Identify balanced meals, snacks and drinks for children Essay

Identify equilibrize meals, snacks and drinks for children in their early years, following electric current government guidance on nutritional needs. Children should be encouraged to eat a change diet. Setting a memorial for meals and snacks will help keep the children conform to through the solar twenty-four hours and avoid them inquire at various hours for food. They should eat foods from for each(prenominal) one of the five main food groups any day. The five main food groups argon1. bread, other cereals and potatoes2. fruit and vegetables3. milk and dairy farm farm foods4. meat, fish and alternatives (e.g. eggs, pulses, peas, beans and lentils and soya).5. nutrients stockpileing fat and/or sugar.The Food Standards Agency recommends that a healthy alimentary diet should insure foods from the following groups each day starchy foods, fruit and vegetables, protein-rich foods and dairy products. A balanced diet should contain foods from these groups, all meals snacks and drinks take backn passim the day must provide children with the decent nutrients to stag up a balanced diet. When mean meals for children, there are several things to take into consideration to agree that meals contain suitable nutrients and calories. Some foods are gameyer in nutrients than others if a food is high in calories it should also be high in nutrients. Foods such as crisps, biscuits and sweets are high in calories but low in nutrients and so an unhealthy option. Childrens stomachs are tiny and so have a limited capacity in female genitalia sometimes be hard to assoil sure they eat enough nutrients in front they are full. Also it is important to get word children take enough drinks throughout the day to prevent them from becoming dehydrated. Water should unendingly be made available throughout the day and at meal times. some other drinks such as milk, fruit juices and smoothies plenty also be offered. These drinks all contain nutrients and calories so need to be imply in a childs day-by-day usance. Fruit juices contain a stage set of natural sugar so should be given in mitigation to help prevent tooth decay. Fruit drinks, squashes and fizzing drinks also contain a lot of sugar and are high in calories and low in nutrients so should not be offered to children on a daily basis. As childrens stomachs are teentsy they may require snacks between meals so that they can take in sufficient nutrients. Snacks should also be included in theoverall daily food intake and should be nutritious. Good healthy snacks for children include fruit and vegetable, dried fruit, cheese and crackers, yoghurt, breadsticks and sieve cakes. When planning meals for children it may be utilizable to look at their food intake for a whole week to ensure that they are eating a varied healthy diet and to consult with the childs parents.