Meals for Children

Children depend on regular meals. Meals allow you to present a variety of food to children in a pleasant and matter-of-fact way. Children won't accept everything you serve right away, but over time they will.

Mealtime behaviour

Eating is a complicated skill that children learn slowly. At the family table they learn to sit quietly while they eat. They gradually learn to use forks and spoons (it helps if you give them child-sized utensils). However, they may continue to use their fingers a lot until they are about 10 years old. They learn to try new foods and politely refuse foods they don't like or don't want to try. As they get older, they learn to wait for food in a restaurant while they are hungry.

Planning meals

Treat your children the same way you treat other members of your family. Prepare their favourite foods some of the time, but don't serve just foods they like.

Offer several foods from which your children can pick and choose. Try to include at least one food they like. If you have prepared an unpopular meat (like chewy pork chops), try to serve also a popular starch (like rice) or a popular vegetable (like corn). Include bread with meals. Children usually eat bread if they can't manage to eat anything else.

Don't make substitutes

Even when served a variety of food, children may choose not to eat at all. That is their choice. Don't become a short-order cook. Don't prepare an alternative to the meal or keep the jar of peanut butter on the table. Short-order cooking gives children a strong message that you don't expect them to learn to eat the food you make for them.

Take it easy on the cook

Your problem is time. Planning is essential. You can get along on simple food. Depend on the grocery store to do some of your work. You can buy meats that are already cut into serving-sized portions, frozen vegetables, or already washed salad greens and vegetables. You can use high-quality mixes or prepared foods. A fast-food dinner from the deli once in a while is okay.

What a meal should provide

A meal should provide a variety of food. A meal does not need to be a buffet, but you need to serve choices from the basic food groups:

• bread, cereal, rice, pasta
• vegetables and fruit
• meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cooked dried beans
• milk

• butter or margarine for bread, salad dressing

Bread, cereal, rice, pasta

Serve a starchy food plus bread. Keep in mind that your children will generally eat starchy foods when all else fails. Let them eat as much bread as they want. Don't worry if they have the rice but skip the stir-fry or eat the spaghetti but skip the meat sauce. Eventually they'll get around to having the whole dish.

Vegetables and fruit

Vegetables are challenging for children, but they will usually learn to like them. Don't push. Make vegetables available and eat them yourself. Deep-yellow fruits such as cantaloupe and peaches have many of the same nutrients that vegetables have. Because it's the vitamin A in these foods that's important, you can substitute the fruits for vegetables.

Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cooked dried beans

Make meat moist, tender, and easy to chew. Don't feel you have to avoid red meat. It's an important source for iron and zinc. Choose cuts of meat that are low in fat. If you don't eat red meat yourself, consider offering it to your children because of the iron and zinc in it.

Milk

After a child is weaned from breast milk or formula, give him whole milk until he is 2 years old. Whole milk is all right for older children, too. So is 2%, 1%, or skim milk if your child likes it and drinks it well, and if he has other good sources of fat in his diet.

Fat

Children need fat with their meals to make the food taste good. If food is too plain, they won't eat it. Children also need fat with a meal so they don't get hungry right away. Fat gives the meal its stick-to-the-ribs quality. At times, children have growth spurts and need extra fat so they can get enough calories.

In general, be moderate in the amount of fat you use in preparing a meal. However, use some fat and sauces in cooking to make the food taste good. Put butter, margarine, mayonnaise, and salad dressing on the table, and let your children use them if they want to.

Call your child's physician during office hours if:

• you and your child are struggling about eating
• you worry that your child isn't eating the right food