Feeding Kids Aged 4- 10 Years Old

The play age years are also known as the 'middle age of childhood' years or the pre-adolescent years. You will notice that your kid is going to be more interested in making choices when it comes to eating. Most children will display definite preferences for either one food or another.

These are also the years when you can really make establish eating patterns that will function as the bedrock of health for their child's future years.

At this age you notice your kid is also more vulnerable to messages from the media and their peers to eat things that are unhealthy. The constant television commercials alone can make it difficult for a play age kid to resist sugary, fatty or refined foods.

At the same time you might also notice that your child is more interested in learning about shopping and cooking. This offers you the ideal opportunity to teach them how to take care of their nutritional needs and enjoy what they make for themselves at meals.

Eating patterns of these school age children are now also destined to be somewhat out of your control so it is important to educate them about what is best for them to eat when they are not at home.

Children from ages four years to nine years old need to eat three sit-down square meals a day and at least three snacks a day to stay healthy. You should teach them that this is the way that people should eat every day. These patterns can stay with them for a life time and this is the age in which you want to make an impact on them as to what the right thing is to do when you eat.

It is important to control your child's diet from home. Regular home cooked meals can help promote healthy eating habits. And don’t forget that limiting your child’s intake of fast foods and other unhealthy foods is a great way to control your child’s intake of cholesterol.

Studies have shown that kids who eat healthy meals at home are more likely to choose healthy snacks outside the home. That means saying ‘no’ to greasy chips and sugary candies.

You should also bag your child's lunch. If your child must buy lunch then make sure he or she can make the right food choices. Even very young children can be taught how to order healthy choices or shop for healthy groceries.

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So Your Kid Wants to Be a Vegetarian?

This can happen at any age but it is mostly kids between ten and sixteen that want to become vegetarians. There is sometimes a lot of pressure from schoolmates to not hurt animals by eating them. Sometimes the pressure comes from books like 'The Skinny Bitch Diet.' A child can get her hands on this and decide that the best way to stay rake thin all of her life is to simply eat nuts and seeds.

Kids that are ten to twelve are often very concerned with the environment and treatment of animals. Teens, particularly girls, tend to want to eat a vegan diet for self-image reasons.

Let your child know that you approve of her decision to become a vegetarian but at the same time make sure you sit down and plan a diet with the child.

Vegetarian diets can be missing protein, iron, vitamin B12 and calcium so be sure to provide supplementation if needed. You should also be aware that a vegetarian child may gain weight a lot quicker simply because they tend to eat less protein and more high carb foods like grains and breads.

One thing that might work for you is getting your child to 'Color Their Diet'. This teaches them to eat the dark and richly colored vegetables that are so good for them –
• Brown foods include whole grains like mahogany rice or whole wheat bread, figs, brown pears, walnuts, cinnamon, kidney beans or spelt noodles.
• Black foods include lentils, black soy beans or blackberries.
• Beige and White foods include jicama, golden quinoa, white beans, garbanzos beans, cauliflower, bananas, or sweet onions.
• Red foods include pomegranates, raspberries, red quinoa, beets or rhubarb.
• Yellow foods include pineapples, squash, or star fruit. Try spaghetti squash in place of white, refined spaghetti for added fiber, vitamins and immune-boosting.
• Blue foods include blueberries or blue corn chips.
• Purple foods include eggplant, red cabbage (which looks purple), blood oranges (which can be purple inside), and purple potatoes.
• Green foods include avocado, Swiss chard, cilantro, sugar snap, Brussels sprouts, peas, or kiwis.
• Orange foods include mango, oranges, pumpkin, orange baby tomatoes, sweet potato and apricots.

The idea is to eat at least eight different colors of fruits and vegetables a day to stay healthy. Make sure that you have adequate vitamin supplementation on hand, particularly a supply of the B vitamins to keep your kid healthy.

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