Healthy Food and Nutrition

Based on current trends and realities, it is clear that adults committed to children's healthy growth and development must advocate for high-quality nutrition, which begins with a strong foundational knowledge of children's nutritional needs, developmental stages, and dietary guidelines.  For your course project this week, you will create a fourth section that provies important information on nutrition and age-approporaite foods for infants, toddles, and preschooles and that will serve as an educational tool for adults who work with young children and  explain why eating habits are so important to children in each age group.  Cite evidence from Chapter 6 in your text and/or other resources to support your claims.   Refer to Chapter 8 in your course text and explain why adults should actively help children develop healthy eating habits and at least two ways this can be accomplished.  Provide three nutritious recipes that family members can prepare with preschoolers and explain the nutritional value of each. (To locate recipes, look through the various suggested Web sites or do research as needed.) Offer strategies and suggestions to make cooking together an enjoyable learning experience for children.

Good nutrition is an important thing to teach young children.  It is important to make sure children are consuming the right amounts of foods with enough vitamins, and minerals.  Children need the appropriate servings of fruits and vegetables to get these vital nutrients. (Robertson, 2010)  It is also important for children to limit the amount of sugars and carbohydrates that they consume.  Too much of either of these can cause a hype in sugar levels or a rise in blood pressure.  It is also important for children to have good healthy nutrition so that they maintain a good metabolism and adequate energy.  Health and nutrition are important to any person, but especially children.  In order for children to maintain a healthy lifestyle, they need to b consuin the right amounts of different foods, like four to six servings of fruit or vegetables a day.  Children, especially at a younger age, should be consuming very minimal salt and sugar, these are both considered unhealthy for the body and can cause long term side effects.

Children throughout the early stags of life are in need of different foods at different times.  While infants are relying mostly on breast milk or formula, a toddler is in need of more.  Toddlers have often started eating such foods as banans, cheerios, and crackers but are still not ready for more complicated foods like steak, rices, and apples.  Once a child grows and develops a little bit more, into a preschooler, the are ready to try more fods.  They are able to eat most everything now, it just has to be cut into smaller size or bite size pieces.  Preschoolers are also consuming more then a toddler would, portion wise because they are using these foods to grow and develop.  It is important to feed children who are in growth and development stags the right foods to help keep their growth on track. 

Adults are an important aspect when it comes to teaching children about health and nutrition.  Adults can set a positive role model for children about the foods that are healthy and nutritious to eat, such as grains, meats and fruits.  Adults can also show children who unhealthy sugary snacks like ice cream and cookies can be.  Adults can be an example of portion control as well as scheduled eating times.  Being able to show children what to eat and how much of it can be a key to teaching children about healthy eating.  (Robertson, 2010)

At the end of this assignment, I have enclosed three healthy children recipes.  Each of these is filled with healthy fruits or vegetables and very little extra ingredients.  These recipes are good to do with children because they are quick and simple recipes that the children can help with.  They give children a necessary serving of fruits or vegetables and allow the children to enjoy their foods.  Children can and will enjoy helping in the preparation of foods.  Whether it’s mixing foods together, pouring liquids, cleaning foods before cooking or cleaning up afterwards, children take pride in helping out and are happy to help. 

Three Healthy Recipes

Carrot Olive Kabobs

Supplies needed: 

carrots

string cheese

black olives

Directions:

Peel several carrots.

Cut off ends of carrots and then cut carrot in half.

Cut carrots into thin strips.

Cut a cheese stick into small pieces.  Cut a hole into the middle of each cheese piece.

Alternate stringing the cheese pieces and the black olives onto the think carrot strips

Banana Ghost Pops

Supplies needed:

bananas

plain yogurt

chocolate chips

shredded coconut

kabob sticks

Directions:

Peel bananas.  Cut bananas into 3 or four pieces (depending on size of banana).

Place banana on top of kabob stick, making sure the stick goes through approximately ¾ of the banana.

Roll yogurt lightly in yogurt, followed by shredded coconut.

Place two chocolate chips on as eyes.

Apple Chips

Supplies needed:

Apples

Directions:

First boil apple juice with either a cinnamon stick or cinnamon. 

Sliced apples as thinly as possible. (crosswise so the core was in the center.  No need to seed it, they just fall right out)

Boil the apples in the apple juice till they were somewhat transparent. 

Take the apple slices out of the boiling juice, and patted them dry.

Lay them on a cookie rack (the kind you cool cookies on) and placed the entire rack in the oven at 250 degrees.

Bake until they were dry and slightly browned.

*All of my recipes were found on the website “Super Healthy Kids: Making Fruits and Vegetables Simple, Fun and Delicious”*