What you need to know about Child Nutrition + Healthy recipes !

Child’s Nutrition starts from a mothers womb. The development of a fetus is decided by what a mother eats during her period of pregnancy. It is crucial for both the parents to have a healthy lifestyle before they even conceive.

• Along with good eating habits, a healthy lifestyle also includes good sleep hygiene, regular physical activity, regulated stress, and control over any form of addictions (alcohol, smoking, etc.).

• You are the first teacher of your child. As your children grow, they learn more from your actions and words than anything else. For instance, if you exercise, they will; if you eat clean food, they will; if you speak to them in a polite manner, they will.

• It is important to understand that children between the ages of 2–5 rely on you for everything. As a parent, it is your responsibility to take advantage of this age and build a strong foundation for their future life.

• Child nutrition is one of the most important parts of growing up healthy and strong. It means giving children the right kinds of food in the right amounts to help them grow well, stay active, and do well in school.

• Unfortunately, many children today do not get the proper nutrition they need. Some do not get enough nutritious food, leading to problems like undernutrition, feeling tired all the time, or falling sick often.

• Other children, specially considering the urban population , may resort to overconsumption of unhealthy food like chips, sugary drinks, or junk food, which can cause problems like obesity, weak bones, or even diabetes. In both cases, poor nutrition can affect their school performance, growth, and overall health.

• Understanding these problems and finding ways to fix them is important for building a healthy future generation.

Under nutrition

This is when children don’t get enough calories, protein, vitamins, or minerals. It can lead to being underweight, stunted (short for their age), or weak.

Why does it happen?

• Lack of awareness: Some parents may not know what foods are important for growth, especially during teenage years when nutritional needs increase.

• Skipping meals: Busy school mornings or long school hours can cause kids to skip breakfast or other meals.

• Frequent infections: Repeated illnesses like diarrhea or fever can lower appetite and reduce the absorption of nutrients.

Over consumption with low nutritional value:

This is the other side of the problem—children and teenagers eating too many high-calorie, low-nutrient foods like chips, sweets, colas, and fast food. This can lead to obesity, early diabetes, or even poor self-esteem.

Why does it happen?

• Easily available junk food: Fast food is often cheaper, tastier, and more easily available in schools and around homes.

• Advertising and peer pressure: Kids are exposed to constant marketing of chips, sugary drinks, and chocolates. They often want to eat what their friends are eating.

• Busy lifestyles: With both parents working, many families rely on packaged foods or takeaways instead of home-cooked meals.

• Irrespective of whether a child is underweight or overweight, if the child is consuming empty calories, they can still develop certain nutrient deficiencies.

Hidden Hunger: Common Micronutrient Deficiencies in Children

Did you know that every second child living in our cities is missing one or more important vitamins or minerals in their diet? These tiny nutrients—called micronutrients—might be small, but they play a big role in helping kids grow, stay energetic, and stay healthy.

• 60% of children don’t get enough calcium, which is needed for strong bones and teeth.

• Half of all children (50%) have iron deficiency, which can make them tired, weak, and unable to concentrate.

• 4 out of 10 kids (40%) are low in vitamin D, which also helps with bone strength and immunity.

• About 1 in 3 kids (33%) don’t get enough vitamin B12, which is important for the brain and nerves.

Other vitamin and mineral deficiencies are also seen:

• Folate (Vitamin B9) is low in about 22% of children.

To check for the deficiency, there are couple of tests that can be done: Calcium test, Iron test, folate test, Vitamin D deficiency, and Vitamin B12 deficiency.

Supplement Smarts: What Every Parent Should Know!

• Calcium: Calcium carbonate or calcium citrate supplements

• Iron: Iron syrups or tablets like ferrous sulfate or ferrous fumarate

• Vitamin D: Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) drops, chewable tablets, or weekly sachets

• Vitamin B12: Cyanocobalamin tablets

• Folate (Vitamin B9): Folic acid tablets or capsules

• Selenium: Multivitamin tablets containing selenium or specific selenium supplements

  
  

Importance of parental education and awareness

• Parents’ knowledge of and attitudes toward nutrition have a significant impact on the way they feed their children and their children’s dietary preferences.

• The family is the primary environment in which food choices and consumption patterns are established during childhood and later adolescence, and even though the eating environment becomes more complex and further from direct parental supervision when adolescents enter school, parents continue to have an important influence on adolescent food literacy.

• It is estimated that early adolescents burn up to 65% of their calories at home. Parental health behaviours and practices have significant impacts on children’s food literacy and can create a positive health-protective effect.

• Among the various determinants of nutritional status, parents' education is probably the next most important factor after socioeconomic status.

• Studies believe that the effect of women's education on the nutritional status of their children is exerted through their roles as providers of household health and nutrition.

• Doing food-related activities as a family helps build a strong bond between parents and children because food is an important part of family life and health. These moments make children feel loved and connected, and also help them feel more confident.

• When parents teach their kids about food or involve them in cooking, it shows care and makes children feel important, which brings the family closer together.

• Parents can influence children’s food literacy in the following two main ways:

  1) the mediating role of learning motivation: When parents teach children about food, it can increase the child’s interest and motivation to learn more about food. This motivation helps them pay more attention, ask questions, and want to understand food better, which improves their food literacy.

  2) the chain-mediating roles of the parent–child relationship and learning motivation: First, food education strengthens the parent–child relationship—children feel loved and supported. This stronger bond then boosts the child’s motivation to learn, because they feel encouraged and confident. As a result, the child becomes more engaged in learning about food, which again improves their food literacy.

  
  

Simple Strategies for Healthier Children

• For age 2–5, introduce as much variety into your child’s diet so that they can develop their taste.

• Evidence suggests that lifestyle, behaviour patterns, and eating habits adopted during this age persist throughout adulthood and can have a significant influence on health and well-being in later life.

• In order to avoid future picky eating behaviour, try to add a variety of foods like fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and poultry (in the case of a non-vegetarian diet) to their plate. Avoid offering them ultra-processed food.

• Between the ages of 2–5, being preschool age, children rely on tiffin boxes that their parents prepare for them. This is the period when parents can be experimental with recipes while keeping the nutritive value in mind.

• Prepare recipes in a way that looks attractive and palatable to kids. For example, rather than giving plain ‘roti’, ‘sabji’, and ‘dal’, you can repackage the same ingredients into a ‘whole wheat lentil wrap’.

• Add a little processed food to the meal to make it more palatable. For example, adding a small amount of ketchup to high-nutritive-value food can make it more appealing. Understanding the nutritive value while being playful by adding small amounts of processed food is acceptable—this is better than offering food that is entirely processed, which would be no different from outside or junk food.

• Childhood is one of the critical periods for good health and development in human life.

• During this age, the physiological need for nutrients increases, and consuming a diet high in nutritional quality is particularly important.

• Furthermore, the transition from childhood into adolescence is often associated with unhealthy dietary changes. Thus, it is important to establish healthful eating behaviours early in life, especially during the childhood transition period.

• A healthy diet during the primary years reduces the risk of immediate nutrition-related health problems that are of concern to school children, namely obesity, dental caries, and physical inactivity.

• Furthermore, young people who adopt healthy habits during childhood are more likely to maintain their health and are at a reduced risk of chronic ailments in later life.

• In recent years, it has been observed that children's eating habits are initially influenced by family situations, with most changes occurring upon entering school, where they spend much of their time away from home.

• Therefore, health education should be given to children before they enter school or high school. Schools should also be encouraged to take up such initiatives to provide health education to all children collectively.

• Research has shown that parents cooking at home with their children reduces childhood obesity and increases both children's participation in dinner preparation and their food literacy.

Here are a few recipes that can help you build your children’s tastebud:

Vegetarian Food Options:

1. High Protein Veg Sandwich

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and Approximate Quantities

1. Whole wheat bread slices (4 pieces) – 80 g

2. Grated vegetables (carrot, cucumber, beetroot) – ~100 g total

3. Hung curd – 30 g

4. Paneer – 40 g

5. Salt and pepper

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is:

Total Energy: 348 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 53.9 grams,

Protein: 14.9 grams, and

Fat: 8.2 grams.

Method of Preparation

1. Take 4 slices of whole wheat bread.

2. In a bowl, mix grated carrot, cucumber, and beetroot (approximately 100 grams in total).

3. Add 40 grams of paneer (crumbled) and about 30 grams of hung curd to the vegetable mixture.

4. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt and black pepper.

5. Spread the prepared filling evenly over two slices of bread and cover with the remaining two slices to make a sandwich.

6. Grill or toast the sandwich lightly if desired, or serve as is for a fresh, crunchy bite.

2. Paneer Paratha

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and approximate values:

1. 2 pieces whole wheat roti: 60 g

2. 60 g paneer

3. Spices (salt, chili, coriander, etc.)

4. 1 tablespoon oil

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is :

Total Energy: 485 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 49.5 grams,

Protein: 16.25 grams, and

Fat: 15.5 grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Knead dough using whole wheat flour and water.

2. Crumble 60 g of paneer and mix with salt, spices, and optional herbs.

3. Stuff the paneer filling into the dough balls, roll out and cook both sides on a hot tawa with minimal oil (or dry roast for low fat).

4. Serve hot with curd.

3. Ragi Banana Pancake

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and approximate values:

1. Ragi flour (30 g)

2. ½ mashed banana (50 g)

3. Skim milk powder (15 g)

4. Honey for topping (1 tsp ≈ 5 g)

5. 1 teaspoon of oil for  cooking

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is :

Total Energy: 292 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 44.25 grams,

Protein: 8.2 grams, and

Fat: 8 grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix ragi flour with mashed banana, skim milk powder, and enough water to form a pancake batter.

2. Pour the batter on a non-stick pan and cook both sides with a few drops of oil.

3. Drizzle with honey on top and serve warm.

4. Soya Pulao

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and approximate values:

1. 30 g rice

2. 25 g soy chunks

3. Mixed vegetables

4. 1 tablespoon oil

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is :

Total Energy: 318 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 29.3 grams,

Protein: 15  grams, and

Fat: 15.6 grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Soak or boil soy chunks, squeeze excess water.

2. Sauté soy chunks, vegetables, and spices in a pan with minimal oil.

3. Add soaked rice, water, and cook until rice is done. Serve hot.

Non vegetarian recipes:

1. Herbed Chicken Protein Pasta

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and approximate values:

1. 2 pieces of chicken (approx. 50 g)

2. Cooked pasta (60 g raw weight)

3. Mixed vegetables (onion, capsicum, tomato — 50 g)

4. Olive oil – 1 tsp (5 g)

5. Seasonings and herbs

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is :

Total Energy: 310 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 45 grams,

Protein: 15.5  grams, and

Fat: 6.5 grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Boil pasta until al dente.

2. Stir-fry vegetables in 1 tsp oil, add boiled shredded chicken and seasonings.

3. Mix with cooked pasta and cook for a few minutes until flavors blend.

2. Chicken Delight Mini Sandwich

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and approximate values:

1. 2 small brown bread slices (40 g total)

2. Minced chicken (50 g)

3. Onion and capsicum (25 g)

4. Hung curd (15 g)

5. Oil for stir fry – 1 tsp (5 g)

6. Salt, pepper, herbs

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is :

Total Energy: 214 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 23 grams,

Protein: 13.3  grams, and

Fat: 7.1 grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Stir-fry minced chicken and vegetables in 1 tsp oil.

2. Mix with hung curd and spread between the bread slices.

3. Serve grilled or as is.

3. Power Wrap Egg Roll

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients and approximate values:

1. Whole wheat roti (30 g)

2. 1 egg (whole)

3. Stir-fried capsicum + onion (40 g)

4. Oil – 1 tsp (5 g)

5. Spices and salt

Total Nutrition Per serving approximately is :

Total Energy: 227 kilocalories,

Carbohydrates: 23.5 grams,

Protein: 10 grams, and

Fat: 10.5  grams.

Method of Preparation:

1. Make a whole wheat roti.

2. Stir-fry capsicum and onion in 1 tsp oil.

3. Cook 1 egg into a flat omelet, place it on the roti, add stir-fried veggies, roll and serve.