Tips to incorporate nutrients into the diet of boys. Alert because few parents take the effort to expand a healthy diet at home
Typically, at mealtime, children ages 4-6 get bored with certain foods and start refusing them. For parents it becomes normal to hear “I don’t like it!”, “I don’t want to!” Don’t worry: it is a normal part of the maturing process in learning to eat that should not be interpreted as lack of appetite. This they do, in part, because at this age they have the maturation capacity to develop their autonomy in its maximum splendor: they prefer to eat alone, they handle silverware correctly and some even begin to try other things. But if we don’t pay attention to their diet, this can leave them exposed to not incorporating some of the essential nutrients.
What are the important nutrients?
It is not a problem that the child refuses the food: it is not necessary to insist, nor burden him, nor force him. The risk of this denial behavior is that children do not obtain the necessary nutrients for this stage of growth, such as calcium, vitamins, iron and zinc, among others.
These nutrients are essential for the correct growth and development of children since they participate in the activity of blood, defenses and bones.
Attention! One of the elements that is little talked about and is essential in food is zinc. Zinc is a nutrient that people need to be healthy. Zinc is found in cells throughout the body and helps the immune system fight bacteria and viruses and also promotes healing.
So how can we help them to continue feeding properly and incorporating essential nutrients during this period?
Above all, it is recommended to avoid distractors during feeding (television and other types of screens, for example) and highlight the importance of shared feeding in the family, since it is essential for the acquisition of healthy eating habits by children , from the example given by the elders.
It is very important that we can offer them other options than the ones they refused to provide them with the necessary nutrients, avoiding conflicts with food, the true cause of emotional problems and eating disorders in the medium and long term. For example, in the case of milk, we can offer other options that contain those nutrients and that the boy may like more.
Today we find a wide variety of dairy foods that meet these characteristics. The most suitable for boys of this age are those that are fortified with calcium, vitamin D, iron and zinc, essential nutrients in the growth stage.