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Helping Your Child Eat Healthy and Balanced Meals (cont.)

Nutritional Needs

Your child needs a variety of nutrients in his or her diet to provide energy for physical growth and cognitive development. Calcium in your child's diet is essential for bone development. The amount of calcium your child needs varies by age: infants 0 to 6 months need 400 milligrams from formula or breast milk daily, infants 6 months to 1 year need 600 milligrams from formula or breast milk, children 1 to 3 years old need 800 milligrams, children 4 to 8 years old need 800 to 1,200 milligrams, and 9- to 18-year-olds need between 800 and 1,500 milligrams daily. If your child won't drink calcium-rich milk, try other sources of calcium such as yogurt, cheese, and low-fat ice cream. Vitamin D is another important mineral that plays a role in bone development, so make sure your child receives at least 15 minutes of sunlight daily, drinks vitamin-D fortified milk, or eats fatty fish such as tuna or salmon.

Fiber, found in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, prevents constipation and helps to remove wastes from your child's gastrointestinal tract. How much fiber your child should be eating is easy to figure out - just add 5 to your child's years of age.

Is your child pumping iron? He or she might be too young to be hitting the weight room, but iron is still a necessary part of a healthy diet. Iron deficiency is common in infants, young children, children going through growth spurts, and menstruating teen girls. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 9% of toddlers and up to 11% of teens girls in the United States are iron deficient. Your infant should be consuming 6 to 10 milligrams of iron each day, your 1- to 9-year-old should consume 10 to 15 milligrams of iron each day, and children older than 10 should consume 15 milligrams of iron each day from sources such as fish, red meats, fortified cereals, beans, and leafy green vegetables.

How do you know the amount of nutrients in your child's food? All packaged foods in the United States must contain a "Nutrition Facts" label, which contains information about the calcium, iron, fiber, and other nutrients in the food. Use food labels and the Food Guide Pyramid to create a balanced diet for your child.

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