SubscribeHealthy Meal Ideas For Kids
How many times have you created a healthy gourmet meal for you child - only to have them look at it like it's poison? Many health books and magazines have meal ideas for children - but sometimes they lack a reality check.
Here is a days healthy eating for a child - but with a twist. Thanks to Weight of the Evidence we can also see what the child actually ate.
Breakfast
Broccoli and cheese omelet
Yogurt with blueberries and strawberries.
What was actually eaten
"the yogurt and berries and about half the omelet, picking out all the broccoli to eat it; he also had some whole milk."
Lunch
Cheeseburger
Ketchup (no HFCS type)
Grapes
Spinach
What was actually eaten
"about 2/3 of the burger, all the spinach, most of the grapes; he also had some whole milk and cod liver oil."
Dinner
Chicken curry
Basmati rice
Green & yellow string beans with carrots
Kiwi and sliced tomato with ranch
What was actually eaten
"the chicken, kiwi, most of the string beans and carrots, whatever rice stuck to his chicken, tomatoes and ranch; he also had some whole milk."
Snacks
Sliced apple,
Cashews,
Raisins,
Whole wheat pita triangles,
Hummus
What was actually eaten
"apple with skin removed, cashews, three of the raisins, and he used the pita triangles as a means to scoop up the hummus, ate one bite from the pita and left the rest; he also had some juice heavily diluted with water."
"You give your kids what?"
I'm amazed that this child picked out his broccoli for the purposes of eating it. My children pick out their broccoli for the purposes of surreptitiously dropping it on the floor.
The child drunk whole milk - such a decision leads us to question our obsession with macro-nutrients rather than micro-nutrients.
This diet seems low in grains and starches. You may be interested to know that a thorough analysis of the food eaten showed that "his day provided every last vitamin, mineral, trace element, amino acid and fatty acid he needs."
PLEASE NOTE: This is not necessarily a recommendation. Compare also with a Pediatric recommended meal plan.
See the full article about childhood nutrition at Weight of the Evidence.
The thing that I find most interesting about this is in the post itself at "Weight of the Evidence"; when faced with a meal out, the child didn't want the mac and cheese. I think that this shows that when a child has been guided by healthy choices, he/she naturally gravitates to the better options.
Very interesting post.
Brian
Replyis it safe to say that we as humans are creatures of habbit? that beginning from a young age, we learn not only our environment but the correct choices to make within that environment? so if we are taught that at a restaurant we should eat like we would at home, not splurge because we dont eat out often (in our own minds), that when faced with certain choices, the part of me that was taught at a young age to choose fresh veggies or fruit vs. deep fried whatever... i'd choose the stuff that will allow me to live longer- if only my parents weren't junk food junkies!
ReplyI was prepared to read how the kid ate only the least healthy parts of the meal and picked around the healthy stuff. But this kid was WAY better than I was when I was little. (We didn't actually have the option of not eating our vegetables, but if we'd been allowed to, I'd have skipped them).
I don't have kids--did this seem like typical eating behavior to you parents? It seemed a lot more reasonable than I would have expected.
ReplyI'm with staci on this one. It's not a question of one time presentation. It's about life long habits. Raise your kids on junk food and candy and that's what they'll eat.
ReplyAs for the whole milk, isn't the child in question still pretty young? I couldn't find the age in the article, but for young children, isn't whole milk actually better than skim? Something about their brains needing the fat to develop properly? I can't remember exactly.
ReplyThe most common advice is that children drink while milk until they are two. See here, for example.
I drank while milk until I was in my twenties, and seemed to come out okay enough. As long as you're growing, can digest it, have no philosophica problems with it, and are at all active, whole milk seems like a good idea to me...
ReplyHey Crabby! I do have a four-year-old girl. She would pick the broccoli out of the omelet and leave the egg. She loves hummus and all fruits and veggies. I try to give her mostly good choices of actual food and few processed foods in the hopes of developing good habits for the future. She drinks 1% milk and 2% yogurt because that is what we (me and hubby) drink.
She would be all over the mac and cheese at a restaurant though, but what she eats out doesn't worry me so much when I know that most of her meals and snacks are healthy.
ReplyHa! Good one:)
The info at the link was basically what I had heard before, thanks!
ReplyI'm happy to see people talking about and thinking about what they feed their kids. Variety is so important to children as they develop. From offering all sorts of micro-nutrients and a proper balance of macro-nutrients, this is how kids develop the minds and bodies that will serve them best as they become adults.
And I agree with everyone who noted that kids who are taught to eat healthy will end up eating healthy as adults. There might be some teenage rebellion, but I've seen a lot of people in their twenties who enjoy eating healthy and credit their parents for that outlook. A healthy relationship with healthy food is ultra-important for managing weight, avoiding diabetes, and living a full, healthy life. And it all starts when we're kids.
ReplyAnd avoid TV: kids watch too much TV in the states. it is creasy.
ReplyI know lots of families in which one child's taste is opposite the other's taste. But it is always within the range of foods they can get. If children tell parents what to feed them, usually the outcome is unhealthy children and unhealthy parents. If parents offer sensible food and plenty of it but remind kids not to eat for fun, only for life and fuel to live, a majority of kids will eat just fine. Some will eat mostly fruit and a few pieces of bread, a glass of milk now and then. Others will eat mostly meat and a little bread, and you can slip the veggies into the soup or lasagne as you see a chance. But if they know that picky eating equals less to eat and a growling tummy, they don't come out very picky, except the stubborn ones, who would never be satisfied no matter what they had. At least, that's what I've seen.
ReplyThose are really healthy meals. I just doubt that kids will be interested in eating broccoli. With it's unique taste, they will easily identify it even with the cheese.
ReplyNow, she's moved on to tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers as "favorite veggies", which is fine by me as long as she's eating something vegetablish.
ReplyInteresting. I have 2 kids. My daughter, who is now 8, has ALWAYS been a fantastic eater; always willing to try new things, loves veggies, fruits, etc. and chooses quesadillas over cheeseburgers in restaurants. My son, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The only veggies he'll eat are raw baby carrots and potatoes are either mashed or fried. He's good with fruit, but he's hard to get meat into; even peanut butter has been a struggle (though now he'll eat a tiny bit on toast or dunk apple slices in it). It's interesting because both kids have the same parents and have been exposed to the same foods. Not sure why one has such a hard time eating good, healthy food (and NO, I don't force him to eat things he doesn't like because much vomiting ensues, though he is getting better)
ReplyI read in an article that one way of getting your child eat variety of foods, especially vegetables is to take advantage of their hunger. If a child is hungry, it's the perfect time to introduce new kinds of food to them.
ReplyJust the look of this food would put my kids off! :) But children are hard to fathom...2 of mine won't touch tomatoes, but the youngest hoovers them up!!
Replyi think that all of thoses meals are delisous eccept for the 1st one thats just discusting so im a healthy kid
Replyjust an idea for kids my names connor and im 16 i take lots of diffrent food courses and eating is my life what you gota make sure you do everything for kids is in the presentation. if it looks fun and nice to eat they will eat.
Replymy youngest brother actually ASKS for more brocolli and when one of his friends is over he will look at the two pplates and even if the are as equal as we could get them he will still look and whichever one he thinks has the most vegtables is the one he wants to eat he then will come back for second of it, my family all likes vegetables i prefer them over meat actually and i think that if u believe a child wont eat it then thats wats going to happen but u have to eat it to another thing is that we always try to eat 2 least supper all together and everyone has to try a little of everything the rule in my home is you cant say you dont like something if youve never tried it before.
ReplyHey I'm a kid/teen looking for something good and heathy to eat but what I see you guys post up is yak!!
ReplyI looks like barf:( If you could put scence into your brains maybe you could put beter stuff to eat cus I got tons of my friends to come see this site and they all sayd YAK!!!!!!!!!!