School-aged children have steady but slow growth rate with an estimated increase of 2-3 inches in height and 5 pounds in weight per year; thus, adequate nutrition is essential to support their growth.
However, feeding their children with healthful food items is a challenge among parents or caregivers. School-aged children set many food choices, habits, likes, and dislikes influenced by their family, friends and even media (television and internet) which in turn affect their nutritional status.
In fact, nutrition problems can still occur during childhood such as iron deficiency anemia, undernutrition, and obesity. According to the 2018 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) of Department of Science and Technology – Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), underweight school children aged 6-10 years old are still a public health concern at 25% while overweight is a growing problem of this age group with 11.7% prevalence rate from 8.6% in 2015. Additionally, based on the same survey, the incidence of anemia also increased in 2018 affecting most of the 6 years old with 23.5% prevalence rate.
The children’s behavior towards food, their eating pattern, desire to calorie dense but nutrient deficient foods and sedentary lifestyle are some of the contributing factors affecting our kids’ nutritional status.
So, what’s the best formula for the kids to meet their nutritional needs despite these challenges? Check these healthful tips to help you give proper nutrition to your children:
- Include variety of foods coming from grains, fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, milk, and dairy products every day to have adequate nutrient intake. Being creative in cooking and serving your children’s meals would help increase their appetite.
- Always serve breakfast; it is associated with improved academic performance in school.
- Involve kids in choosing and preparing healthy foods and teach them about the benefits of healthy eating.
- Provide recommended serving sizes to your kids.
- Make their school lunches and snack healthier by including fruits and vegetables .
- Limit feeding your kids with added sugars such as sodas, desserts, sweets, and candies.
- Limit giving salty and fatty foods such as fast-food items and processed meats.
- Substitute watching television or playing video games with physical activities like outdoor games. Limit children’s screen time to less than 2 hours daily. Children need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity for healthy weight during growth.
- During mealtime, share stories or ask how your kids’ school or day was to encourage social interaction and make family meals something they look forward to.
- Most importantly, be a role model to your kids for a healthy eating behavior.
With these tips, may we influence our kids to eat healthily and establish a healthy eating behavior to attain normal nutritional status, promote healthy lifestyle, and prevent chronic health conditions as they grow. (BLVMEstrella)
References:
Brown, J.E. (2008). Nutrition Through the Life Cycle. Thomson Wadsworth
Whitney, E.N. and Rolfes, S.R. (2016). Understanding Nutrition, 14th ed. Cengage Learning
2018 Expanded National Nutrition Survey
