Recipe of the

Healthy Eating

Children's Nutrition

Children are wonderful, however meal times can be a real nightmare! Making sure your child gets a healthy balanced diet is fairly simple - but mix in the complexities of everyday life and your child’s taste - this can be difficult to achieve.

From when they start weaning to eating solids, children have an astonishing way of recognising what they like and dislike. Babies are not born to like certain foods, they will learn to like the foods they are given. They learn to recognise the taste, the smell, the texture, and most importantly, the way the food looks.

Children grow very quickly and need a diet that contains all the main food groups – protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals

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Below is a list of essential vitamins and minerals, where they can be found and what they do.

Nutrients	Where it can be found	Purpose
Vitamin A	Oil rich fish e.g. mackerel	Helps maintain healthy skin and hair Maintain good vision Helps the immune system
Vitamin B6	All seafood	Helps the body to efficiently use protein from the diet Helps with normal brain function Aids in the formulation of red blood cells
Vitamin D	Oil rich fish e.g. mackerel	Required for the formation of healthy bones and teeth Helps with calcium absorption from foods Helps maintain proper blood levels of calcium and phosphorus
Niacin	All seafood	Helps the body to efficiently use energy supplies Maintains normal functioning of the nervous system and digestive tract
Iron	All seafood	Essential for healthy blood production and maintenance Necessary for health growth, wound healing and proper functioning of the immune system
Zinc	All seafood	Plays a role in taste and smell sensitivity