Proper nutrition for children: What foods does a child need? Healthy food for children: list, norm and features

The baby’s health depends not only on physical education, but also on proper nutrition. Therefore, it is very important to pay attention healthy food. We present a list of the most healthy products, which must be in the diet of every child.

Milk and dairy products

All dairy products are rich in fat, easily digestible calcium and phosphorus salts. Children aged three to four years should receive at least 0.5 liters of milk daily, including kefir, acidophilus milk and yogurt.

Cereals are the richest source of energy for the body, and because... Every day the child becomes more and more active, its reserves need to be constantly replenished. Wheat will provide the body with energy and strengthen its defenses thanks to vitamins A, D, E, C, B and unsaturated fatty acids. Rice is a source of carbohydrates, potassium, B vitamins and amino acids that play important role in the development of the organism.

Buckwheat contains a lot minerals, vegetable protein, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins B1, B2, B6, PP. Oats are optimal percentage carbohydrates, proteins, fats and B complex vitamins. Oats also contain carotene, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, iodine, zinc.

This is very valuable product in any form: hard-boiled, in the form of scrambled eggs or used for preparing various dishes and drinks. The egg yolk contains a complex of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and group B, phosphatides and various minerals and trace elements. It is advisable for the child to eat one egg per day.

An important component baby food is meat, as it contains vitamins, protein and essential amino acids, necessary for the child For normal height and development. And the iron contained in it takes an active part in hematopoiesis. To begin with, it is better to give your child rabbit or turkey meat, they are less allergenic. Later, you can introduce chicken, veal, beef and lean pork into the diet.

Liver

Liver is rich in vitamin A - useful for the immune system, eyes, skin, mucous membranes. Beef liver contains the most vitamin A. IN chicken liver a lot of folic acid, it also contains a lot of vitamin B12. The liver contains potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, copper. It is very useful for children suffering from anemia. However, you need to remember that an excess of vitamin A is undesirable, so you should not often give liver to your child.

Fish serves as a source of protein, polyunsaturated fats important for metabolism, vitamins A, D, B2, B12, PP, as well as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc. For children you need to choose lean fish- cod, pike perch, hake, sea bass.

Vegetables contain a lot of water, various minerals, water-soluble vitamins and contain almost no protein or fat. With them, most of the vitamins C, group B1, carotene, and carotene necessary for the body are delivered to the body. mineral salts(calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, etc.), which are necessary for the normal course of life processes and growth of the body. Preference should be given fresh vegetables, but you can also use fresh frozen or steamed vegetables. Vitamins are better preserved in such vegetables.

Just like vegetables, fruits contain a huge amount of vitamins, fiber and microelements. If possible, fruits should be given to children fresh and in a wide variety, since they all contain different amounts of different vitamins and microelements. Apples, pears, plums, apricots, currants, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and others are just a treasure for your baby, of course, provided that the child is not allergic to a particular product.

The benefit of nuts lies in the unique balance of vitamins B, A, E, P, etc. and minerals (potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, etc.). Unlike animal fats, rich in bad cholesterol, there is practically no cholesterol in nut fats. But they contain fatty acid, which the child’s body is not able to produce on its own. These substances are necessary for quality fat metabolism, which will save the baby from problems excess weight. The most useful for children are Walnut, hazelnuts and pine nuts.

Water and juices

Children should not be limited in their drinking. Water losses especially increase in the hot season and when physical activity. Therefore, the water balance in the body must be replenished by drinking free liquid - water, juice, tea, etc. Water should be purified or boiled, and juices should be natural. Liquid intake should be limited during meals.

Prepared by Maryana Chornovil

As soon as a child is born, parents have to decide one of most important tasks: provide him with food. At first it will be mother's milk and/or formula, then most parents buy ready meals for children in stores. But at the age of about a year, the child begins to move to the common table.

And then mothers are puzzled by the question: among the abundance of products, how to choose quality ones? After all, you don’t want to feed your child with surrogates. In this article I will tell you how to determine the quality of basic food products at home.

Cow's milk and dairy products. It’s hard to imagine a children’s kitchen without milk. And despite the controversy about its benefits, milk remains the No. 1 product for baby food. Milk porridges, omelettes, cottage cheese, sour cream, cheese, kefir, yoghurts - where would you be without them? Dairy products are rich in calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamins A and D. But these are real dairy products. In stores, instead of cottage cheese or sour cream, there is often some kind of palm oil. When choosing, first of all, you need to make sure that the label indicates exactly the product you need, that is, it says “milk,” “cottage cheese,” “sour cream,” and not “ milk product", "curd product", "sour cream product". We dismiss the latter immediately - this is an imitation and is not suitable for children.

Milk- give preference to pasteurized and normalized. If the package says “reconstituted,” it means that this is a powdered product, and “whole” milk—if you’re lucky—can be obtained from both natural milk and powdered milk. Types of milk obtained from powder have no nutritional value. If you buy milk from a private seller, its fat content can vary between 4-6%; such fatty milk is not suitable for children. It should be diluted with water in half. It is strictly forbidden to give milk from a cow in its raw form, even if you know the owners of the animals - cows are susceptible to various diseases, many of which can be very dangerous to people. We remind you that you can give cow's milk to a child no earlier than six months and start very carefully, since milk can cause severe allergic reactions.

Cottage cheese- For small child it is preferable to make it yourself from reputable milk, because cottage cheese is one of the most counterfeited products, and on a state scale. To reduce costs, manufacturers can increase its fat content by introducing vegetable fats (most often palm oil is used for these purposes), and some particularly talented manufacturers manage to make cottage cheese that does not contain a drop of milk. Recognize a fake without laboratory analysis impossible. The only advice is to buy crumbly cottage cheese, since the crumbly consistency is very difficult to imitate, and if the cottage cheese has a pasty consistency, then most likely it has added vegetable fat. The benefits of ready-made curd masses and so-called “cheeses” in glaze are very doubtful - these products are prepared using vegetable fats, instead of butter, a spread is used - a mixture of milk and vegetable fats, and substandard or “lost” cottage cheese - additives are often used as a base They perfectly mask both taste and smell.

Kefir. One of the oldest fermented milk drinks, known to man. Unfortunately, high-quality kefir has now become a rarity. Manufacturers use the same tricks - they add vegetable fat, reduce the amount of milk in the product to a minimum, to speed up the production process they do not ferment the product, but simply saturate it with bacteria, add starch and preservatives. At home, it is not possible to distinguish bad kefir from good one. You can only determine the presence of starch: drop a drop of iodine into a spoon with kefir. If the drop turns blue, it means the kefir is fake. In this way, you can determine the presence of starch in cottage cheese, sour cream, yogurt, fermented baked milk, and yogurt.

Sour cream- also a very useful product and also often counterfeited. When choosing, you should opt for sour cream with a shelf life of up to 7-8 days; longer periods are ensured by introducing preservatives or using pasteurization, which is not good: it destroys the used ABOUT The largest is often lactic acid bacteria. Determining naturalness on your own is quite simple: dilute 1 tablespoon in 1 liter of water at room temperature and let it settle. High-quality sour cream will give a milky liquid without any foreign inclusions. If lumps, flakes, or sediment appear in the solution, throw the sour cream in the trash.

Yoghurts and organic products. This relatively new product for us appeared on store shelves in the 80s and was advertised as extremely useful for children and adults: it improves immunity, normalizes digestion, prevents rickets and is generally a panacea for everything. About 15 years ago, similar drinking “bio-products” were added to yoghurts, the use of which, as manufacturers promise, will help overcome any cold and heaviness in the stomach. However, real yogurt has little in common, to say nothing, with what is sold in stores and promises us lightness and comfort. Real yogurt is made only from goat's or sheep's milk and tastes pretty good sour product, which even few adults would agree to consume without jam or sugar. It is fermented by a special type of bacteria called Bulgarian lactobacillus, and this is where all the benefits of this product lie, and not at all in berry additives. This type of bacteria is not part of our intestinal microflora, but has the ability to suppress the activity of harmful microorganisms, due to which digestion improves, accordingly, overall health becomes better and immunity is higher. The vast majority of store-bought yoghurts contain cow's milk (if they contain it at all), they are thickened not by fermentation, but by thickening additives, and lactobacilli, which are far from Bulgarian, are introduced artificially. And they come with flavors and dyes identical to natural ones, emulsifiers and preservatives. The benefits of such products are very conditional. The consumer may receive a certain dose of extra bacteria, but this does not mean that his digestion will improve and his immunity will increase for the simple reason that the human intestinal microflora contains about 500 types of bacteria, and not one or two, which are contained in the so-called "bio-products". Thus, store-bought yogurts, which are more appropriately called “yogurt products,” are essentially a dessert that you should not indulge in due to the high sugar content and other not very healthy additives.

Cheese. Undoubtedly a very healthy product with a high content of calcium and natural monosodium glutamate, “mind serum”. But it is also counterfeited, using vegetable fats instead of milk. Unfortunately, at home it is impossible to distinguish the right cheese from the wrong one. However, when choosing cheese for your family, focus on the following indicators: the holes in the body of the cheese should be evenly spaced, the packaged piece should not have any traces of cutting, the body of the cheese should have a uniform color without more light spots there should be no dark inclusions around the edges or in it. The so-called “processed” cheese is actually not cheese in the literal sense, but a dairy product made from substandard cheeses or substandard cheese mass with the addition of butter, and to give a special, “stringy” consistency, special salts are introduced into the cheese. Despite the fact that processed cheeses have a high nutritional value, they should be given to children from the age of three due to the high content of phosphates, the same melting salts that help it maintain consistency.

Cow butter. Using modern oil to spoil porridge is a piece of cake. The fact is that Russia does not produce enough milk to produce an adequate amount of butter. Everything else is either imported or counterfeit. Most often, margarine or spreads are sold to consumers instead of butter. Margarine is a product plant origin dream big amount milk, during the production of which vegetable fat is subjected to hydrogenation - enrichment with hydrogen; as a result of this manipulation, soybean or rapeseed or corn oil becomes solid, and in combination with additives they are given a creamy taste and smell. A spread is a type of product that contains milk fats of at least 15%, vegetable fats and various flavoring and technological additives. Outwardly, it can be very difficult to distinguish high-quality margarine from butter, but with some persistence this can be done without resorting to expensive tests.

You can start with an organoleptic examination, and in Russian, take a piece of the intended oil in your mouth. The butter melts and does not create a cooling sensation. Margarine or spread causes a “chill” sensation, the taste of lard remains on the tongue, and a coarse texture is felt. In the pan, the butter will melt evenly without cracking, covering the bottom with a thick liquid yellow color, the spread and margarine evaporate immediately, producing a large number of cod. Butter after freezing does not lend itself to a knife and breaks off into pieces different sizes. Spread and margarine can be cut off after freezing, but they will separate. Keep the pack in the refrigerator on the middle shelf. The butter will need a few minutes to “go away”; the spread can be spread right away. When cut, butter has a uniform color, while margarine and spreads have an uneven color, with dark inclusions. Finally, the butter, after lying in the light and open air for several hours, becomes covered with a yellow oxide, “staff.” This does not happen with margarine and spread.

Meat products

Sausages. Actually, sausages should be greatly limited in the children's diet. From 100 kg of meat, modern craftsmen get up to 700 kilograms of sausage and frankfurters - this means that the remaining 600 kg comes from chicken and pork skins, fat, bone meal, soy isolate, blood and various additives: salts, flavors, stabilizers, flavor enhancers, preservatives. Stew is also not food for a child: boiled meat no longer retains any useful substances Moreover, carrageenan, an extract from seaweed, a very dangerous additive with carcinogenic effects. If you want to feed your child meat, it is better to buy a piece of meat and make cutlets or meatballs.

Meat. However, even with a piece of meat you can make a big mistake. Many producers cannot resist the temptation to earn extra money and pump the meat with an aqueous solution of a complex of additives. This solution includes the same carrageenan, monosodium glutamate, various phosphates and antioxidants. Meat can absorb up to 70% of the solution from its weight, that is, roughly speaking, a piece of meat weighing 1700 grams can contain up to 700 grams of brine. Visually, injected meat does not differ in any way from normal meat, except that in the pan it comes out with an abnormally large amount of liquid. During cooking, the brine turns into broth, so it is advisable to drain the first water, as well as the liquid that evaporates abundantly from the meat during frying. Injection (syringing) is a permitted technological operation, but according to our legislation, the seller is not obliged to inform the buyer that his pork is “hooked on the needle.”

When choosing meat, choose the one that simply says “beef” or “pork” on the label. If a piece of meat is without spices or marinade, and the label says “roast beef”, “roast pork”, or something else like that, it is guaranteed to be stuffed meat. The piece should be clean, have a natural color for the given type of meat, not stick to your hands, have a pleasant faint odor, and have no signs of weathering, dark or, especially, green spots. Fresh meat is elastic, and when pressed, the dent should straighten out immediately.

Bird. The first thing that comes to mind is chickens. This is the cheapest meat on our shelves. Chicken meat has high nutritional value - it has good taste and aroma, suitable for cooking boiled, steamed, stewed and fried foods, appetizers and salads. Finally, it cooks quickly.

Those who lived through Soviet times remember how strikingly different those chicken broths were from modern ones. They were richer, had a greenish tint, and the chicken, although it was cooked almost like beef for an hour and a half and was tough, had a brighter taste. For a sick child, first of all, chicken broth was cooked, and for good reason - broth from organic chicken contains natural “antibiotics,” substances that help the body fight infection. Today's chickens are not the same. In an effort to grow as much cheap meat as possible, producers interfered with the nature of laying hens: they developed fast-growing breeds, and in addition created feed that promoted the rapid growth of chickens. And the consumer received a market version of chicken: it cooks in 20 minutes, is easy to chew, but the taste and nutritional qualities have noticeably decreased.

Is it possible to find good chickens in our stores? No! If only in specialized super expensive markets selling environmentally friendly products. But the price will be appropriate. Everything else that is available to the average buyer is so incomprehensible. What is 85 rubles per kilo, what is 150 - the difference is only in the promotion of the brand. And so, all economy class chickens are raised using the same technology. Many housewives prefer to buy so-called “paired” chickens, which are laid out on the counter supposedly unfrozen. But, alas, for the most part these “paired” chickens spent some time in freezers. If the package contains liquid blood mixed with water, even in small quantities, then the chicken was frozen and thawed before being placed on the counter. Take a closer look at them and you will see that almost all of the “paired” chickens have been frozen. Some manufacturers even include a piece of absorbent material in the packaging to prevent blood and water from spreading onto the backing. Whether or not to use such chickens for baby food is up to you to decide.

Egg. Store-bought eggs have also undergone significant changes since the times of the USSR. The wrong chickens lay the wrong eggs. Since the egg goes into everything that the chicken ate for lunch, breakfast and dinner, then those chemical substances, which are contained in feed, turn into yolk and white. Many people believe that they should buy their own eggs. However, those private owners who purposefully produce eggs for sale most likely feed their chickens with exactly the same feed. Therefore, there is only one way out - either engage in poultry farming yourself, or look for some trusted housewife who keeps chickens “for herself” and sells small surpluses.

If such a luxury is not available to you, then when buying eggs in a store, first of all pay attention to the presence of a stamp on the eggs themselves or on the factory packaging. You cannot buy eggs without a stamp. Eggs are considered fresh up to 21 days of storage. After this period, it may not go rotten, but the content of nutrients and useful substances in it will noticeably decrease. Surely your grandmother and mother taught you to choose large eggs. But it's not right. The largest eggs are produced by old hens finishing their laying career. Exhausted by abundant egg production, they are no longer able to provide sufficient nutrients to their eggs. The most useful are eggs of categories 1 and 2 from young laying hens. They are smaller, but they contain much more vitamins and microelements. You shouldn’t chase bright yolks either. A good factory-made egg should have a pale yolk. If it is bright yellow or even poisonous orange, it means that special substances were added to the food to give it this color.

Egg white is a rather allergic product, so eggs should be introduced into the baby’s diet with extreme caution, at first giving only the yolk in an amount the size of a match head, gradually increasing the portion. A child can eat no more than 2 eggs a week without harm to health, and an adult can eat two or three.

Fish products, seafood. This category of products is very useful. Fish and seafood have a high content of calcium, proteins, virtually no cholesterol, little fat, and what fat is useful for a growing body. And it would be very good if we could buy high-quality fish for our children: not overfrozen, not contaminated with chemical waste, not contaminated with worms, not rotten. But where can I get one like this? If you believe Rospotrebnadzor, the quality of almost half of all fish does not stand up to criticism. When buying fish, be very, very careful - it is fish that ranks first in the number of poisonings. For very young children, it is better to buy fish in the form of baby food. Older children can be switched to regular fish; it is recommended to start with low-fat species, for example, pike perch.

Fish that is sold alive will be as fresh as possible. It is necessary to select in the aquarium individuals that are apparently healthy, without green or white plaque on the scales, not peeling, without wounds, the scales are iridescent, bright. When buying fresh fish on ice, the first thing you need to pay attention to is the gills: they should be bright red. A dark red color, and especially green, indicates that the fish is stale. Fresh fish's eyes should be iridescent, not cloudy, when touching the scales, the finger should not stick to it, the smell is pleasant, without any ammonia tints. The belly is not swollen or torn. If the fish is sold without a head, then look at the vertebral bone: it should not be yellow, green, gray - only white, sometimes with shades of pink. Fresh fish has elastic meat that, when pressed with a finger, regains its shape.

It is better not to buy frozen fish for children at all.

Seafood. These include all those living organisms that live in sea ​​water that cannot be called fish: squid, oysters, scallops, shrimp, crabs, octopus, lobsters, lobsters and other living creatures. Seafood is a very healthy food, but at the same time it is heavy, so small children can be given seafood from the age of three and little by little. Almost all seafood in our stores is frozen or canned. When buying canned food, look at the expiration dates, and if you have made a choice in favor of frozen products, then you should refrain from purchasing if the product is frozen in pieces: this means that it was thawed and then frozen again. Squid carcasses, shrimp, and seafood cocktail components should be crumbly. You need to defrost seafood on the day you plan to eat it. They should be stored defrosted even in the refrigerator for no more than a day.

Vegetable oils and fats. You may be surprised that we have made a distinction between oils and fats. Aren't they the same thing? No, it's not the same thing. To put it simply, vegetable oil consists of vegetable fats.

The most common vegetable oil consumed in Russia is sunflower. Olive is in second place in popularity. All other vegetable oils: soybean, rapeseed, cedar, sesame, flaxseed, cottonseed, corn are specific to our country and are used quite rarely.

Despite the fact that manufacturers never tire of praising the virtues of sunflower oil, upon closer examination it turns out that it is not so healthy. Yes, like any vegetable oil, it does not contain cholesterol, but at the same time it increases the level of “bad” cholesterol in the body. And when fried, it forms a large amount of carcinogens. Sunflower oil It is advisable to use only as a dressing for dishes. Sunflower oil is sold refined and unrefined. Refining (purification) removes all useful substances from the oil along with harmful substances. Unrefined oil more or less completely retains all vitamins, minerals and amino acids, but contains a sufficient amount of not very pleasant things. Which one to choose is up to you.

Best used for frying olive oil pure olive oil and olive oil varieties. Olive oil variety olive-pomance oil for home cooking is not used at all, it is used in industrial confectionery production for baking, and the extra-virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil varieties are recommended to be used only for dressings, for cosmetic and medicinal purposes.

Without knowing it, we consume large amounts of coconut And palm oils They are widely used by confectioners all over the world because of their unusual properties for vegetable oil - after processing they become hard and acquire the properties of butter, but at the same time they do not acquire the dangerous qualities of hydrogenated vegetable fats. Being very cheap, they allow manufacturers to make big savings on raw materials. In themselves, these types of oil are not harmful; palm oil is even more beneficial than sunflower oil. It's just a shame to pay the same price for a cake with vegetable cream as for a cake with buttercream.

Spreads and margarines. What is their difference? Spreads contain from 15 to 50% milk fat; margarines contain only solid vegetable fats. Overall, the spread is safer and tastier than margarine. Many families have switched to spreads, abandoning the more expensive butter. But, nevertheless, the best spread can contain up to 8% hydrogenated vegetable fats, which means that those who regularly consume spreads put themselves at risk of myocardial infarction and development oncological diseases. As for margarine, it should not be in the mixture at all. children's menu, since any margarine is a loading dose of hydrogenated fats, the dangers of which we will talk about in one of the following articles. It is not even advisable to use margarine for baking, not to mention the fact that some housewives add it to porridge and spread it on bread.

Pasta. This is pure water complex carbohydrates, a source of large amounts of energy for a rapidly growing child's body. By the way, the actual pasta - dietary product, in which the amount of fat is equal to microscopic fractions of a percent. People get fat not from pasta, but from what a person eats with it - butter, pork cutlets, sausages and sausages, grated cheese. To avoid gaining weight, pasta is best consumed with fish, vegetables, mushrooms or seafood.

For the production of pasta, durum and soft wheat varieties are used. The former are considered more useful, since the variety itself requires more nutritious soil, and accordingly, the grain is more saturated with useful substances. In addition, durum pasta does not spread when cooked, does not turn into dough or a sticky mass. They keep their shape perfectly. The difference between them is so great that in many countries pasta is not produced from soft wheat varieties at all, which cannot be said about Russia.

According to our standards, durum pasta must indicate category A. All other categories are made from soft grains. But some manufacturers cheat and mix soft wheat flour with durum wheat flour. Bring such a deceiver to clean water simple: if the water in which you boiled the pasta becomes cloudy, soft wheat varieties were used. And if it also turns green, it means that the manufacturer tinted the pasta to give it a more marketable appearance.

It is preferable for children to give pasta made from durum wheat. A domestic manufacturer is checked for integrity using the experimental method described above, a foreign manufacturer is checked by a label on which durum or semolina should be written. Pasta in packaging must have smooth surface(of course, with the exception of grooved ones), the color of the pasta is uniform, without spots or specks; pasta made from durum wheat is amber in color. The packaging should not contain crumbs, flour, or splinters. When you try to break these pasta, they “resist” and bend. “Soft” pasta has a rough, porous surface and pale color; it breaks easily.

Cereals. This is a very common food product in Russia. We call cereals whole or crushed grains of plants belonging to cereal crops, as well as peas, lentils, beans - these are also cereals. There is probably no nationality that does not use cereals in their cooking, and this is not surprising: they are rich in microelements, belong to “slow” carbohydrates, that is, they create a feeling of satiety for a long time. long time, and they are inexpensive. In Russia, cereals are used mainly for side dishes and independent dishes - porridge.

When choosing cereal, you need to pay attention to its color. The color of the grain should be natural for this type of cereal. For example, buckwheat grain is beige, and if it has an intense brown color in the bag, it means that it was “fried”, and therefore there are much fewer nutrients in it. Rice comes in white with a hint of grey, golden and brown. In the package, the grains should be the same color and more or less the same in size and shape. The presence of flour at the bottom of the bag should alert you: perhaps beetles are in charge of the package.

Bakery products. In Russia, people traditionally consume large amounts of bread, increasing the “fullness” of dishes. “Without salt it’s not tasty, without bread it’s not filling,” says an old Russian proverb. The demand for this product gives rise to a large number of mini-bakeries that produce buns and pretzels of the most unprecedented shapes and tastes: with cheese, and with pumpkin, and with grains... But practice shows that it is better to buy “state” bread for food, which is baked in large factories, because their dough leavening process is worked out to the smallest detail and they do not resort to in various ways speeding up the rise of the dough. The same cannot be said about small bakeries: they often add enzymes to the dough, as a result the dough visually rises, but does not gain maturity, it does not contain the required amount of useful substances.

Nowadays, fresh baked goods are very popular, which are produced and immediately sold in large stores and small street stalls. You shouldn’t get carried away with these outwardly beautiful products for the reason that 2/3 of manufacturers use frozen semi-finished products (already shaped and aged buns and bagels) as a base, the shelf life of which can be up to one and a half years. During such a period of freezing, there will be nothing useful left in the bun. On holidays, once a week on weekends, you can, of course, pamper your household with such baked goods, but it should not be a permanent food item.

When choosing bread, look at the date of its production. Wheat bread has a shelf life of one day, rye bread has a shelf life of two days, and small baked goods has a shelf life of 12 hours. After this period, it is advisable not to eat bread. Do not buy bread that is too voluminous, airy - it is obtained this way due to an excessive amount of leavening agents. Good bread It should be easy to cut, not delaminate, not crumble, and the knife will not “get stuck” in it. The cut surface should be dry, the smell should be pleasant, the crumb should be porous, not sticky, without foreign inclusions or a lump of unbaked dough.

Liliya Kozlova

Children of any age should receive a sufficient amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and replenish their reserves of vitamins and microelements with food every day.

Only in this case will the formation of tissues and organs occur harmoniously.

Here is a list of healthy baby foods. Make them into independent dishes, combine them with each other - the main thing is that the child regularly receives all the substances he needs for proper growth.

Meat. A child will not receive such an amount of animal protein from any food product, the required set amino acids and iron, both from meat. Remember: a child should not be a vegetarian!

Regularly give your child lean dietary meat: rabbit, turkey, veal or beef.

Cheese. Fermented milk products should be consumed every day. Kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese help strengthen the immune system, enrich the body with vitamins A, B2 and microelements. And also this good prevention dysbacteriosis.

Eggs. In the winter season, the child needs to compensate for the lack of vitamin D, because the sun still rarely comes out. Find foods rich in this vitamin: egg yolk, spinach, fish, fish fat. If the child is not allergic to eggs, give one yolk a day if he is already one year old.

Oil. Just 3-5 g of butter and vegetable oil per day is enough to provide the child’s body with vitamins A, D, E, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. They help its growth and development, protect against germs and infectious diseases.

The child must be given butter (with a fat content of at least 72.5%) and vegetable (olive, corn, sunflower, soybean) oil. Add them to porridges, salads, first courses.

Beet. All year round this vegetable does not lose its useful properties. Beets contain vitamins (C, B1, B2, PP), microelements (iron, potassium), and pectins.

Give your child beets raw, boiled and baked. It's useful for work of cardio-vascular system and digestive tract.

Cabbage. There are many varieties of cabbage: white cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Peking cabbage, broccoli. And each of them is good in its own way. It contains a lot of carbohydrates, mineral salts, vitamins and fiber. Try to give your child cabbage raw - this way it is more beneficial. Vitamins in cabbage: PP, B3, ascorbic acid, vitamin K.

Nuts. This delicacy contains many essential polyunsaturated fats and amino acids.

Mineral salts plus vitamins (A, E, C and group B) - a truly stellar composition! Such components are very important for the development of a child. However, remember that you can give nuts to children no earlier than 3 years of age, and children with allergies should not do so at all.

Citrus. A valuable source of carotene, vitamin C, organic acids. All of them improve digestion and have bactericidal and anti-inflammatory effects. And besides, they are sweet and tasty.

Kiwi. It is believed that these fruits contain a very large amount of vitamin C (one fruit contains the daily requirement).

It is not advisable for young children to give the fruit along with the seeds.

Kalina. The healing berry replenishes the child’s body’s need for natural sugars, provitamin A and microelements.

Persimmon. Persimmon contains vitamins A, C and trace elements: iodine, iron, manganese and potassium. In addition, the fruit is effective against coughs and colds. Persimmon is useful for full-fledged work thyroid gland.

Feed your child only the healthiest foods. © Shutterstock

Do you want your child to grow up healthy? To develop correctly? It’s clear, who doesn’t want the best for their baby! Then quickly find out which products are the healthiest for children 2-5 years old. According to doctors, this period is characterized by high growth rates of babies.

Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the child’s nutrition Special attention. After all, illiterate organization of a child’s nutrition can cause not only improper development, but also serious problems in future.

For example, a lack of iodine is fraught with dysfunction of the thyroid gland, delayed neuropsychic development, and decreased immunity. Calcium and vitamin D deficiency will adversely affect the formation bone tissue. And a lack of iron can lead to slower psychomotor development, deterioration of memory and the ability to concentrate.

1.Meat- lean, dietary turkey, rabbit and veal meat - a source of protein, iron, zinc, vitamins B2 and B6. At the same time, iron in meat is in an easily digestible form. It is best to steam, boil or stew meat.

Nutritionists have not yet come to a consensus on broths for children. There are too many extractive substances in meat broth, and they increase the production of digestive enzymes.

Therefore, the baby’s digestive glands have an additional burden. So it’s better to hold off on broths and gravies for up to 3 years. A child under 2 years old needs to eat 60-70 g of meat per day.

2.Sea fish- one of the healthiest products for children, because sea ​​fish contains a lot of protein, iron, vitamin B12, iodine and fluorine.

Fish oils are very useful for children, because they contain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are important for the proper development of the brain, vision, immunity, circulatory system. For a child, it is better to choose low-fat varieties of fish - cod, pike perch. For a two-year-old child, 60-70 g of sea fish is enough.

3. Eggs- also an indispensable product in a child’s diet, because eggs contain a lot of animal protein and amino acids, vitamins A, D, B2. At 2 years old, the baby should eat 2-3 eggs per week.

But you need to choose homemade and fresh ones; it’s better to buy eggs from a trusted housewife. And you shouldn't risk giving it to your child. raw eggs, because they may contain different bacteria.

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4. Cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt and milk- some of the healthiest products for children. The diet of a 2-3 year old child should include at least 500 ml of milk and 50 g of cottage cheese per day. Several times a week you can pamper your baby with a casserole or cheesecakes.

But the fat content of dairy products should not be too high: milk - up to 3.2%, cottage cheese - up to 9%. Dairy products for a child are not only a source of calcium, animal fats and vitamins, they also contain beneficial intestinal tract lactic acid bacteria.

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5.Apples- one of the most useful products, they contain pectin, which helps remove such substances from the body harmful substances, like lead and arsenic.

Apples also contain malic and tartaric acids, which promote digestion, and vitamin C and iron strengthen immune system and help maintain constant blood sugar levels. Apples are also an excellent exercise machine for children’s teeth and gums.

Of course, these are not all the products a child needs. The baby’s diet should include wheat (50-60 g) and rye bread (15-20 g), pasta made from durum wheat, buckwheat and oatmeal, and rice, raw and boiled vegetables (300 g) and fruits (150 g), as well as dried fruits.

The health of a child is probably the most valuable thing in a mother’s life. When the child is healthy and cheerful, the mother is happy too! But in strengthening the health of children, one should not forget about the eternal truth: “You are what you eat.” It's hard to imagine healthy child, consuming incredible amounts of fast food and sweets and washing it all down with soda. In order for your child to be healthy, you need to think about healthy food for children. We will tell you how to prepare healthy food and what can be considered healthy food for your child.

Vegetables that are healthy for children

Vegetables are good for anyone - regardless of their age. Another thing is that you need to take into account the peculiarities of your own digestion before consuming certain vegetables. What kind of vegetation is healthy food for children?

According to doctors, vegetables should form the basis children's diet. Of course, no one says to switch children to a vegetarian diet, but it is better to increase the amount of vegetables in a child’s diet.

If your child is often sick, he needs products that are natural antibiotics. These can be carrots, apples, celery, onions and garlic, olive oil. But keep in mind that young children and children with digestive problems should not be given onions and garlic - according to at least, in raw form. In this case, these vegetables can be boiled and little by little added to other dishes.

If your child is prone to anemia, broccoli and cauliflower will be healthy foods for him. If your baby suffers from constipation, carrots and beets will benefit him. Fennel and dill will help with colic - decoctions of these herbs will relieve your baby from colic.

Very healthy food for children is carrots and pumpkin. These vegetables strengthen vision and improve skin condition. Carrots and pumpkin can be stewed, grated and eaten raw, and salads can be made from carrots and pumpkin. But remember - carotene is better absorbed with fat, so add olive, sunflower or butter to carrot and pumpkin dishes.

Very healthy vegetable for a child is a tomato. Tomatoes contain a record amount of useful substances, however, you need to eat them carefully. One tomato a day is enough to recharge your child’s body with useful substances. Excess tomatoes can be very harmful digestive system, pancreas and liver, so children need to eat tomato dishes carefully.

Baked potatoes, beloved by many children, have become such a desirable product for a reason. The fact is that baked potatoes help reduce stress, calm and help children cope with emotional overload. Baked potatoes are especially useful for first-graders and children who have just started going to school. kindergarten and children exposed to other stresses.

The best way to introduce vegetables into your child's diet is to make salads or stews from vegetables. But in an effort to make the dish tastier, under no circumstances add hot spices or a huge amount of salt to it. To improve the taste of healthy food for children, you can add dill, parsley, celery or bay leaf.

Dairy and fermented milk products that are healthy for children

The digestive system of children sometimes malfunctions, which manifests itself in the form of dysbiosis. The best remedies for dysbiosis and for the prevention of this unpleasant disease have long been recognized dairy products– first of all, kefir and yogurt. Let this healthy food for children always be in your refrigerator.

You can buy kefir, take it from a dairy kitchen, or prepare it yourself. This product contains calcium necessary for children's bodies and normalizes digestion. There are many interesting dishes with kefir - and okroshka is a particularly common dish in the summer. You can simply drink kefir, mix it with herbs or jam - the main thing is that the child likes it!

Yogurt is the best remedy for dysbiosis. Only for real healthy food for children You can call it not yogurt that can be stored for a month or more, but live yogurt, which has a short shelf life (about a week). You can make this yogurt at home or find it in the store by carefully reading the ingredients and getting information about its shelf life.

The list of healthy foods for children also includes hard cheese, which can be given to a child after one year. Hard cheese contains the substance tryptophan, which calms nervous system and relieves stress. However, it is worth remembering that cheese is a rather heavy product, so it must be consumed in doses. You can add cheese to salads, sprinkle it on dishes, or eat it as a snack.

Cottage cheese is useful for children as a source of calcium. Cottage cheese can be given to a child at pure form, mix with jam or herbs, you can make casseroles and baked goods with cottage cheese. But keep in mind that heat treatment kills many of the beneficial substances in cottage cheese - so it is better to give your child cottage cheese in its raw form.

Well, milk and butter close the list of healthy products for children. A child can simply enjoy a sandwich with butter, washing it down with milk, or eating milk porridge with fruit and butter for breakfast. Everything is limited only by your imagination and the tastes of your child.

Healthy fish and meat dishes for children

Fish and meat are important sources of protein, calcium and iron. A child needs meat for normal hematopoiesis and the prevention of anemia, and fish helps maintain teeth in order and helps normalize metabolism.

It is necessary to start introducing meat into a child’s diet with chicken and rabbit meat. It is quite dietary, easily digestible and does not overload the stomach. Then you can introduce beef into the child’s diet, and pork for older children.

Healthy food for children There will be low-fat soups from meat and fish meat broth, steamed or oven-baked fish, stewed meat, steamed meatballs or cutlets. The main thing is that meat and fish dishes They weren't greasy or heavy.

Carbohydrates that are healthy for children

Carbohydrates - main source energy in the diet of a child and an adult. The healthiest carbohydrates for children are cereals, bread from whole grain and durum wheat pasta. These products are richest sources B vitamins that regulate the functioning of the nervous system.

It is useful to make sandwiches for your child with whole grain bread, and cook porridge for breakfast or as a side dish for main meals. It is impossible to live without the fiber contained in porridges. normal functioning intestines.

Pasta made from durum wheat is useful for children suffering from hyperexcitability or stress.

Fruits that are healthy for children

Fruits are very tasty and healthy. This is why fruits are so loved by children. How to properly give this healthy food to children, and what fruits are considered the most beneficial for the child’s body?

Most healthy fruits for the child are bananas, apples, peaches and grapes. Apples contain iron, vitamin C, folic acid. Thanks to this, apples are an excellent prevention of anemia, strengthen the immune system and contribute to the full development of the child. And the record amount of pectin contained in apples helps a child’s digestion.

Bananas will help children with digestive problems and enrich their diet useful microelements and vitamins. Vitamin A, B vitamins, iron, magnesium and phosphorus are just small part beneficial substances found in bananas.

Grapes, despite the large amount of sugar, are very healthy for children. It strengthens the walls of blood vessels, promotes proper kidney function, helps the heart function and improves blood clotting.

If your child does not eat well, peaches will help you. They help increase appetite and also help digestion.

This healthy food for kids can be prepared in different ways. Some children love fruits exclusively raw - and they don’t need anything else. Other children love compotes or baked fruits (for example, baked berries). And everything would be fine, but with prolonged heat treatment, all the benefits of the fruit are lost, so when cooking compote, do not allow it to boil for more than 5 minutes. To make the compote rich, remove it from the heat and wrap the pan tightly with a towel. This way, the benefits of the fruit will be preserved, and the taste will not suffer.

By the way, with fruit compote you can cook very healthy food for children- fruit porridge! Instead of water or milk, take fruit compote and cook baby porridge with it. This porridge will acquire an unusual taste and your child will like it.

Specially prepared fruits can successfully replace sweets that are harmful to children. For example, when apple jam is cooked for a long time, a delicious marmalade is obtained (although, of course, there are almost no vitamins left in apples prepared in this way). Candy can be replaced with candied fruits, and ice cream can be replaced with frozen berries.

And remember: healthy food for children does not imply long-term heat treatment– and even more so hot. Eating raw, steaming or baking - this is what will help you make food for children healthy and tasty!