This is one of the challenging phases when it comes to feeding healthy and nutritious foods to the kids. Besides, kids become very choosy at this stage and may restraint from eating anything.
Rather, they may stick to a very limited choice or a variety of foods. In this phase, kids can easily deprive them off nutrition.
A few things about the choice of foods that you can feed to the kid in 4th year
There is absolutely no restriction when it comes to feeding a 4-year-old kid. A great sign of relief right? Oh yea, mommies, I could hear you. Kids can absolutely eat anything you cook without any restrictions.
There is actually no specific diet for the 4 years old kids. What you cook for the family, let your child eat. However, just consider the fact, if he or she has any food allergy!
The real thing, ‘fussy eater’ evolves now and you can literally see it! It is totally a fun age. Kids learn a lot and always come with so many questions to be clarified.
Eating becomes fun when you involve the kid in cooking.
Involve the child
Involve your child in every possible activity related to eating. This is a great way to introduce ad teach about different food groups to the kids, nutritious value and health benefits.
Besides, at this age, their brain activity and attention span increase a lot. So, they are very much interested to learn and experiment with new things.
Use different cookie cutters, shapers and sandwich makers to make it fun.
Sit with your child, talk about the weekly food plan (and you can even discuss it with the whole family).
If you teach the child about the nutritious value of the variety of foods, she or he may actually listen and understand at this age.
You cannot simply go and explain the health benefits of eating spinach for a pre-teen or a teenage boy.
Snacks
Snacks play a vital role in filling the stomach as well as the nutritional needs of the growing child.
In many cases, the child cannot get adequate nutrients from 3 meals. Snacks fill the gap here. So, make sure the snacks are healthy to some extent.
Don’t hesitate to add cheese and butter to snacks. Cheese and crackers, fruits, vegetable sticks (even spring rolls, veggie fries, ) and bread would do.
Offer snacks at least 2 hours before a meal. Snacks should be light and less in quantity.
When your child eats a variety of foods, feed interesting foods and try to introduce everything possible.
A few Don’ts you should follow
- Don’t cook separate foods for the kid. It is actually a bad habit.
- Don’t promise food as a treat to let the baby obey or do what you say. (Make it occasional)
- Don’t let the kid rely on food for de-stress. Food and eating is not the solution for every tantrum.
- Don’t focus too much on a healthy eating pattern. (Don’t count calories, a quantity of food you feed, etc) The key is nutritious feeding.
- Don’t freak out when the kid loses weight. It’s a phase where most children lose weight when they are active in school. Just make sure the little one is active.
- Don’t force the child to eat. Sometimes it is normal for the kid to avoid dinner or breakfast. All you need to identify whether they are really hungry or not.
- Don’t restrict fats. Kid’s brain develops at a rapid pace until 8 years and they need healthy fats for optimal development and functions.
- Don’t skimp on carbs. Your children are not models to avoid taking carbs. They need more energy and carbs are the basic source of energy.
- Don’t bother if your child doesn’t drink milk. Calcium is available from plenty of other sources.
Foods to include more for 4 year old kid
Two to three glasses of milk.
Fruit and veggie platter. Let them choose. Eating apples or bananas or carrots won’t harm them, even if they don’t prefer other foods. Just make sure you feed the other varieties in some or other form.
Seasonal foods! Yes, this is the key to feed healthy. Feed everything that is available as seasonal produce (fruits, vegetables, millets, and grains)
Make sure rice forms at least 40 % of the major meals of the day, at least during lunch. It gives full energy.
Introduce millets one by one in the diet. Millets need not be in the form of porridge or upma. It can be made more interesting.
Foods to avoid for a 4-year-old kid
Don’t the kids get inhabited to liquid foods, ice creams, biscuits, and chocolates.
Liquid foods refer to milk and milk-based drinks. Limit milk to two glasses a day, morning and evening and if required, feed a glass of milk before going to bed.
Say a big no to soft drinks, canned juices, and tetra packs. Soft drinks are certainly unhealthy and every individual (be it a child or adult) knew the fact, still, go for it.
The high sugar content affects the internal organs which are still in the developing phase and let the child crave more sugar.
Although canned juices and tetra packs come with a caption, ‘100 % organic’ ‘contain only fruit pulp, no artificial flavorings’ it is literally impossible to pack the juice without using chemical preservatives.
In case if your child loves fruit juices, feed him or her fresh, make it at home.
It is literally hard to avoid feeding biscuits to the kids. Biscuits fill the stomach and the child may go without eating nutritious foods. Limit the biscuits to two a day.
It is too hard even for elders to forgo ice creams. Avoid feeding ice creams too often and keep ice creams, chocolates and cookies as occasional treats.
Limit outdoor eating. While outdoor eating has become an indispensable part of life, it is just unhealthy for the entire family.
Be cautious when you feed leafy vegetables. Some kids may not be able to digest a few leafy greens.
Avoid giving raw foods often like salads. Kids at this age don’t need raw foods.
Dieting tips for 4 year old kid
Make eating a pleasant experience, rather than focusing a lot on healthy foods.
Set specific time for eating, almost all meals. While you may find it hard to follow, within a few days, it helps regulating the appetite in your child.
Kids make a lot of tantrums in eating breakfast during the busy morning hours. Make sure they are well fed in any form in the morning. If the child likes milkshake feed him in the morning.
If she wants bread, go for it. If she wants to drink milk, just go ahead. Ensure that the snacks are healthy.
Eat at least one meal a day as a family, involving your child. Dinner will be the ideal option. It helps the children learn a lot of things, beyond food and eating.
It is ‘okay’ to eat the so called ‘junk foods’ aka fried ones. Regular consumption of junk foods harms the kids. There is literally no food that is ‘not-nutritious.’ If your child asks for fries, let him eat.
Limit consumption of sauces, dips and condiments. These do more harm than junk foods.
Choose healthy snacking. Be cautious in what you feed post-school. If you feed heavy drinks like a milkshake, or feed milk more than once before dinner, the little one may avoid dinner.
If your child is on the verge of gaining weight, make him or her more active to lose the weight. Cut down excess salt and sugar from the diet (cakes, candies, chips etc) and eat more fiber in the diet.
If your child is underweight, feed her more often, let the child eat her favorite foods. While she can eat the so-called unhealthy foods, make sure you feed at least one fruit and one veggie a day.
In addition to this, drinking water is essential. Use plain water to satiate the thirst, don’t develop the habit of feeding juices and milk-based drinks for thirst.
Sample Meal Plan
(For Skinny Kids)
Instead of giving plain milk, make a milkshake for the kids. Milk+cream cheese+honey +vanilla essence/strawberry/dates/banana/apple/fig/chocolate/mango(anyone and change daily) and blend.
Morning – Milk
Breakfast – idli/ dosa / upma / Pongal / porridge / omelet / boiled eggs / or anything you cook as breakfast
Snacks in school- biscuits /bread with jam / corn / fruits / fruit juices /
Lunch- Rice with sambar/rasam/ curd rice with any veggies/egg or any non veg (Veggies are essential)
Evening Snacks – biscuits/groundnuts/ fruits with a glass of milk
Dinner- Rice or chapati with dhal or any veggies
You can easily identify if your child is able to digest chapati or not. If the little one cannot digest, ignore wheat and cook using millets or other feed rice.
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