Essential Nutrients for Kids

Some vitamins, minerals and nutrients are especially critical for healthy growth.

Vitamin D:

A lack of this vitamin can cause serious illness such as rickets, a disease that weakens bones. This vitamin is present in fish, dairy products and egg yolks. Your child can also obtain vitamin D from being exposed to sunlight. The daily recommended intake of vitamin D for children ages 1 to 18 is 15 micro-grams per day.

Calcium: 

Sufficient calcium is essential for strong bones and good health. Toddlers need about 700 milligrams and teens about 1300 milligrams of calcium daily. Good calcium sources include milk and milk products or milk alternatives fortified with calcium, green leafy vegetables and fish. As a guide, 8-ounce glass of milk contains about 300 milligrams of calcium.

Iron:

Not eating enough of this important mineral can hamper your child's growth. By the age of six months, your baby has depleted the iron he or she received in utero. As you start to introduce solids, make sure to include pureed green leafy vegetables, meats, beans and keep including iron rich foods in your child's diet.

Healthy Fats:

Before the age of 2, your toddler's diet should be high in fatty acids to ensure healthy brain development. Good sources include whole milk products, fish and olive oil. After age 2, you should switch your child to low fat foods.

Sugar: Too much is not good

Most of the processed food that we find in a supermarket shelf today contains some form of sugar. And sugar can have many different names. It can be called corn syrup, glucose,dextrose,brown rice syrup, or even evaporated cane juice. But these ingredients are all really just variations of sugar.

When our children consume large quantities of sugar on a regular basis, they have a higher risk of developing Type II diabetes, and they have a higher risk of becoming overweight or obese. And when our children are eating a lot of processed food, it's easy for them to take in too much sugar without really knowing it.

Many scientists are starting to think that the large amount of sugar in the average American diet is actually one of the main reasons why we see so many people with obesity and diabetes. Small amount of sugar are almost certainly not going to cause problems for a healthy child who's eating a balanced diet. But when our children consume too much processed food, then they end up eating too much sugar as well. Sweetened drinks like sodas and energy drinks, and even fruit juices are very high in sugar.

The fact that fruit juice is on this list often surprises parents, because many of us have grown up thinking that fruit juice is healthy and it can be, if it is in the right amount. So a small glass of freshly squeezed orange juice can be a great source of vitamin C, and fiber, and a really nice way to start the day. But when our children are drinking juice at every meal, or as a thirst quencher during the day, then the sugar really starts to add up.

We know that it's important for children to stay hydrated, especially when they're active or when they're
spending time in hot weather. But for a healthy child, it's usually best to stick with plain water from a clean, reliable source.

Cow's milk: When and how to introduce it

There are several reasons to delay the introduction of cow's milk until your baby reaches his first birthday.
Babies can't digest cow's milk as completely or easily as breast milk or formula. Cow's milk contains high concentration of protein and minerals, which can tax your baby's immature kidneys. In addition, cow's milk doesn't have the right amount of iron, vitamin C, and other nutrients for infants. It may even cause iron-deficiency, anemia in some babies, since cow's milk protein can irritate the lining of the digestive system, leading to blood in the stools. Finally, cow's milk doesn't provide the healthiest types of fat for growing babies.

Once your child gets ready to digest it, milk becomes an important part of his diet. It's a rich source of calcium, which builds strong bones and teeth and helps regulate blood clotting and muscle control. And it's one of the few sources of vitamin D, which helps the body to absorb calcium and is crucial for bone growth.
Milk also provides protein for growth, as well as carbohydrates, which will give your child the energy he needs to toddle all day. And if your child gets enough calcium, he'll have a lower risk of high blood pressure, stroke, colon cancer, and hip fractures later in life.

How much milk should my toddler drink?

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), most kids will get enough calcium and vitamin D if they drink 16 to 20 ounces (2 to 2 1/2 cups) of cow's milk a day. Offer whole milk to 1 year old child (unless they're at high risk for obesity).

Don't offer more than 3 cups of milk a day because your child may not have room for the other foods. If your toddler feels thirsty,offer water.

What are the most nutritious food?

When we look at different types of food and different levels of processing of foods, we can start on one hand looking at highly processed junk foods. Processed junk foods are things like potato chips and you know, candy bars, and they would probably be the lowest nutritional content.

If we then look at the next best foods for our bodies and our growing children's bodies we see that if we look at things like processed canned foods or processed flours, these ones will provide us with a little bit more, in terms of nutritional content.,but, you know, they are not perfectly ideal, when you see what the next category has to offer.

So, we get even more nutrition when we are looking at foods like unprocessed or less processed types of.
Unprocessed grains and things like root vegetables,like beets and carrots,also allium vegetables,those are things like onions and garlic come under this category. Those things also offer us substantially more nutritional
value than processed junk food or processed canned food.

The last category, the one that gives us the most nutritional bang for our buck, are the very famous and very important things like fresh fruits and vegetables. So, these are obviously unprocessed. And these guys really give our bodies the most nutritional value, the highest nutrient density.

So what that means is that the foods on bottom row are low in nutrient density, are low in nutrition, and they're also foods that don't spoil very quickly, so they last for a really long time. And this is one of the reasons why they're so profitable for processed food manufactuers to make and sell.

And then on the other end, if we look up at the top here we see that these foods are very high in their nutrient density, or in their nutritional value to us. And at the same time they are going to spoil quickly because other sort of pests are going to compete for these foods. So what that means is, if we have something that we call a spoil rate, or the rate at which a food is going to go off if we leave it in our homes, then the spoil rate is going to go up with increasing nutrient density. So, if at all possible, we should choose foods that spoil quickly. Because that usually means that they're going to be better for us.

Creating a Balanced Meal

When we make a meal for our children, of course we want to make it balanced. And there's been a lot of talk about, how much carbohydrate, how much protein, how many vegetable servings everyday we should give to our children. And that is important, but we can't lose sight of the fact that a meal is so much more than
nutrients. A meal shows our children that we care for them, that we love them. And that's not to say that parent's who are too busy to cook for their children, can't find other ways of showing them love and showing them care. But the fact is that from the minute our children are born, they're dependent on us for food. So, if we do have even half an hour or 20 minutes in the day to make a fresh meal for them, it's really so much more than providing them with nutrients.We want to compose a meal that's fresh, that's attractive, and then we want to sit down with them and share it with them.

So, when we put together a meal, let's start by thinking, what am I going to serve for this meal. Dont start with the protein. A great meal will have lots of vegetables, a small portion of protein and a source of complex carbohydrates. Go unprocessed as much as possible with children.

You will set them up for success.And there's also been a lot of research about the importance of family meals and how children who have family meals do better in school. They do better socially. They have an outlet for their thoughts, for their problems and they have a partner in their dialogue. So, let's try and sit down.

Let's remember that we're serving our children more than just nutrients.We're serving them love and care, and let's try and sit together and talk with them.