Are your kids doing a lot of sport? How can you make sure they’re eating enough? It can be worrying for a parent wondering if their kids are teetering on the brink of starvation, or consuming more calories than a blue whale.
But kids’ bodies are growing and need more calories than ours to start with, so if yours are especially active, then you’ll need to make adjustments.
Throw the breakfast-lunch-dinner regime out the window.
Kids are always hungry and if they’re exercising a lot, whether it’s playing football or regular strength training, they’ll need more fuel to keep them going.
How Much Food?
How much food does that mean? How many meals a day do they need? Not all kids are created equal so there’s no hard and fast rule on this. But if your kid’s doing a couple of exercise sessions a day, they may need four or five smaller meals instead of the traditional three.
It’s kind of like when they’re a baby and they need feeding every few hours. Their bodies will naturally ask for food when they need it.
But What About Over-Eating?
If it’s good food, then they can eat as much as they want. Good quality protein, good quality carbohydrate, lots of vegetables. When we’re talking about healthy food, then there’s no need to limit their portions.
As long as it’s good food, you can have as much as you want. There is no limit. We don’t count calories here.
According to Healthy Children.org, “Your role is to provide healthy food in appropriate portions, and your child's role is to decide how much to eat”.
The body will naturally regulate itself anyway. As long as they’re not stocking up on cakes and biscuits and other refined carbs that will give them a sugar spike and leave them feeling tired afterwards; then the sky’s the limit.
Another thing to remember is that children tend to eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re full.
So if they’re not asking for food, it’s more than likely that they don’t need it. You don’t need to force-feed your kids if they say they’ve had enough.
