The biggest issue a mom faces is to give a balanced diet to fussy eaters. As a mom and as a nutritionist, I know how difficult it is to make kids eat healthy food. Kids often run away from healthy food and that’s why it’s a big concern for moms. I believe that it’s important to maintain a balance rather than worrying about feeding your child healthy food all the time.

What is a balanced diet?

A balanced diet has all the nutrients in equal amounts from all food groups.

My daughter gave me a hard time initially, as she only liked eating white foods such as paneer, plain rice, curd while avoiding vegetables, gravies, eggs, and all non-vegetarian items. In fact, looking at her fondness for paneer, I did try different recipes with paneer as a base such as a paneer parantha, paneer sandwiches and much more so as to satiate her.

While I thought this was helpful, my daughter’s paediatrician was not happy. She wanted my daughter to have other food groups as well. According to her, having only one type of food was not enough. It was important to have a balanced diet with all nutrients in equal amounts for the right growth. According to her, having one type of food would affect her growth as she was not getting enough proteins. So, here are the things which I followed to provide her with a high protein diet for good growth.

Proteins are the building blocks of the body and it’s important for kids for healthy growth. Healthy growth means growth according to a child’s age.

 Here are a few things that you can include in your child’s diet giving a balanced diet to fussy eaters and combat fussy eating:

  1. Nuts and seeds- I give a handful of nuts in the school snack box. You can lightly roast them and sprinkle some salt and chaat masala if your child prefers them that way. Peanut butter is a good source of protein too. I give peanut butter sandwiches as well in her school meal boxes sometimes.
  2. Eggs, chicken and other non-veg items – If your child is fine, you can include one egg every day.
  3. Cereals – Quinoa and oats are a good source of proteins. I make oats in many different ways like oats dosa, poha, chivda, etc as kids generally don’t like normal oats.
  4. Milk and milk products – This is another very common concern which moms face. Kids running away from milk. Of course, you can try other milk products like curd, paneer, tofu, etc. if kids do not want to drink milk but sometimes it’s not enough especially when a child is a picky eater.

I tried many health drinks for my daughter but didn’t see any major difference until my paediatrician recommended PediaSure. To my relief, my daughter loved the chocolate flavour. My main concern about health drinks was related to growth but it’s a relief knowing that PediaSure leads to healthy weight gain. The reason is that it has 37 vital nutrients that help in healthy height and appropriate weight gain. Not only this, it supports immunity and brain development in kids. Growth takes place when there is good bone growth and there is visible growth in 90 days.

The best part is that it has high-quality protein. It is an effective way for kids to grow right and become strong too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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