Health Tips

Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dinner like a Pauper

• Toddlers may have difficulty tolerating excessive fiber in their diet. Suitable fiber includes whole wheat breakfast cereals, and whole meal bread. Avoid food with a large content of seeds, nuts and grains.
• Fruit and vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals. Fruits are best had whole rather than in the form of juice.
• Honey and sugar should only be included in a toddler’s diet in small amounts. Replace biscuits, cakes, chocolate and other sweets with snacks such as fruit and whole meal bread cut into interesting shapes.
• As far as possible, avoid food with excessive refined or processed food. Go easy on Maida, processed cheese, etc.
• Try to limit juice to 4 to 6 ounces for your preschoolers. Dilute full strength juice if your preschooler drinks juice more than once a day so the total of full strength juice is 4 to 6 ounces.
• Make sure to serve 100% fruit juice. No added sugar, syrup or any other synthetic ingredients.
• In a restaurant stick to your rules about no aerated drinks. Aerated drinks have no nutritional value but have several negative effects on children.

Let your preschooler eat what you eat.

• Healthy eating on-the-go is possible. Offer a variety of foods every day.
• Encourage healthy eating for everyone in the family.
• Let your child decide if they are full or hungry.
• Offer healthy snacks between meals.
• Encourage water rather than sweet drinks.
• Enjoy family mealtimes and activities together.
• Plan meals and snacks and reduce mindless eating. (No eating in front of TV).
• Be flexible. Some children in this age group are still fussy, so offer a wide variety of foods and regular meals and snacks, and allow the child to eat according to his/her appetite without force or arguments.
• Be the change you are trying to create. Don't be a habitual offender of the very rules you are trying to enforce on your child.
• Avoid food with additives an preservatives.
• Do not binge and have four regular meals a day.