How to feed a child at 3 years old
How to feed a child at 3 years old, when his digestive system is well formed, but it is too early to eat adult food?
For those children who go to kindergarten, this issue has been resolved within a week - a nutritionist will take care of the diet in a preschool institution. It will be useful for all parents to know how to feed a 3-year-old child is not only possible, but also necessary.
Regime and calorie intake
During the day, a child at that age eats at least 4-5 times. These will be 3 main meals and one or two snacks. The intervals between them are on average about 4 hours. The kid needs:
- Breakfast;
- Second breakfast (if necessary);
- Dinner;
- Afternoon snack;
- Dinner.
In the morning, the interval between sleep and breakfast is about an hour, during which time the baby manages to get hungry thoroughly. It is advisable to adhere to the exact feeding regimen, deviations in either direction are permissible within 30 minutes. Following an accurate meal plan allows digestive juices to be produced in advance, which allows for more thorough digestion of food.
For a day, taking into account the physiological needs of a 3-year-old child, about 1.5 liters of food is enough for him. The calorie content of the diet is approximately 1540 kcal. The consistency of the cooked food changes, the child chews solid food well, so you need to wean him off the mashed consistency of the dishes. The food of a 3-year-old child will differ from an adult food in that it tastes neutral - not spicy (vinegar, mustard, ketchup are contraindicated as additives), not too salty or sweet.
How to feed a child 3 years old: products
Almost all adult foods can be included in the baby's diet, provided they are tolerated. Meat is an obligatory component of the menu, its quantity per day should not be less than 60-70 g. How to feed a child at 3 years old from new meat products:
- Lean pork;
- The liver;
- Sometimes - baby milk sausages or sausages, doctor's sausage.
It is too early to introduce smoked meat in any form. Fish and dishes from it should be on the table twice a week.
Lactic acid products are what you should definitely feed your baby at 3 years old. They are a valuable source of easily digestible protein and available calcium, which is so important for a growing body. From new dishes, if they have not yet been introduced earlier, you can prepare cottage cheese casserole, cheese cakes, lazy dumplings, curd mass.
Porridge and cereal dishes - this is what you should definitely feed a child at 3 years old for breakfast. Porridge contains healthy dietary fiber that improves bowel function, they saturate the child well, giving him a supply of energy for the whole morning, and are also a source of vitamins, minerals and other useful substances. The most beneficial for health are buckwheat and oatmeal cooked in milk. From 3 years old, you can enter into the diet more coarse porridge for digestion - pearl barley, millet, barley.
The child tries the yolk of an egg most often in the first year of life, at 3 years old he can already be given eggs cooked in a bag. But in their raw form, they are still contraindicated.
Every day, the baby should receive at least 300 g of vegetables, and the proportion of potatoes in this amount does not exceed 50%. It is optimal if salads from fresh vegetables are present in the diet every day. Pastries in the form of dumplings, bread, pasta, homemade cakes and pancakes are about 100 g per day.
Gradually, from the age of three, flour products appear in the child's diet: pasta, pancakes and pancakes, dumplings. The daily rate of flour products, including bread and homemade cakes, is about 100 g. Also, at this age, the baby is most often introduced to sweets, if the parents, in principle, are not against them. The main thing is not to give candy in between meals, as it can ruin your appetite. A snack can be organized by letting the baby nibble on dried fruits or fresh apples.
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