Which food does my child need?
Annette Leitz, graduate oecotrophologist and ChroniquesDuVasteMonde expert in child nutrition
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Which diet is optimal for my child?
Annette Leitz: We recommend Optimix, a program developed by the Institute for Child Nutrition for a balanced mixed diet. The program is based on three main meals and two snacks, as children still need five meals a day.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And what's up on Optimix?
Annette Leitz: Breakfast should be made from cereal products, which can be bread or cereals. As a morning snack, for example, fruit or yoghurt is suitable, or once again bread, if the child in the morning did not want anything. At noon, the children are usually hungry and happy about a warm meal - that should be as varied as possible. Not every day noodles, but sometimes meat with potatoes and vegetables, fish, stew, casserole or soup, occasionally a rice pudding or pancakes are fine. In the afternoon you can quark, fruit, vegetable sticks or even a cookie offer. In the evening, the classic cheese stew with raw food, such as cucumber slices, carrot sticks, etc., is sufficient.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: What are children allowed to drink?
Annette Leitz: Definitely a lot. Drinks should always be available for children. Children are still very active in metabolism because they are growing - in the body, therefore, there are always waste products that are excreted by the kidneys. For this liquid is needed. In addition, children like to move and therefore sweat more. From a dental health point of view, water with or without carbonic acid is best and unsweetened fruit or herbal teas. From time to time a thin fruit juice spritzer is also allowed and provides minerals and vitamins. Soft drinks are often drunk on children, but damage their teeth and have too many calories.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: That sounds awfully complicated ...
Annette Leitz: ... it is not. Because there are very simple rules that you can also heed when you are in stress. This includes, for example, following the food pyramid: the base is sufficient liquid, many cereal products such as cereal and bread, lots of fruit, vegetables and dairy products. From time to time sausage, meat, fish and eggs make the whole thing around. Fats and sweets should be used sparingly. Only offer low-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt to get the kids used to the taste of these products. They provide just as much calcium and nutrients as full-fat products, but only about half the calories.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And how many fruits and vegetables should it be?
Annette Leitz: The rule "Five-a-Day", ie five servings of fruit or vegetables a day, also applies to children. This is also easy to follow: for example, by serving a glass of orange juice for breakfast, an apple in the morning, a vegetable side dish at noon, pepper chunks in the afternoon and a salad, apple spritzer or raw food for dinner.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: But as a working mother, I can not stand in the kitchen all day and cut raw food!
Annette Leitz: Nobody needs it either. Because breakfast and school bread can be prepared in the evening, apple and banana do not need to be snipped and the lunch you can boil and freeze. Incidentally, there are more and more balanced frozen ready meals. When shopping, make sure that the products do not contain too much fat and calories, but vegetables and cereals. There are fruit purees and freshly squeezed fruit juices in the cool shelves of the supermarket - they are great as a dessert or snack.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: How can I make fruit, vegetables and home-cooked food tasty for my child?
Annette Leitz: Get involved! That starts with the purchase. Go with the children to the fruit and vegetable stand and let them sniff, taste, choose. If the kids choose something you do not know, buy it anyway! Promote self-initiative and discovery - because all fruits and vegetables are healthy! Ask the seller what you can do with them or browse the internet or cookbooks. At home, the children are washing, snipping, preparing and may also decide what is done.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And what do I do if my child flatly refuses fruit and vegetables?
Annette Leitz: Finely grated or pureed, for example in buffers, soups and sauces, vegetables are well camouflaged - be creative. Always good: vegetable bolognese to noodles or fruit salad - all like that. Allow a blob of ketchup, bread the meat or, exceptionally, serve vegetables with a light cream sauce. Emergency: A carrot cake also contains vegetables. And ice cream can be made super with fruit puree
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Is there a way to educate even those picky kids to healthier food?
Annette Leitz: Make the following rule: Everything is tried - again and again - because sometimes you have to try a certain thing ten or fifteen times before you like it. If it still does not taste, it does not have to be eaten. If nothing tastes good: give simple bread as an alternative. But do not fry in the truest sense of the word no extra sausages for your children - you decide what is eaten!
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: What do children value when eating?
Annette Leitz: Children are little aesthetes - both visually and linguistically. The visual presentation of the food is therefore very important! A loaf of bread, placed in little bites to a snake or flower, costs a minute - and the child is thrilled and eats everything up. Basically, children like clear structures on their plates: they tend to do things next to each other rather than mix everything up. Or mix so that everything looks the same. Let your imagination run wild: from a blob of mashed potatoes with a bit of chives a rabbit's face - and a small schnitzel is on a wooden skewer for pirate meal.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And what do you mean by linguistic aesthetics?
Annette Leitz: Give the food a positive image in terms of language: convincing rhymes such as "Quark macht stark"! In many children's books you get help: Kasperl and Seppel from the "Räuber Hotzenplotz" love sauerkraut, for example, and Black Beauty is wild on raw food ...
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: In older children such tricks but certainly no longer caught.
Annette Leitz: Older kids want to be cool and trendy - pick up hip dishes like gyros, doner kebabs or hamburgers and defuse the fat bombs with lean sauces or lean ground beef instead of mixed hack. With extra salad and wholemeal bread rolls, a burger will be healthy!
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And if my child does not eat enough vegetables and fruits after all?
Annette Leitz: Relax! Your child does not have to eat every day according to regulations. Even vegetable loafers are great.
