change as they grow and their food needs to keep up with these changes, to support healthy growth. And because they have such tiny tummies, every small spoonful your child eats needs to be packed full of energy and goodness.
A balanced diet for a child is very different to ours though. Unlike our diets, which ideally should be low in fat and high in fibre, your child needs a diet relatively high in healthy, unsaturated fats and low in fibre. Although fibre is a good thing, it's very filling and too much of it may leave your child too full to eat other foods that contain the energy and nutrients they need at this stage.
Different food groups and their benefits
So what kinds of foods are in the different food groups and how often should you give them to your child? The pointers below should help you.
Starchy carbohydrates – This group includes bread products, cereals (including pasta and rice) and potatoes and provides your child with the energy they need to grow and develop. Offer your child a portion with each meal and at some snacktimes.
Fruit and vegetables – This food group includes fresh, frozen, tinned and dried fruit and vegetables. Ideally you should offer at least five portions every day with a variety of different colours. Fruit and vegetables contain a whole range of important vitamins and minerals.
Dairy – These foods include milk, cheese and yoghurt and are rich in protein, calcium and some vitamins and minerals. Your child will need at least three servings a day, either to drink or in cooking.
Protein – This food group includes meat, fish, eggs, nuts and pulses such as lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas and dhal. These foods should be offered once or twice a day to meat-eaters or two to three times a day to vegetarians. They provide a valuable source of protein, iron and omega 3 fats.
Fats and oils – This group should be offered in addition to, but not instead of foods from the other groups and includes oils such as olive, vegetable, walnut and soya, as well as butter and margarine. They provide energy, omega 3 and 6 fats and the vitamins A, E and D. Too much can encourage obesity though, so use this food group wisely.
Breast milk is important to your children
Milk remains crucial to your child when complementary feeding because it’s the quick and easy way to ensure they are getting all the nutrients they need – especially in the early stages of complementary feeding. The small amount of solid food that your child will actually eat cannot provide everything they need but milk is the main source of vitamins, minerals, fats and nutrients and will take up around half of what goes into your child’s tummy, keeping them satisfied and happy!
Little and often
A child’s tummy is around ten times smaller than an adult's, so it's important that the rest of their food is full of the right nutrients and goodness too.
This is also a reason why child need to eat small portions regularly throughout the day, rather than having a few larger meals.
Watch the salt
You should watch out for the amount of salt in food you give your child , and avoid adding any yourself, because it may strain their little kidneys - which are still developing. children should actually have no more than 1/6th of an adult's maximum daily allowance of salt in any one day, which is less than 1g of salt per day.
Variety is everything
For children as for adults, variety is the spice of life! So as well as making sure their main mealtimes include a meal and a dessert, it's important to give them a wide range of different foods in their diet - red meat, poultry, fish, various fruit and vegetables, dairy, cereals, rice, pasta and potatoes.
Different foods, even with in the same food group, have different nutrients so ensuring your child eats a wide variety of food is important to give them a balanced diet, as well as for their healthy growth and development.
This is especially important in their first year when their food preferences are being formed, because from the age of two these preferences may become relatively fixed until they're around eight years old.