On a daily basis I find myself in the nursing pediatric clinic for children who eat in a rather unbalanced way, either because they eat the food in a totally disorderly way throughout the day, either because the foods they eat are not as healthy as we would like for them or because the diet they carry is poorly balanced.
When advising parents I realize that many times, after two or three indications, they get lost (stop listening to me), as if they were not at all interested in what I said or as if they really did not believe in my words. I do not say that the problem is of the parents, perhaps I can not explain myself in a way that they see that the feeding of the children is important, so as a solution, lately I summarize everything in an advice, which is what I will give you today: feed them the same thing they gave you.
What can I give him to improve his defenses?
I find it funny that many parents come to the pediatrician asking about the magic remedy he will do that your children have more defenses and catch a cold or get less sick. They have tried I do not know what homeopathic drops and nothing, they have tried I do not know what syrup from the herbalist and nothing, they have tried I do not know what remedy from the pharmacy and nothing, and they ask to see if the pediatrician knows what is the best prepared for it.
And the pediatrician says (or should say) that there is no syrup or preparedThe only thing they usually do is to "spend your money" and that the best thing you can do to keep your child in good health is to promote exercise and give him adequate food.
The better food, the more defenses?
No, the equation is not like this: the worse the food, the more likely to get sick. If our children eat well, if they eat a balanced diet, if they exercise and if they eat in a slightly logical and orderly manner throughout the day, their defenses will be fine and their body prepared for whatever comes. They will catch a cold, and they will also get bad for other things, but at least we will know that their bodies are in good condition because they are eating well.
If instead a child does not eat well, does not eat healthy, does not eat a little orderly and does not exercise, the chances of getting sick increase because it is more difficult for your body to maintain optimal functioning in every way.
What is that eating tidy
I have mentioned it a couple of times and it seems that I am saying something like not snack between meals or similar. No, I am not talking about that. I talk about doing things right, or at least with logic. What I find on many occasions is with children who go to school without breakfast or with a miserable glass of milk or, worse, with an Actimel or similar. Then in the middle of the morning, since they are hungry, they eat a good snack, or the fruit if that is what they play that day. Those of the bocata at the time of going to eat are not too hungry, and those of the fruit arrive too hungry because they have not arrived just to have breakfast between the two breakfasts.
The snack time comes and some, having eaten little, are so hungry that they swell to juices, milkshakes with straw and "prefabricated" snacks, an incredible empty calorie load that causes the body to respond with a low glucose at night (when you eat fast sugars, insulin acts quickly taking away blood glucose and what usually happens is that then it comes again a voracious hunger, for this drop in sugar) that leads the children to be quite hungry again for dinner. They dine too much and then, in the morning, they have little hunger for breakfast, closing a circle that is repeated day by day.
That's why I say that they have to eat tidy, making a good breakfast with some dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese), some hydrate (toasts, cereals, bread) and some fruit, for example, then take a detail in the middle of the morning for school, so they eat something and not they arrive at the time of eating famished, that they make their meal, a normal snack, something like a small snack and water, and then a more or less light dinner, since they go to sleep and do not need too many calories for that moment.
Feed them the same thing they gave you
The order of the meals I have already told you, now we just need to know what to give at each meal, because it is very easy. With some exceptions, most of us ate very well, or at least what they offered us was very correct. Then there were the hobbies of each one, the "I don't like" and the "well you have to eat it", which I will not enter because it is not the case. As I say, our mothers and grandmothers made us legumes two or three times a week (they are very healthy and have long been forgotten ... in the process of extinction, almost, of family dishes), vegetables, they gave us fruit, we they drank water, the juice they prepared for us and we did not drink it daily, they made us a snack for the school and another snack for the snack, because they knew we were of growing age, and both lunch and dinner were always varied .
Some better, others worse, more or less we all ate half well. Now, and the studies say, they all eat half badly, and that is why a market niche has appeared that tells us that "as their children eat grief and have iodine, iron, vitamin D and DHA deficiencies, in instead of feeding them well, give them our powdered preparation or our fortified milk. "
And I say, with how easy it is, if you don't know how to do it, don't think so much. Do not get involved in how many times a day they should take carbohydrates, in what is the percentage of proteins or what should be the level of fat in the egg you give them, feed them the same thing they gave you, remember what your snacks were like, remember what you had for breakfast, what you had for dinner, what you ate…, don't spend your money foolishly on products full of ingredients that they don't need, forget everything that comes with straw and you'll be doing good to your children.
Photos | Thinkstock On Babies and more | Decalogue of the Mediterranean diet for children, Weekly menu for children from four to five years, Some tips to incorporate more vegetables into the children's diet
