Increasing/Improving nutrition intake of a pre-schooler, without supplements

Vishalini3 · Jan 8, 2010

All mommies,

I have a 3.4yr old pre-schooler, she is falling sick quite often in the past 4months and I somehow feel the need to improve her intakes, not by quantity, but by the quality of food. I self-doubt whether her diet caters her nutritional needs or not.

1) My DD is not a picky eater, we have 2-3veggies daily, she takes 1cup of them. 1Egg, 2glass plain milk (200ml each), raisins(10), dates(4-5), 1/2cup curd, 2-3cups of rice or roti, 2-3spoons of dhal... These are roughly her intake per day. I feel this is enough for her, but this often falling sick, (even a common cold takes more than 3weeks to subside!), makes me think a lot on her intakes. So far, i have never thought too much on her food, i thought whatever she takes is enough. Nowadays am confused.

2) Offcourse i get suggestions from fellow parents that i can add horlicks/pediasure/lions date syrup/XXX along with milk. What do you all think about that? I thought if she is taking plain milk, thats fine and I dont have to add anything to get her drink milk. But people tell me atleast once a day I need to add in one of the above. I haven't till now. Am I right?

3) I get to hear that organic supplements like - Nutrilite kids chewable improve their immune system, is it so? My paed doesnt agree, she says thats for picky eaters and for special nutritional needs. My homeopath says, I need to give her that for 2-3months and stop later on. Am confused.

4) I hear that Vit D/Iron/Calcium - Most kids lack them in their daily diet, is it so?

5) Atlast, the most imp question, ), Should I be really concerned this much or I can relax that she would outgrow all sickness overtime, with the listed food intakes? Sometimes i doubt myself, whether the sibling arrival has taken my attention away from her and that I dont concentrate much on her diet???

Pour in your thoughts mommies, am all ears ))))))))))

aarthi7 · Jan 8, 2010

hi pon,

firstly,to me your DD'S diet looks pretty good,as you have included everything from dryfruits to veggies..here are my few suggestions

my 5 year old ds is quite finicky about eating,so i am giving him multivitamin supplements,,,and personally i feel although the number of colds he gets is the same,but the time taken for recovery and the intensity of cold has reduced..

since we are vegetarians,i also give him omega-3 tablets which is again good for the immune system and brain development in kids,,but here we also have options like OMEGA 3 EGGS AND OMEGA 3 MILK,,so u can try researching about that,,if you are fish eaters ,then you need not go for these supplements..
do u give her fruits..they are naturally rich in vitamin c which again helps in increasing the resistance power ..although some people have taboos about giving oranges and grapes,i regularly give them to my son(just make sure they are not sour)
for the calcium intake,i give him calcium fortified breakfast cereal(cornflakes,choco-pops)and fruit yogurt ,and of course atleast 200 ml of milk per day..so there isnt a need for calcium tablets

i have read that soaking almond overnight and giving them to children the nexy day is also very good for health,,since you say that your DD already takes dates and raisins,may be you can include almonds as well with that..and mix it with milk and give her if she likes it..

but in my experience,kids are often more prone to illness till atleast 6-7 years of age,,and all we can do is try to increase their resistance power so that the intensity and duration of the illness can be reduced.

aarthi

Vishalini3 · Jan 8, 2010

Aarthi, Thankyou, yess we are on fruits, yess we are veggies. As you say, getting frequent cold, am ok with that, but the time taken to clear off and the intensity is my concern. People tell me that she could be low on her resistance. Though I deny them on face, I keep thinking about it often

Aadhusmom · Jan 8, 2010

pon - to me her diet looks great and I dont think you can do much more food-wise. I think Krithika has been talking about handwashing in many posts - thats one good thing which might help to reduce the number of infections. Dont worry, the first years of school are like this for most kids and they do outgrow it.

V.

Vishalini3 · Jan 8, 2010

Thanks V. I get to hear mixed suggestions on these supplements and I get confused. Today was just another day!

tikka · Jan 8, 2010

Pon, I was about to congratulate you on a very healthy toddler meal plan that you have. The first year of school was a total challenge for us to. DS caught colds every week, he would work off one and would get another the next week. So, Vanathi has hit it right on the nail.
p.s. I will talk about this tomorrow at the meet, but I am reading a mindblowing book that basically says no matter what you do there are people out there who BELIEVE they absolutely know your child better than you! Ignore them.

royans · Jan 8, 2010

tikka said: ↑

Pon, I was about to congratulate you on a very healthy toddler meal plan that you have. The first year of school was a total challenge for us to. DS caught colds every week, he would work off one and would get another the next week. So, Vanathi has hit it right on the nail.
p.s. I will talk about this tomorrow at the meet, but I am reading a mindblowing book that basically says no matter what you do there are people out there who BELIEVE they absolutely know your child better than you! Ignore them.
Click to expand...

Very true... what book might that be ? I would love to read that as well.

Pavarun · Jan 8, 2010

Agree with everyone, your meal plan looks great. Common colds etc are a part of growing up, not much you can do about it. In my household we have back-to-back colds but both go about their business with runny noses and all and the only tme I bother is if they have fever or are visibly down/tired/not their self. We go through a huge number of tissue boxes

The only thing I can think of to add are Vit-C fruits - even adding some lime juice to cooking will do. Hand washing also helps, of course. But unless you raise them in a bubble can't really do much about colds.

tikka · Jan 8, 2010

royans said: ↑

Very true... what book might that be ? I would love to read that as well.
Click to expand...

hmm, The book is The SEven Year Itch by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees. It is a work of fiction about a couple with a two year old and their lives as parents. It is too real to be just the author's imagination, IFKWIM ;-)

royans · Jan 9, 2010

tikka said: ↑

hmm, The book is The SEven Year Itch by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees. It is a work of fiction about a couple with a two year old and their lives as parents. It is too real to be just the author's imagination, IFKWIM ;-)
Click to expand...

Thanks Krithika... shall put that in my reading list.