Child’s Relationship With Food

I am starting a new section today to help all my readers and fellow parents to guide you through this complex relationship involving parents, children and their food. It is always a tough battle to make children enjoy their food and to make the food healthy.

Parents’ minds are eternally occupied with concerns - are they eating healthy? Are they growing well? Are they sleeping well? Are they pooping well? Never had we known that we are going to spend so much time thinking about someone’s bowel habits. But it is an imperative part of healthy growing

So today, let’s talk about natural ways to help them through CONSTIPATION and HIGH FIBRE FOODS that kids can enjoy.

Constipation is a very common problem in children. A child has constipation when he or she has fewer than three bowel movements in a week, has trouble having a bowel movement, or when the stool is hard, dry, and unusually large.

The most important factors to relieve constipation are as follows-

FIBER: There are two types of fibre, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibre slows down digestion making it easier for nutrients to be absorbed. Good sources of soluble fibre include oatmeal, nuts, legumes (peas, beans and lentils), barley, fruits and vegetables (especially oranges, apples and carrots).

Insoluble fibre does not absorb or dissolve in water. It adds more bulk to stool and helps food pass more quickly through the intestines. Insoluble fibre is found in wheat bran, whole grains, seeds and skin of fruit.

A diet with plenty of soluble and insoluble fibre helps keep children regular and prevent constipation. Constipation can be caused by too much fibre too, so don’t overdo it!Apart from regular bowel habits, adequate fibre can help in long term weight management, blood sugar and cholesterol regulation.

I am suggesting couple of ideas to make fibre intake more fun for children:

• Involving children in preparing mix fruit salad with fruits of their choice, let them mix some berries and nuts of their choice to make it richer in fibre and proteins.
• In case children love baking with you just swap refined flour with whole wheat
• Popcorns without added butter and salt are rich in fibre
• Pasta, noodles, pizzas made at home can be a whole wheat variant with veggies of their choice
• Soups with vegetables and legumes make a delicious and wholesome meal
• To make chips or crisps use sweet potato instead of regular potato to increase the fibre content
• To the regular cereal, add oatmeal cereal, fruits and nuts

FLUIDS – Once the child is more than 1 year, reduce the milk intake to 600-700ml per day. More milk induces constipation by displacing fibre and nutrients. Encourage child to have water after each meal.

PROBIOTIC- Indian diet is fortunately very rich in probiotics – curd, buttermilk, non-fried dhokla, idli and dosa and ever loved pickles. Most of these are loved by children and very gut friendly too. That is truly a blessing for struggling parents.

MOVEMENT- Make sure that your child is active, playing or exercising a lot. Prior to potty time it’s a good idea to have a glass of warm water or buttermilk and some good jumping or dancing game.

MEDICATION- If your child is regularly facing constipation which is not getting relieved by above methods, stool softeners may be given only by your paediatrician. Problem with self-medication is either dose is too low or stopped too early. There might be a need to evaluate in detail if problem is prolonged, persistent and distressing for the child.

I am looking forward to your comments to know if these suggestions have been helpful. You can connect with me on FB messenger. I will soon get back with another article about CHILD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD.