Children's Nutrition

Whilst I am acutely aware of my own nutritional needs, macronutrient ratios and meal timings, it recently dawned on me that I need to pay much more attention to the nutrition of my children.  Why was I feeding them some sub-optimal foods, whilst excluding these myself?  It didn’t make sense, so I set out to re-brief myself and educate my children with an overall aim of optimising the health of us all.

The education can start at any age.  My children are currently 4 and 1.  Start the education as early as possible because it’s these early habits which become their lifestyle.

These are some of my practical top tips learnt from my experience so far:

• Educate your children about food. I like to let them know the food types which will make them ‘big & strong’ and those which won’t!
• Explain the importance of water.  Explain it is vital to run our whole body and every system inside. Again, i like to explain that water makes us ‘big & strong’.  To help with water, get a good, kid-friendly bottle.  I’ve found they get on very well with the Camelbak bottles from any age (see picture below).  Get them to decorate it  and make it fun so they learn to love and ‘own’ their bottle.  Always have it filled up and to hand.
• Explain the importance of sleep – it helps us become better superheroes the next day.
• Ask them questions about what they want and let them make their own choices.  As parents, it is our duty to develop their independence.  One day you’ll witness them making the right choice by themselves and this will then all be worth it!
• I’m not bothered about making them eat ‘nicely’ at the table ALL the time.  Sometimes its fine to grab-and-go.  When somebody need to be ‘rescued’ or the ‘baddies’ need ‘getting’, then a superhero doesn’t want to be tied to a table!
• Speak to the nursery or school about nutrition and try to get them onboard with simple changes, like gluten and sugar free foods when feeding your children.
• Let the wee nippers help you out in the kitchen.  Expose them to as much cooking as you can.  I’m always so surprised as to how much they can actually do from such a young age.  From whisking to mixing, weighing, measuring, cracking eggs, they can do so much and its lots of fun!
• Make fun things full of goodness, like shakes, smoothies, protein-based pancakes.
• Supplements can be fine too, like Omega 3 and multivitamins.  They come in liquid, child-friendly form.  Whey protein is also good.  Use it in shakes, smoothies, pancakes and lots of other cooking & baking goodies.
• Feed them often enough with awesome food, to prevent them getting hungry and craving sugary sweets.  Break the cycle, if they dont eat them, they won’t crave them!
• To help me achieve lots of these points I created a ‘reward chart’ (see pic below) which, amongst other things, has pictures of good foods which they put on to fill up the chart, working towards a present.

Importantly, engage your kinds in nutrition.  Talk to them and explain the reality.  I’m amazed at how much they actually take in, even if it doesn’t seem so at the time!  Aim to give them the tools to make their own decisions.  If at first, they only choose to eat veggies because they get a picture on their reward chart, then that’s great.  This is the habit building which they’ll carry with them throughout life.

We would all do anything for our children.  Lets not forget the most fundamental and important building block for their future – FOOD!

All the best

Ian