Nutrition Knowledge: Food For Thought

Nutrition is important at every age, but never more so than in childhood. Kids are establishing healthy habits and building knowledge that will help them throughout their lives. This guide is filled with resources that will help you and your children understand the importance of good nutrition. Knowledge is power, and the more a child learns about the value of nutritious food, the more excited they will be about healthy eating.

Getting off to a Good Start

Introducing solid foods to your baby is an important and exciting milestone. There are many different ways to safely introduce new tastes and textures once a baby is ready to move beyond their liquid diet of formula or breast milk. Like most decisions you will make while raising an infant, the introduction of solid food should begin with a conversation with your child’s pediatrician. As you prepare for your infant’s next routine well child visit, here are some resources that can help build your knowledge base before working with your doctor to decide what is best for your child.

• Most babies are ready to start trying solid food around 4-6 months of age, but every baby is different. What will your first food be? How do I know they are really ready? How often should a baby be eating solid foods? Answers to these questions and more can be found in this article from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

• What a child eats and does not eat contributes to healthy tooth development and unhealthy tooth decay in young children. Fluoride is important to include in your child’s diet in the form of fluoridated water or supplemental fluoride. To learn more about fluoride visit this collection of resources from the American Dental Association, and talk to your pediatrician about scheduling your child’s first dental visit.

Establishing Lifelong Heathy Habits

• The benefits of healthy eating add up over time, bite by bite. Small changes matter. Start Simple with My Plate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The My Plate resources include a self-assessment quiz, recipes and cooking techniques, and tools for eating healthy at every phase of life.

• Identifying healthy foods that have been packaged for distribution can be difficult. Knowing how to properly read and interpret nutrition labels can help you make informed decisions before you add an item to your shopping cart. This interactive nutrition label tool from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lets you explore and review each part of the labels you find on food packaging. Learn about serving size, calorie counts, and the overall nutritional value of the food you are eating.

• Children may begin to develop body image issues as early as preschool. Building a healthy body image includes having a positive relationship with food. This article offers 5 ways to promote a healthy body image including nutrition-related tips like focusing on healthy choices rather than counting calories.

Children with Feeding Tubes, Diabetes, Food Allergies and Special Nutritional Needs

Maintaining a healthy diet and making nutritious choices can be hard enough without the added complications of medical and developmental challenges that can affect your child’s food consumption. Whether your child has an allergy, a sensory processing challenge, or a medical diagnosis that affects their nutritional needs, there are tools available to help.

• Food allergies can range from mild to severe, causing various impacts on children’s lives and their relationships with food. This Red Treehouse guide addresses resources and tools to care for children with severe food allergies.

• The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation provides a series of guides and Tool Kits for families who are looking for nutritional support while managing a new Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis.

• Pretend play is an important part of child development, an action that often includes children feeding dolls and stuffed animals the same way their caregivers feed them. If a child receives some or all of their nutrition from a feeding tube, having a doll with its own feeding tube could help them understand their own body’s nutritional needs. This tutorial from the Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation can help you outfit a doll or stuffed animal with a feeding tube.

• Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may have extra sensitivities to certain tastes and textures of food. This article on autism and food sensitivity from ChildMind.org can help you make sense of the relationship between ASD and picky eating habits.

Hunger and Food Insecurity Resources

Sometimes life’s challenges make it difficult to afford healthy foods, and food insecurity can negatively impact your child’s lifelong relationship with food. The following resources can help.

• FoodPantries.org and Feeding America can help you find food banks and distribution programs in your community.

• This article from the American Heart Association includes tips for cost effective healthy eating.

• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a federal program for families and individuals who meet certain income requirements, helps families purchase needed food items. SNAP education resources are available to anyone looking for guidance on making healthy choices while on a budget.