Tips for a Healthy Childhood

Feeding Children for Life
Getting Set for Life
Giving Children What They Need
The Power of Exercise in Youth
Preventing Childhood Obesity

Feeding Children .... For Life!

Food... as we get older, many of us certainly appreciate a well-prepared, tasty meal, especially if the meal is prepared by someone else! As parents however, we sometimes struggle with our children's likes and dislikes when it comes to food and we worry whether our children are receiving enough of the right foods and the needed nutritional value. The following information taken from Little Well Beings, A project of the Canadian Paediatric Society may help parents in understanding what their children need to eat for optimal development and health.

To grow up strong and healthy, children need lots of physical activity and a balanced, healthy diet. Children grow at different rates and will adjust their food intake according to their needs at different ages.

Overall, children need a variety of different, nutritious foods, and foods low in salt, fat and sugar.

Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating recommends that children get servings from each of the four food groups every day. Note the number of servings and portion sizes in the guide are too large for children under 4.

Growing children need nourishing food to stay healthy and active. Look for fresh foods, or canned and frozen foods, that have no added sugar, salt or sauces with fat. Some pre-packaged and ready-to-serve foods are high in fat, salt, or sugar. These foods are not recommended as a regular part of the diet. Eating large amounts of fat, sugar, or salt may have negative effects on our children's health as they grow older (such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and tooth decay).

What do children need to drink?

Water
Drinking water is a good health habit for children to develop. Encourage your children to drink water rather than sweetened drinks whenever they are thirsty. During hot weather, it's important to offer children water while they are playing.

Milk
Milk is a good source of many important nutrients, including fat. Babies and toddlers need milk fat to develop in a healthy way. As children get older and start eating a variety of foods, you can give them milk with less fat (2%, 1% or skim).

Most babies drink breast milk or iron-fortified formula until they are 9 to 12 months old. Parents, together with their doctors, will decide when the baby can start drinking homogenized cow's milk.

Children should not start drinking homogenized cow's milk until they are eating lots of iron-rich goods like cereals, meats, peas and iron-rich breads. They need iron for growing and brain development, and cow's milk is not a good source of iron.

Juice
After babies are 6 months old, you can begin to offer small amounts of unsweetened 100% fruit juice to add variety to their diets. Juice should only be given for variety, not to quench thirst. If babies drink too much juice, they will be too full to drink their breast milk or formula, and some fruit juices will cause loose stools.

You do not need to buy special baby fruit juices; regular unsweetened 100% fruit juices are fine. Some parents dilute juice with water (half-and-half) when their child first starts drinking juice.

Meal Planning

What's the difference between a meal and a snack?
A meal should include at least one serving from each of the four food groups.

A snack should include at least one serving from two of the four food groups.

What are the recommended portion sizes for children?
The following chart gives food portion sizes for children ages 1 to 5. Note that school age children will begin to eat larger portions of food at mealtime.

Too many sweet snacks and juice will reduce the child's appetite.

Grain Products

Portion Size

Bread

½ to 1 slice

Roll/muffin

¼ to ½

Hamburger/hot dog bun

1/3 to ½

Cooked cereal

¼ to ½ cup (50 to 125 ml)

Dry cereal

1/3 to ¾ cup (75 to 200 ml)

Pasta

1/3 to ¾ cup (75 to 200 ml)

Rice

 1/3 to ½ cup (75 to 125 ml)
   

Vegetables and Fruit

 

Whole fresh fruit

½ to 1 piece

Cooked fruits

¼ to 1/3 cup (50 to 75 ml)

Juice

1/3 to ½ cup (50 to 75 ml)

Potatoes

¼ to 1/3 cup (50 to 75 ml)

Cooked vegetables

¼ to 1/3 cup (50 to 75 ml)

Raw vegetables

1/3 to ½ cup (75 to 125 ml)
   

Milk Products

 

Milk

½ to ¾ cup (125 to 200 ml)

Cheese

¾ to 1 oz. (20 to 30 g)

Yogurt

1/3/ to ½ cup (75 to 125 ml)
   

Meat and alternatives

 

Cooked lean meat/fish/poultry

1 ½ to 2 oz. (45 to 60 g)

Peanut butter

1 to 3 Tbsp. (15 to 45 g)

Legumes (dried peas, beans, lentils)

1/3 to ½ cup (75 to 125 ml)

Cheese

¾ to 1 ½ oz (20 to 45 g)

Cottage cheese

¼ to ½ cup (50 to 125 ml)

Egg

½ to 1

Getting Set for Life

Parenting is a tough, yet important job. Parenting is one of the most important jobs in this life that we will ever hold. And yet, we literally receive no "parenting training" and are left to learn on our own or from the experiences of others. Get Set for Life is an initiative of Children's CBC, Invest in Kids Foundation and Canadian Living sponsored by Bell Canada, Sunlight, Lipton and Health Canada dedicated to support Canadians in providing safe, caring and stimulating environments for our young children. The following tips taken from a Get Set for Life article will assist you in becoming an even better parent.

Do:

  1. Do follow your own good parenting instincts.
  2. Do be a role model for your child. You and your behaviour are your child's best teacher. Take time to explain things to your child, and respect them for what they say.
  3. Do get involved in your child's life, now and always. Talk to your child about their day and tell them about yours.
  4. Do read, play and sing together. Look around your house and your neighbourhood and find new things to do in your everyday environment.
  5. Do understand that you and the other significant adults in your child's life won't necessarily approach child care the same way. As long as you agree on the big things, give others - especially your partner - the freedom and support to do things their own thing.
  6. Do realize that your child can have many important adults in their world (in your extended family, in the neighbourhood, at day care) and your child will still recognize you as the most important person in their life.

Don't:

  1. Don't try to do it alone, even if you are alone. All good parents have and need a strong support system - family, neighbours, professionals and community services.
  2. Don't constantly compare your child with other children. Every child is unique. Watch and learn from your own child, taking your cues from her.
  3. Don't try to give your child an academic education from his youngest age. The most important building blocks for learning are your child's self-esteem, confidence, emotional control and social behaviour.
  4. Don't expect to do everything "right". It's not possible. There is not one formula for caring for your child.
  5. Don't be rattled by all the "advice" you are getting. Looking at your child and how you are feeling about them will tell you if you are on track.
  6. Don't be afraid to ask for, even insist on, getting help if you are worried.

When does response become spoiling?
Are you worried you might overdo your response and spoil your child? Is your partner or a relative urging you to let your child cry instead of picking them up all the time?

Rest assured. Experts agree that it is impossible to spoil your child in the first year by responding to their needs. In fact, studies show that crying newborns who receive a quick, warm response usually learn to cry much less and sleep more at night.

When you respond to your child and provide what she needs, she is usually calmed. Her stress reaction turns off and her brain begins to create connections and pathways that help your child soothe themselves.

Do be careful not to go to extremes, though. If you're always hovering anxiously over your child, they will pick up on your feelings and perhaps become anxious and whiny. But go to your child when they cry, soothe them when they're sick or hurt and try out methods to turn their attention to something else.

After the first year, as your child explores their world, they will test the limits you set more and more often as they try to become increasingly independent. Give your child the chance to make choices - which T-shirt to wear, whether to have cereal or toast, whether to play with crayons or blocks - and let your child speak for herself. Controlling everything keeps your child from developing and taking responsibility for herself. It may also lead to resistance, as well as unacceptable demands on you. Your child may try to manipulate you too - crying, squealing or stomping simply to get a response from you. That's when you'll have to pull back a little and figure out how much response is appropriate.

Giving Children what they need...

Search Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization whose mission is to advance the well-being of adolescents and children by generating knowledge and promoting its application.

At the heart of the institute's work is the framework of 40 developmental assets, which are positive experiences, relationships, opportunities, and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.

In the last few years, YMCA has seen the value of these assets, and seeks to provide them in our programs.

Power of Exercise in Youth

One's habits in life are formed very early in life and the impact that we have as parents on our children's view of physical activity, healthy eating and lifestyle choices is very powerful. The following information taken from an article on Youth Exercise, from the Wellness Research Newsletter will help today's parents understand the important role they play in the future health of their children.

According to the Centre for Disease Control in the United States the best way to convince young people of the health benefits of regular exercise is to first convince their parents. Data suggests that parents influence their children both by what they do and what they say. The data also suggests that facts exert a greater impact if they carry targeted messages. Here are a few examples:

The facts:

  • Nearly 50% of young people aged 12-21 and more than 33% of high school students - do not regularly participate in vigorous physical activity
  • Sedentary adolescents have a harder time coping with stress than do their active peers.
  • Physical inactivity increases the risk of dying prematurely, dying of heart disease, and developing other serious illness.

The Messages:

  • Regular exercise helps you live longer and with greater lifelong independence.
  • Regular and vigorous physical activity keeps you in shape, so you look better.
  • Exercise is fun and, in the case of running, walking, biking, team sports, skiing, and countless other activities, it's a social pastime that you spend with friends.
  • Physical activity wipes away stress and depression, even as it boosts self-esteem and increases the power of concentration and, perhaps, the ability to learn at school.

The trend to less activity amongst our youth is cause for concern. Puberty, a time when young people are developing values and habits that can last a lifetime, is also a period during which many young people are increasingly choosing a sedentary lifestyle over an active one. The implications of this trend for future national health policy have led to an exploration of the hypothesis that physical activity and team sports participation are associated, among other things, with decreased risk of suicide in adolescents.

But, it is equally clear that parents play a decisive role in modeling healthy - or unhealthy - lifestyle behaviours for their children far in advance of these critical adolescent years. Indeed, eating habits are formed very early in life, and both eating and activity patterns mirror family patterns. Many of the risk factors for coronary artery disease and hypertension appear not in middle adulthood, but rather in early childhood.

What you can do:

  • Encourage increased activity on an individual basis (such as: joining a school team, dance, taking swim lessons, roller blading, cycling) and participate in physical activities with your children - go for a walk or hike, cycle together, participate in a family swim activity - the options are endless.
  • Promote healthy eating with your children and be a good role model - buy more fresh fruit and vegetables and reduce "junk food" consumption. Pack healthy lunches and nutritious snacks for your children.

Preventing Childhood Obesity

Below is a news release on a policy statement published in the August issue of Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

For Release: August 4, 2003, 12:01 am (ET)
CHICAGO - The dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight children, and the associated health and financial burdens, are issues every pediatrician faces on a daily basis. A new policy from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) entitled, "Prevention of Pediatric Overweight and Obesity" proposes strategies to foster prevention and early identification of overweight and obesity in children.

A primary diagnostic tool suggested by the AAP is body mass index (BMI), the ratio of weight to height. BMI is widely used to define overweight and obesity, and significant changes in a child's BMI should be recognized and addressed before the child becomes severely overweight. The policy points out that some parents may not recognize or accept the potential risk of their child being overweight. It also notes that anticipatory guidance or treatment intervention before obesity has become severe will likely be more successful.

According to the statement, the number of overweight and obese children has doubled in the last two decades. Currently, 15.3 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds and 15.5 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds are at or above the 95th percentile for BMI.

Recommendations in the policy include:

  • Identify and track patients at risk by virtue of family history, birth weight, socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural or environmental factors
  • Calculate and plot BMI once a year in all children and adolescents.
  • Use change in BMI to identify rate of excessive weight gain relative to linear growth.
  • Encourage, support and protect breastfeeding.
  • Encourage parents and caregivers to promote healthy eating patterns.
  • Routinely promote physical activity, including unstructured play.
  • Recommend limitation of television and video time to a maximum of two hours per day.
  • The new policy advocates that pediatricians help parents, coaches and others who influence youth to discuss health habits, not body build, as part of their efforts to control overweight and obesity.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 57,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Use these BMI (Body-Mass-Index) Charts to compare your child's growth and BMI factor to determine if your child may be leaning towards obesity.*

Growth Charts - Body Mass Index for Boys
Growth Charts - Body Mass Index for Girls
Taken from Keep Kids Healthy, LLC. © 1999 - 2003

Important disclaimer: The information on keepkidshealthy.com is for educational purposes only and should not be considered to be medical advice. It is not meant to replace the advice of the physician who cares for your child. All medical advice and information should be considered to be incomplete without a physical exam, which is not possible without a visit to your doctor.