Healthy diets for school-age children

Eating becomes a social activity in this stage of life. Your kids are probably spending more time in school than they do at home; eating meals at friends’ houses; and adopting eating habits from their peers. It can be difficult to ensure they are getting adequate nutrition when you are not always around to monitor their choices.

For kids aged 5-12, the key word is variety. Creative serving ideas will go a long way towards maintaining the healthy eating habits established in the first years of life.

Because children are so impressionable at this stage, it’s very important to instill healthy attitudes toward food. One of the best ways to do this is through family mealtime. Studies suggest that children who eat regular family meals are more likely to eat fruits and veggies and less likely to fill up on unhealthy foods. Eating as a family also gives you the opportunity to catch up on your kids’ daily lives.

During family meals, you can “teach by example” by eating a wide variety of healthy foods, keeping your own portions in check, not overeating, and sharing feelings of fullness and satisfaction. Refrain from obsessive calorie counting or commenting on your own weight, so that kids don’t adopt negative associations with food.

As children develop, they require appropriately sized portions of the same healthy foods adults eat, along with more vitamins and minerals to support growing bodies. This means whole grains (whole wheat, oats, barley, rice, millet, quinoa); a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables; a source of calcium for growing bones (milk, yogurt, or substitutes if lactose intolerant); and healthy proteins (fish, eggs, poultry, lean meat, nuts and seeds).

Contrary to what many parents believe, kids don't need large amounts of fat because they're "burning it off" by being active. But the kind of fat they're eating does matter. Butter on vegetables, avocados and corn chips (made with sunflower or safflower oil), pecans or walnuts are far preferable to French fries, donuts, candy bars or fast food cheeseburgers.