As a mother, what is the one thing that you want to do for your child? Perhaps, you’ll agree when we say: nothing more than to help your child grow and thrive. In essence – raise a happy, healthy, and confident kid.
How To Help Your Child Grow And Thrive: A Guide For Parents
If you’re a first-time parent, you might question what it really means to say that your child is thriving. Is it a measure of your child’s health or emotional wellness, or is it a benchmark of his mental growth?
Well, for starters, staying on track is the ultimate goal for every child’s growth. To help you measure that, we have broken it down to four simple aspects that holistically capture your child’s growth and development.
Anthropometric Measures
This refers to the measurements and proportions of the human body. One way to know that your child is on track is to ensure that he is not growing too slowly. You can refer to age-appropriate weight and height charts to gauge how tall and heavy your child should be at his age.
Cognitive Development
Is your child learning and developing key skills for his age? That would give you a good indication of whether he is thriving. By this, we mean having the necessary skills for information processing and perception, not straight ‘A’s on their report card. Don’t get too caught up with comparing your child’s performance with that of his peers.
Immune Strength
To help your child grow, it is imperative to ensure that he has strong immunity and does not contract frequent infections or diseases.
Social Development
This does not necessarily mean that your child has to be able to strike a conversation with anyone. It simply means that he is not withdrawn and participates in social and family life. Do bear in mind that children need time to warm up and can only socialise when they feel safe and comfortable.
But for all the aforementioned strengths to develop, you will first have to focus on your child’s nutrition.
How Nutrition Helps Your Child Grow And Thrive
Nutrition plays an instrumental role to help your child grow and thrive. Good nutrition enables children to attain their optimal growth potential. As you know, dietary diversification is often tied to good nutrition and that means eating a variety of food and well-balanced meals. This improves micronutrient adequacy and helps achieve health goals at different ages, especially in children.
Typically, most children gain weight and height steadily and quickly within the first few years of life. However, some children do not meet this standard of growth and it could possibly be because they are eating too little or in other cases, as many parents would commiserate – children are picky eaters!
How then do you help your child grow with sufficient nutrition? Read on to know.
Nutrition Tips To Help Your Child Grow
Solid Before Liquid
This is true especially in the case of toddlers. Always offer them solid food before liquids because liquids make them feel full and can deter them from eating a nutritious meal. Likewise, avoid excessive juice or milk consumption as these interfere with their meals.
Too much sugar or salty snacks are also a no-no as once they get used to the taste, they might find their regular meals too bland!
The More (calories) The Merrier!
While you might be counting your calorie intake, you should probably do that for your child too. But in reverse! Just as you aim for less, aim for more for your little ones. Offer your child calorie dense foods such as peanut butter, cheese, dried fruits, and cream sauces to your older children.
Good Things Come In Threes
If you’re planning meals, the rule of 3’s will come in handy. To help your child grow, it would be ideal for them to eat three meals and up to three snacks in a day. Also, choose foods from the three food groups in every meal. The three groups could include vegetables and fruits, grain products, milk and alternatives, and meat and alternatives.
Add On, Why Not?
If your child isn’t quite on track, it is a good idea to give them nutritional supplements until catch-up growth is achieved. This is important because not every meal consists of all the nutrients that your child needs. Choose effective and healthy supplements that ultimately aid in your child’s growth.
Supplementing Your Child’s Diet with NUTREN® Junior
There are a myriad of nutritional supplements out there to help your child grow and so looking for the perfect one may seem rather overwhelming. Which is why we’re here to help you and introduce you to NUTREN® Junior. It is scientifically formulated to meet the nutritional needs of growing children between 1 and 10 years.
You can ensure your child’s growth by incorporating NUTREN® Junior in his daily diet. Each 250ml serving can be used in place of each snack, up to two times a day or as recommended by your healthcare professional.
Here are some of the benefits:
Whey Protein for Physical Growth
NUTREN® Junior helps your child grow physically with its 50% high quality whey protein. Whey protein is a high-quality protein that helps with faster absorption of the formula and promotes reduced incidence of reflux or retching.
Prebiotics and Probiotics for Healthy Gut
NUTREN® Junior helps maintain a healthy digestive system as it contains prebiotics (FOS, Inulin, Acacia Gum) and 110 million colony forming units or CFU of probiotics such as Bifidobacterium longum and Lactobacillus paracasei.
Fortified with DHA
NUTREN® Junior has DHA that supports your child’s brain and eye function.
- Made in Switzerland – Swiss Quality
- Recommended by pediatricians and dieticians worldwide
- 29 vitamins and minerals for a complete, balanced formulation
- Lactose and gluten free
- Yummy Vanilla flavour!
There you go, mums, the complete guide to help your child grow and stay on track. Sign up for your free NUTREN® Junior samples here or order your supply from Lazada.
NUTREN® Junior can also be found in select NTUC Fairprice and Unity stores or on Shopee and Amazon.