Child nutrition: menus and recipes

The well-being, health, and per­for­mance of a per­son large­ly depend on nutri­tion. It is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for chil­dren to eat right. Con­sid­er the nuances of the orga­ni­za­tion of nutri­tion of the child.

Balanced diet

The diet of the child should be com­plete and var­ied. The menu should have every­thing you need: veg­eta­bles, fish and seafood, berries, herbs, nuts, cot­tage cheese, but­ter, milk, kefir, yogurt, eggs, meat, fruits, cere­als, bread, veg­etable oils.

It is impor­tant that the child receives all the nec­es­sary vit­a­mins and min­er­als, as well as oth­er nutri­ents (pro­teins, car­bo­hy­drates, fats). It is impos­si­ble to exclude or include too many prod­ucts in the menu.

Of course, you should refuse or reduce to a min­i­mum the use of fast food, harm­ful sweets, car­bon­at­ed drinks. Sweets should be cho­sen healthy (hon­ey, dried fruits), and car­bon­at­ed drinks should be replaced with com­potes, fruit drinks, nat­ur­al juices.

Dur­ing heat treat­ment, pref­er­ence should be giv­en to stew­ing, boil­ing and bak­ing.

How to build a children’s menu?

The child should eat 4–5 times a day. Break­fast, lunch, din­ner and two snacks. If the child is hun­gry before going to bed, you can drink a glass of kefir or eat a cucum­ber, an apple.

Break­fast should be com­plete and nutri­tious. Dish­es from eggs, cot­tage cheese, cere­als are best suit­ed. Lunch should be heavy. Great if there is a first course. You can also serve meat, fish dish­es with the addi­tion of veg­eta­bles. Din­ner is nutri­tious, but not dense. It is worth giv­ing pref­er­ence to fish, veg­etable, cot­tage cheese dish­es.

As for snacks, you can choose sal­ads, healthy pas­tries (muffins with veg­eta­bles or pan­cakes with apples), nuts, cot­tage cheese, yogurt, fruits, veg­eta­bles, smooth­ies, dried fruits. If some meal was quite dense, it is bet­ter to choose a light snack. And if the child is not very full and wants to have a snack after two hours, you can give some­thing more sat­is­fy­ing (a sand­wich with veg­eta­bles and boiled meat or boiled eggs with cucum­ber).

Here is an exam­ple of a chil­dren’s menu:

• break­fast: rice por­ridge with pump­kin and hon­ey, cocoa, oat­meal cook­ies; or spinach omelet, bell pep­per and toma­to sal­ad, bread, smooth­ies with apple, banana and yogurt;
• snack: cot­tage cheese with blue­ber­ries; or a mix­ture of nuts and dried fruits;
• lunch: cab­bage soup, beef schnitzel, mashed pota­toes, fruit drink; or pick­le, chick­en cut­lets, buck­wheat, com­pote;
• after­noon snack: car­rot souf­flé, tea; or lazy dumplings with sour cream;
• din­ner: fish baked with broc­coli and car­rots, mint tea; or a casse­role with zuc­chi­ni and cheese, kefir.

The menu should be built in such a way that the child receives all the nec­es­sary sub­stances, but at the same time the dish­es are tasty, loved by the child.

Healthy Recipes

Here are some sim­ple and healthy recipes.

Soup with cheese balls

Pour the chick­en fil­let with water, add black pep­per­corns and cook for 20 min­utes. Add three chopped pota­toes, a third of chopped onions, car­rots, grat­ed on a coarse grater. Cook until almost done. Mix the egg, 100 g of cheese, grat­ed on a fine grater and 40 g of flour. Make balls, dip into soup and cook for three min­utes.

Potato zrazy with salmon

Boil 700 g of pota­toes, mash in a puree, add 15 g of but­ter, two eggs, 80 g of flour. 100 g salmon fil­let fine­ly chopped, fried. Com­bine with chopped dill. Make tor­tillas from mashed pota­toes, put the result­ing mass in the mid­dle, con­nect the edges and fry.

Smoothies

Beat in a blender, apple, banana, a hand­ful of straw­ber­ries and a lit­tle yogurt.

Choose foods that your child will enjoy.