Healthy Eating Habits for School Age Kids

A preteen is also known as a pre-adolescent or a tweenie. This refers to a child that is between ten and twelve years of age. Some kids this age have special nutritional needs because they are starting puberty a bit early. Some of them experience a slower appetite because they have yet to enter adolescent. Still others start growing like a weed and may eat more food than you thought imaginable.

Your child also might be short some essential nutrients due to growth spurts and hormonal changes. If you have a kid that does not seem to be eating right then consider supplementing the diet with vitamin A, fiber, folic acid, calcium, zinc and iron.

It is not unusual for a kid this age to experience craving for all kinds of different foods. If you want the child to stay healthy keep your home full of healthy options like vegetarian burritos, fruit and vegetable sticks. Do not tempt fate by keeping a lot of junk food in the refrigerator.

It is quite easy to make low fat versions of junk food favorites like a Filet-o-Fish, Fried Chicken or Tacos. All you need to do is look for these recipes on the internet. Many of them can be redone using healthy ingredients.

Many kids also like ethnic dishes, especially Chinese food, Mexican food and Indian food. These are healthy cuisines. Make your own version of popular dishes like chicken chow mein, quesadillas and vegetable curry and leave the extra salt and MSG out. Greek food is also very healthy for a child to eat because it is cooked with olives and olive oil. These contain fatty omega3 acids that are very good for brain development.

One way to encourage a child around this age to eat well is to appeal to his or her vanity. They are just starting to notice the opposite sex and want to look attractive. You need to describe how eating vegetables will make them have beautiful shiny hair, create healthy skin or cause them to grow taller. There is nothing like a bit of self-interest to make a child choose a salad over a bag of Fritos. This is also a good way to encourage a child to remember to take his or her vitamins.

Above all it is important for you to set a good example by eating a healthy diet yourself. Do not take a 'do as I say, not as I do' attitude.

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Keep Pesticides Out of Baby Food

Sometimes we end up doing the worst thing possible for our kids even if we were trying to the best thing possible. Let's take the example of the mother who is making her own juice or pureeing her own baby food in an attempt to have her kids be as healthy possible. She might be buying all kinds of healthy foods and vegetables and even juicing and grinding them up in an effort to extract the most nourishment possible for her child without knowing at all that what she is really doing is adding a potent mix of pesticides to the food.

One way to make sure that you are not adding pesticides to your child's food is to scrub unpeeled vegetables under running water as thoroughly as possible before serving them. Make sure you teach your children how to do this as well. This is a good habit that they need to pick up and maintain for life to reduce their exposure to pesticides.

You should also explain to your children the importance of peeling fruits and vegetables. Be sure to remove the outer leaves of vegetables like lettuce and cabbage and only eat the inside as the most pesticides are sprayed on the outside of the vegetable

Some foods are more difficult to wash. Soak foods like strawberries, grapes, broccoli, spinach and lattice for a few minutes and then rinse them a few times to make sure they pesticide free.

It is also a good idea to trim animal fat from meat because pesticides tend to gather in the fat. Remove the skins from chicken as chicken skin absorbs the pesticides from the grain that chickens are fed.

You should also look for locally grown produce when you shop as it is the least likely to be sprayed with pesticides and waxes. Fruits and vegetables that come from a long ways away tend to have more chemicals sprayed on them so they will survive the trip.

Foods that have the highest levels of pesticides include celery, peaches, apples, blueberries, bell peppers, spinach, cherries, grapes, greens, kale, collard greens potatoes and strawberries.

Do your children a favor and explain to them why they should wash all of their vegetables as well as eat foods in season. Foods that are grown out of season usually come from another hemisphere and are loaded with more pesticides.

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