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Last posts on private forums:  sare  2008-06-16 09:56:33 matthew 2008-04-12 21:25:59 pieniadz 2008-04-12 20:52:26
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Last posts on private blogs: matthew 2008-04-12 21:25:17 mary 2008-04-12 19:27:47 |
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Lastly added medical terms:
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You are in: Main Page / Medical articles / Children / Proper Diet for Children
When you think of proper diet for children you don't think about sweets. The article described the importance of a proper diet and describes how bad sweets can be for the youngsters.
Change your own habits
Sweets are objects of desire of many children, their taste is fantastic and they are usually connected with pleasant situations - holidays and birthdays. Children acquire their sweet tooth from their early childhood or infant years. This is when you add sugar to porridge, grits, pastes or even juice to make meals taste better. So if you have a small child, try to get them used to eating less sweet meals and desserts. Use sweet apples to prepare an apple pie instead of adding sugar, buy unsweetened puddings and add less sugar than it is advised in the recipe.
Try to change the habits that already exist at home. So make sure the whole family eats breakfast, a hungry child will quickly grab a chocolate bar at school. If you buy sweets at a supermarket divide them into daily portions. Avoid placing a kilogram of sweets on the table, you won't be able to control how much your child eats. After dinner, drink water instead of compote or fizzy drinks which contain plenty of sugar. Make an attempt to foresee certain situations. If you plan to go for a party with children in the afternoon, don't give your child sweet drinks or sandwiches with sweet creams or jams. What is even more important, you should be an example and a role model to follow. If you give your child an apple for the dessert and you will eat halva, the battle over sweets is lost.
When does your child eat too much sugar?
If your child eats three or four balanced meals every day there is no need to reject its request for a chocolate bar or cream puff. The problem starts when sweets begin to replace breakfast or lunch. Don't be betrayed by an appropriate weight of your child. Obesity isn't the only symptom of overeating with sweets, you can also recognize it by observing the child. The excess amount of sugar causes increased demand for calcium, magnesium and group B vitamins. After several weeks or months your child can get irritable, overly excitable, it can sleep badly or have problems with learning, concentrating.
Eating sweet snacks frequently causes sudden and short-lasting jumps in blood sugar levels. That affects a child's behavior, it is full of vigor for some time and changes into ponderous child who doesn't want to play. Dental caries which occur frequently are a sign that sweets should be removed from the child's diet. You should make sure your child brushes teeth before going to bed, eating sweets after that is forbidden! Human organism produces less saliva which cleans oral cavity and when sugar is left on teeth that is perfect environment for bacteria development.
Find the ideal method for a young glutton
Prohibition and constant refusal to give sweets to children can have other than desired effect. When sweets become a forbidden fruit your children may hide eating them. If your child eats too much sweets you should put some limit on that. Instead of a packet of crisps, salty snacks or sweets give your child a bowl of nuts and dried fruit. Raisins, seeds and nuts are very sweet, at the same time, they provide plenty of microelements and nutrients. There always should be a bowl of fresh seasonal fruit at a visible place at home and you should keep several yogurts in the fridge. They are a good and nutritious snack and contain valuable calcium, you can turn them into ice cream within several hours. It's also good to have unsweetened chewing gum for your child at hand. Not only does it taste nice but also cleans teeth.
Choose sweets of a better quality
There are plenty of good snacks your child can eat. You can divide them into better and worse ones. The healthiest one is chocolate - bitter or milk chocolate without any filling - it provides the organism with calcium, magnesium or iron. Sesame and muesli bars as well as halva are also quite good. You can also let your children eat ice cream, milk, cream and fruit ice-cream don't contain plenty of calories but they contain nutrients e.g. calcium, protein and vitamin C. You don't have to remove jelly and marshmallows from their diets, they contain gelatin that is essential for proper development of your child's skeletal system. Hard sweets, candies and lollipops should be eaten the least frequently because they dissolve slowly and leave a sweet layer on your teeth for a log time. That is the best environment for caries developent.
Added by:
mary
not connected with health care system
Added on:
2008-11-14 12:52:42 ,
Updated:
2008-11-14 12:57:26
Bibliography:
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