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Parenting
Feeding
Nourishment
to your Preschooler
by Garima Gupta
Feeding a child more than 2 years old is more like a struggle than
anything else. These little ones have a mind of their own, and there is
not much way to get around it. Add to it the dilemma of keeping
something new and interesting in Tiffin box everyday , providing a
balanced diet to the rapidly growing body and brains, and you have the
saga of every mother in your hands!!
 There are a few key things to remember. Firstly, make it a cardinal rule
that junk would not be allowed inside the home. Do not buy and keep
chips, candies, cold drinks etc in home. If you must keep them for your
own use, please keep them out of children’s view. This would help you in
two ways: one, kids would not have access to harmful food, and it will
therefore immediately save you from a bad habit formation. Two, whenever
you go out and decide to let the kids have some fun with junk, they’ll
be so happy and thankful, that it would be very easy to manage them.
Second important thing that every parent aims for is a balanced diet.
However, it is extremely difficult, if not impractical, to provide a
balanced diet in each and every meal. The focus should rather be on
providing a wholesome meal over a full week. So, if your kids had pizza
one day, make it up with a protein full of lentil soup the next day.
Make sure that they are having enough of all essential ingredients-
carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, and yes- water. I do
not advocate calorie counts for young kids. They are growing up; and
need enough calories for a typical action filled day. If you sensibly
censor the junk-intake, and provide the child with a variety of healthy
choice naturally, the kid will grow up with healthy food habits for
sure.
One mistake parents often do is to divide food into “may have” and
“should have” parts. “You may have candies later but you should have
your veggies first” or “You’ll get dessert only of you finish the
cabbage; it’s good for you!” What the child really hears is : “Eat the
vegetables and cabbage; it is not tasty, you would not eat it yourself,
so I’m bribing/pushing you for it.” If the parent will treat nutritious
healthful food as normal daily routine, so will the child.
Even nutrition conscious parents often miss out on the importance of
proteins. Kids meal is generally full of starch and carbohydrates, and
lacks in proteins. For example, if your child has Bread and jam or
butter in breakfast and roti-sabji in the lunch, he is not getting any
protein at all. Protein comes from dal, pulses, milk , milk products,
egg , fish, chicken , meat and nuts. So , in the above example, we must
add milk in the breakfast and dal in the lunch to make it a balanced
meal.
The problem increases manifold when this nutrition has to be packed in a
small container, to be opened after a few hours and still has to look
attractive enough for the kid to eat all by herself. When your kid
starts preschool, keep the initial lunch-box limited to his favorite
finger foods that won’t get him messy. Only after he is firmly rooted
into eating himself nicely in a preschool environment, you should start
experimenting with the tiffin. Try to keep the contents visually
appealing. For example, a cheese sandwich can be cut in interesting
shapes using a standard cookie cutter. Paranthas should be stuffed to
avoid keeping separate accompaniment with them, and are ideally kept as
rolls for ease of eating. Instead of keeping regular idlis, you can keep
small cocktail idlis that kids would so love. Infact, a friend of mine
mixes vermilion, beetroot juice or spinach puree to the idli batter, and
makes idlis that are naturally colorful, and nutritionally enhanced.
Such minor changes go a long way in catching children’s imagination.
And remember, whenever you get tired, bored or stressed out keeping tabs
on the food of your kids, you can always hand them a packet of Lays, and
relax with the knowledge that this break is a very well deserved one for
both of you!
July 9, 2006
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
Top
| Parenting
The Week of July 9, 2006
The Left’s Plan-B: In case a snap poll becomes
necessary! by Rajinder Puri
Pakistan and North Korea: Rogue States
Brandishing Nuclear Weapons
and Ballistic Missiles by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Nuclear Pacts, Missiles, ABMs and Combating War
Strategies by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
China: The Fine art of Balancing Power Relations
and Economic
Engagement by Col. Rahul K. Bhonsle
A Tragic Tale of Self Betrayal by Michael
Levy
Vision of the Whole by TA Ramesh
Water Harvesting: Let's Do It by VK Joshi
Cry for a Hindu Nation by V. Sundaram
Vyasa – Witness to
Self, Witness to Life by Satya Chaitanya
The Name "Aparna" – Its Mythological Meaning in
Hindu Religion by Aparna Chatterjee
Learning a Mantra by A. Thiagarajan
Adventures in the Yucatan by Subra Narayan
Royal Heritage: A Legacy in Poetry by
Dr. Amitabh Mitra
Feeding Nourishment to your Preschooler by
Garima Gupta
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
Software Testing by Ruchi Gupta
# 10 Dover Lane by Julia Dutta
Monsoon Blues by Sujata Iyer
The Change Within by Farah Shafqat
Bulldozing the Right to Survive by Gautam Bhan
Life Beyond the Tourism Brochure by Charumathi
Supraja
A Walk on the Wild Side by Loba
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