How your child eats today has a huge impact on their health and mind for the rest of their life. Healthy foods contain important nutrients and those are essential for children’s mental and physical development. By giving your child a healthy balanced diet, you are ensuring that they are getting all the essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that children need for healthy growth and development.

Nutritionists say that ideal childcare is to provide your children with foods and beverages with plenty of nutrients and too many calories, fats, or sugars. A child needs the right fuel for growing, learning, and developing says a school caregiver in a primary school in Pasadena, CA.

A caregiver in a reputed Childcare center in Pasadena, CA says that they are observing that kids are coming with takeout food in school. This is because many children and their families today have busy schedules and so it is hard to provide children with homemade meals every day. But those foods that we buy for our children from different restaurants or shops can be unhealthy as most of the foods contain artificial color, flavor, test enhancers, and preservatives. These chemicals may have a negative impact on your child’s health.

A healthy diet means those foods that supply protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins. These nutrients are present in the major food groups – grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and protein foods. Healthful eating may benefit children in various ways –

• It enhances their energy.
• it improves their minds
• It keeps their mood in good condition
• Helps them maintain a healthy weight
• Help to prevent different mental conditions of a child-like depression, anxiety, and ADHD.

To get a balanced diet, you need to ensure that your child is eating a wide variety of nutritious foods from all the different food groups. As a general guide, children should eat lots of fruits and vegetables; whole grains such as brown rice, whole grain bread, whole grain pasta; beans and lentils; lean meat and fish, nuts and seeds.

Parents at different daycares and schools complain that children do not like to eat a balanced healthy diet, and they have a natural fondness for junk food. Here are some tips that help a lot to encourage children to eat a healthy diet.

Children like to eat colorful foods. So provide them with plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables these colors contain a different combination of nutrients. Try to serve as many different colors of food on your child’s plate as possible to ensure a huge variety of nutrients.

Get creative in the kitchen. Make food fun. Cut fruits and vegetables into funny shapes, make faces out of the food and enjoy the process of making the meal. Let the children experiment with different flavors and textures of food.

Let them choose what they want to eat. They love to be involved in decision-making. Make a weekly list of healthy food and while making the list involve them. Take them to weekly food shopping and buy what they like.

Be a role model yourself. Eat all these healthy foods, children will follow you.