How to make sure your children meet their nutritional needs

During the first few years of life, it's vital to meet a child's nutritional needs in order to ensure proper growth and also to establish a lifelong habit of healthy eating. Eating a meal should be both a healthy and an enjoyable occasion — a fact that many parents may overlook when planning a meal for their growing children. Here are some more tips on making sure you meet your child's nutritional needs.

• Instead of a fast meal (especially one short in nutritional value) that family members eat at different hours, mealtimes should promote family togetherness whenever possible.
• Relaxed dining experiences with good food and conversation (that ­don't involve criticizing table manners or pleading with children to eat) help to foster family relationships, as well as good digestion.
• You can also involve children in family meals by having them help out with simple mealtime tasks, such as peeling potatoes, preparing salads or setting the table.
• If mealtime is a pleasant event, children may practice healthful eating habits later on in life.

In most children, appetite slackens as the growth rate slows after the first year; it will then vary throughout childhood, depending on whether the child is going through a period of slow or rapid growth.

• It is perfectly normal for a young child to eat ravenously one day and then show little interest in food the following day.

After the first year, children can eat most of the dishes prepared for the rest of the family. Toddlers, however, have high energy requirements and small stomachs, so they may need five or six small meals or snacks a day.

• Schedule a toddler's snacks so they don't interfere with food intake during meals. An interval of about an hour and a half is usually enough.
• Toddlers often go on food jags — for example, eliminating everything that's white or green. Such food rituals are often short-lived, although they can be annoying or worrisome if they get out of hand.
• Respect the child's preferences without giving in to every whim; offer a reasonable alternative.

Many parents have a battle when it comes to getting children to eat ­vegetables, but you can win children over by appealing to their taste for bright colours and interesting textures.

• Choose crisp, raw ­carrot sticks and other attractive, crunchy veggies.
• Substitute minced vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms) for ground meat in spaghetti sauce, or chop chickpeas with grains and other vegetables to make "veggie­ burgers."

Children need a wide variety of foods.

• Carbohydrates — breads, cereals, fruits and vegetables — should make up the major part of the diet.
• Protein foods can include meat, fish, milk, soy products (such as bean curd) and combinations of grains and legumes.
• Milk is an important source of calories, minerals and vitamins. Children four to nine years old should have two to three milk product servings every day (some of the milk may be in the form of cheese or yogurt).

Grilled and baked foods are preferable to fried and fatty ones for children of all ages. Check out the Canada Food Guide for more suggestions.