Children's nutrition is one of the most discussed and relevant topics for parents.

What is considered proper nutrition?
Main principles of healthy and proper nutrition:

1. This is food that provides the body with all necessary substances and contains: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

2. Balanced nutrition, which implies high content of vitamins and trace elements, which will help the body grow, develop, and stay healthy.

3. Moderation is the correspondence of food caloric content with how much the child spends and how actively they move. The child should get satiety and satisfy hunger, but not overeat.

4. The nutrition regime needs to be followed from the first years of life. The break between meals should be about 3 hours. It's important to try to eat at the same time.

5. Variety - a schoolchild during the day should consume products from different groups - proteins, carbohydrates, dairy products, fats, fruits, and vegetables.

Healthy nutrition for children. Menu

The weekly menu of a preschooler or schoolchild should include: daily – vegetables, fruits, cereals, and milk; 1-2 times a week – fish; once a week - red meat (beef); 1-2 times a week – legumes; 2-3 times – eggs; 2-3 times – cottage cheese and cheese; white meat.

Example of daily menu for a schoolchild
1. Breakfast is the main and mandatory meal, which should provide a young body with energy reserve for several hours.
Breakfast can include:

· porridge (with butter or milk), pasta, mashed potatoes;

· eggs, cheese;

· meat or fish;

· cocoa, tea, natural juice, compote or coffee with milk.

2. Second breakfast. If children are well fed at school or kindergarten cafeteria and you are confident in the quality of products, then there's no need to prepare a snack.

For school as a snack, children can be given from home:
· fruits (apples, bananas, pears or other fruits that are convenient to eat without getting messy);
· sandwiches with cheese or boiled chicken fillet;
· cookies, casseroles or buns, preferably homemade;
· nuts or dried fruits;
· drink (compote, juice, drinking yogurt, still water, fruit drink).
Fermented milk products, sweets and fruits should be consumed separately. Also, children must drink water.

3. Lunch is the main meal, during which it's important that the child receives first course, second course and dessert.

1. The first course is always liquid and hot: small portions of soup based on meat, fish or vegetable broth, borscht, solyanka or cabbage soup.

2. The second course is a side dish (porridge, pasta, potatoes) with addition of boiled or stewed meat or fish, cutlets, boiled or fresh vegetables.
3. Dessert is a sweet with moderate sugar content.

It's important to explain to the child that no sandwich is as useful as a bowl of hot soup.

4. Afternoon snack. Between lunch and dinner, it's recommended to have a small snack, but the main amount of food should be consumed in the morning, during breakfast and lunch.

5. Dinner should be light, preferably including a hot dish. It's recommended to have dinner at least 2 hours before bedtime.
What to offer a child for dinner:
* fried eggs or omelet;
* cottage cheese;
* stewed vegetables or fish;
* boiled meat;
* vegetable salad;
* buckwheat, rice or oatmeal;
* legumes with fresh vegetables etc.