Vegetarian Nutrition for School Age Child

As mentioned earlier, childhood nutrition has a major influence on their health and development all the way through their whole life. A child’s eating patterns and their taste preferences will be formed by their family eating habits by school age. School age child range from age 5 to 12, and now they have the ability to practice some food choices over what they eat and can decide on their own whether they want or do not want to eat meat. This also might be influenced by their peer groups.

There are many reasons that cause adult nutritional disease such as heart disease and such disease usually begins during childhood year. As a result, adult healthy eating advice or diets on cutting down fats and take in more fiber is applicable to school age children. There are reports showed that, vegetarians suffer less of those modern nutritional disease mainly heart disease, cancer and also high blood pressure in their later life compared to those non-vegetarian kids. The growth of vegetarian children continues well and somehow is better than those non-vegetarians. During the school years before adolescence symbolize a time of ongoing, steady growth and nutritional risks are lower at this time than during the pre-school years and later during the adolescent year.

Parent need to encourage their kids to eat more on fresh fruits and vegetables which is a rich source of essential vitamins and minerals in their diets. It is not a good idea to force a child to eat what they do not like, or else food may become a battle ground. “Junk foods” usually provide a lot of calories but with few or no nutrients like fried, fatty, foods with high sugar level foods for example chips, sweets and chocolates. Parents should make sure that their child is eating a varied diet with foods from each of the vegetarian food groups and less junk food. This is because with diet like this, the children nutrition will meet the requirements from the diet and they are getting enough energy.

A school meal probably will provide one third of a kid's daily requirement of protein, energy and some vitamins and minerals. Nowadays, schools are under no responsibility to provide nutritionally balanced meals, although many do as a result of campaigns for healthier school meals. Moreover, the vegetarian meal for children also limited in schools nowadays. At this age, parents should provide enough protein, energy, iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin D and fiber to their kids in their diets. This is because protein is important for growth; good sources of protein are milk, cheese, eggs, yoghurt, soy milk, tofu, beans, cereals or grains. Children diet should contain some concentrated energy foods such as cheese. High carbohydrate foods are also a good source of energy like bread, rice and potatoes. Iron important for growing children and is necessary for healthy blood. Iron-rich foods that are suitable for children include beans, egg yolks, wholegrain cereals and green leafy vegetables. Try to avoid cereals that are very high in fiber taking in with high iron foods as these may slow down the absorption of iron. Vitamin C helps in the absorption of iron from plant foods. Besides, calcium is important for children for healthy teeth and bones growth. Good sources of calcium are cow's milk, yoghurt, fortified soy milk, cheese, green vegetables, whole meal bread, beans and tofu. Vegetarian children can usually obtain enough of vitamin B12 from dairy products and eggs. Vegan children and those who eat little dairy products will have to take in this vitamin from fortified foods such as some soy milks or breakfast cereals. Furthermore, vitamin D is important for the absorption of calcium. It can be found in dairy products, eggs and fortified foods like margarine and some breakfast cereals, and can be obtain from the action of sunlight on the skin. Vegan children might need a vitamin D supplement, as this vitamin only can be found wholly from animals foods. Parents should not provide children with too high fiber diet as this can interfere the absorptions of some minerals such as zinc, iron and calcium.