Child Nutrition Primer + Easy Nutrient Packed Snacks

Child eating broccoli and carrots on a fork

There is no doubt that adequate nutrition for your child plays an important role for neurological, physical, behavioral, and social development. This is especially true for children with special needs. For example, researchers fed broccoli sprout extract (a dose similar to about one-two cups of broccoli florets per day) to 13-27 year old male participants who suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder. After 18 weeks the placebo group had no significant changes in any markers measured. Whereas, the broccoli group had significant improvements in social interaction, abnormal behavior, and verbal communication.1

I understand it can be challenging to get your little ones to put a broccoli floret on their plate, let alone eat a whole cup in one day. Besides, how many vegetables do children need to eat? Below I outlined serving amounts of each food group for children age 2-13 years old, some practical tips, and easy nutrient dense snacks that your kids will love.

How Much Do Kids Need to Eat?

The serving sizes are approximations that will vary from food to food. If you would like to know more detailed serving size amounts for specific ages, I would encourage you to visit the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025.2

Vegetables

General Serving size = ½ cup

Servings per day: 1½ to 2½ cups per day

Examples: ½ cup cooked green beans, ½ cup bell pepper slices, or ½ cup 100% vegetable juice. Practical tips: Fresh prewashed bagged vegetables can be great to save prep time and have available as a grab ‘n go straight from the refrigerator snack; pair with a fun dip like hummus, guacamole, etc. There are also some good frozen vegetable medleys that are preseasoned such as Ready to Roast Mediterranean Vegetables sold at Aldi.

Fruit

General Serving size = ½ cup or 4 fl oz Servings per day: 1½ to 2 cups per day

Examples: ½ cup navel oranges, ½ cup apple sauce, or ½ cup of 100% fruit juice Practical tips: If your child is joining you on the grocery trip have them pick out a fruit that they may not have had before. Some easy fruits for children include applesauce, bananas, or even a Larabar Cashew Cookie (the only ingredients are dates and cashews).

Grains

General Serving size = 2 oz or ½ cup Servings per day: 4-7oz or 1-2 cups per day

Examples: ½ cup breakfast cereal, ½ cup rice, or 1 slice of bread

Practical Tips: The USDA dietary guidelines recommends that at least 50% of grains are unrefined (i.e., whole-wheat products, brown rice, oats, etc).2 If your child is able to identify “Added Sugar” on a nutrition facts label, then a fun scavenger hunt could be to find a breakfast cereal under 6-9 grams of added sugar.

Protein Rich Foods

General Serving size = 2oz (visually equal to the palm of an adult female hand) or ½ cup Servings per day: 3 – 5.5oz per day

Examples: 2oz chicken breast, 2oz fish filet, 1 egg, ½ cup tofu, ½ cup cooked lentils. Practical Tips: Easy protein rich suggestions for children include Sloppy Joes’, scrambled eggs, lentils mixed into pasta sauce, and black bean brownies.

Dairy or Fortified Non-Dairy Alternatives General

Serving size = ½ cup

Servings per day: 2-3 cups per day

Examples: ½ cup fortified soymilk, 1 oz cheese, or ½ cup yogurt

Practical Tips:

When it comes to cheese my suggestion is to refrain from providing it on its own. Instead, my suggestion is to use cheese as a tool to get your child to eat foods they otherwise may not eat. A few examples are melting cheese on vegetables or mixed into other recipes. The primary reason dairy is considered a “food group” is because of its high content of calcium. Calcium is rich in other foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, but many children may struggle to meet the recommended amount of calcium (700-1300mg) 3 without consuming a few servings of dairy products each day.

Oil or Nuts/Seeds

1-1½ TBSP of oil, or 2-3oz of nuts/seeds.

Make Ahead After School Snacks

(links to the recipes are listed in the references):

Strawberry Cauliflower Muffins by Plant Based Juniors.4
This recipe is delicious and easy to make. The only prep is to mix the ingredients and bake. Pretty simple. It also works well baking in an 8×8” pan if a muffin tin is unavailable.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Energy Bites by Featherstone Nutrition.5
A fun straightforward recipe, simply combine the ingredients, roll into balls, and store in the freezer or refrigerator. There are other “energy bite” recipes on the Featherstone Nutrition website too.

Strawberry Chia Pudding by My Plant-Based Family.6
Forget Snack Pack this chia pudding is fantastic! The recipe says to blend the ingredients and then chill, but you can just as easily chop the fruit and mix together with a wire- whisk. You can also replace the strawberries with any fruit of your choice (blueberries, mango, kiwi, etc).

Fast Snacks (5 Minutes or Less of prep):

Trail Mix: Dried fruit, nuts/seeds, and chocolate

-Decedent sandwich: nut/seed butter on 100% whole-wheat bread with banana, cucumber, or fruit preserves

-Savory sandwich: sourdough bread with grilled tomato, cheese, and avocado

-Power Smoothie: banana, leafy green vegetables, berries, nuts/seeds, and milk

References:

1.Singh K, Connors SL, Macklin EA, et al. Sulforaphane treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014;111(43):15550-15555. doi:10.1073/pnas.1416940111. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4217462/

2.US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. 9th Edition. December 2020. Accessed December 2021. https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans_2020-2025.pdf

3.National Institutes of Health. Calcium Health Sheet for Health Professionals. Updated November 2021. Accessed December 2021. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-HealthProfessional/

4.Plant Based Juniors. Strawberry Cauliflower Muffins. Plant Based Juniors. Updated December 2021. Accessed December 2021. https://plantbasedjuniors.com/strawberry-cauliflower-muffins/

5.Featherstone Nutrition. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites. Featherstone Nutrition. Accessed December 2021. https://www.featherstonenutrition.com/2018/08/07/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-bites/

6.Holly Yzquierdo. Strawberry Chia Pudding. My Plant Based Family. May 2019. Accessed December 2021. https://myplantbasedfamily.com/2019/05/10/strawberry-chia-pudding/

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This post originally appeared on our March/April 2022 Magazine