Winter Nutrition Tips for Kids

Finally it is winter – the season of skiing, skating, snowball games and building snow forts. All these important things require a lot of strength and energy, especially if you are a child, and your body constantly needs strengthening and nutrition. Today we will tell you how to feed your kids in winter.

Why Do Children Have a Weaker Health in Winter?

Fine winter days are not uncommon, but short daylight hours and the lack of sun still affect the well-being of the kids because the production of vitamin D depends on sunlight. The vitamin is involved in the formation of bones, but it also supplies the body with the necessary energy for growth.

Vitamin D deficiency in children is manifested in drowsiness, lethargy, and bad mood. In such cases, it is very nice to walk in the fresh air, play, ride a roller coaster. Lack of other vitamins and minerals needed by the child’s body can be easily replenished with the help of proper diet, based on natural and healthy products.

Proper breakfast for Kids in winter

Since kids and adults spend a lot more energy in the cold season, it is necessary to replenish and restore it.

A variety of cereals are the best way out. Grains and cereals are rich in carbohydrates, amino acids, minerals, and vegetable proteins. Porridge cooked in water can be given to babies from four months old, and dairy products should be given when the baby is half a year old.

It is very useful to add pureed fruit to porridges. Older children will enjoy sliced fruit in porridges. In winter, there are a lot of citrus fruits: tangerines, oranges, grapefruit, but you must be careful with them as there is a risk of allergic reactions. Therefore it is necessary to start with a few slices of citrus fruit a day. Only do not forget that it is always better to use natural products.

How to feed a baby in winter

You can also treat your baby with fresh-squeezed fruit juices, but you need to drink it immediately after making because only in this case the vitamins are stored in the same amount as in the fruit that the kid could have eaten.

Pукаусе lunch for a baby in winter

Lunch is the main meal for a toddler to be able to recover maximum of the energy consumed by the body.

In winter, it is worth actively eating meat, fish and vegetables because they are able to quickly restore the energy spent in the morning. When choosing meat products, it is necessary to focus on rabbit, turkey, and lean beef as they contain zinc, vitamin B and iron that are useful and important for a child.

It is recommended to give ground meat to babies from the age of 8-9 months. Since the age of two years, the child’s diet can contain meatballs in the soup, cakes or even whole pieces of meat, but it all depends on the individual peculiarities of a child.

2-3 times a week children should be offered delicious fish dishes instead of meat as fish is rich in high quality proteins, essential to the human body especially during the cold season.

Haddock fillets, pollock, walleye, or bass are of maximum benefit to the child because such low-fat fish is easier to digest. It contains a range of vitamins and minerals, as well as many essential amino acids, it is extremely useful in winter for the heart and blood vessels of the kid. You only need to make sure that there are no bones left in the prepared fish.

To strengthen the immune system and prevent the development of various diseases, every child needs to eat vegetables. Fresh vegetables are better since they retain the maximum amount of nutrients and trace elements. One can recommend carrots, radishes, cabbage, beets, various lettuce, parsley, dill – in fact they contain organic acids and fiber that promote cardiovascular and digestive systems.

Fresh vegetables can be given to a baby between the ages of 7-8 months, and until this period the baby will benefit more from soft pureed vegetable purees.

Health Benefits of milk for children in winter

A little growing body especially needs milk and dairy products in cold winter, so it is advisable to feed the baby with tasty curds for lunch.

The secret lies in the fact that dairy products contain a large amount of necessary substances, such as calcium, vitamins B and D, protein, lactose, amino acids and milk fat, and is responsible for ensuring that the developing organism receives the required energy.

In addition, an already grown kid (from the age of 3 years old) can be offered nuts for lunch because they contain almost 70% of the daily needed amount of necessary and very useful in winter fats, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, vitamins B and A, sodium and potassium.

Easy winter dinner

For dinner and before bedtime, neither adults nor children should load their stomach with heavy foods or large quantities of food, and it does not matter whether it is winter or summer. Nobody has benefited from overeating, so even in winter the child should eat cereals with fruit or vegetable puree with a little meat and drink juice or yogurt.

Yet it must be remembered that all the foods in winter should be warm or even hot, and their temperature should not differ from the air temperature.