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Processed food provides three quarters of the saturated fat and salt that we eat, so the single most effective thing that you can do to improve your child’s diet is to cut back on these foods  and prepare more meals yourself from fresh ingredients.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Don’t let your child skip breakfast. Give some cereal or bread and try to include one calcium rich protein food like milk or cheese. Eggs are great for breakfast and you can give them scrambled, boiled or poached or make pancakes or eggy bread. And don’t forget to include some fresh fruit or give a fruit juice or smoothie to drink. Remember that in order to absorb iron from cereal you need to give vitamin C like a glass of orange juice or some berry fruits

Realistically its hard to say ‘no’ to junk food so try making your own healthy junk food using good quality meat for burgers, English muffins for pizza bases and a good way to coat home made fish fingers is to dip them in seasoned flour, beaten egg and crushed cornflakes.

Remember your 5 a day and include lots of variety. Different coloured fruits and veg contain different nutrients and the more colourful they are generally the better they are for you as the pigment contains antioxidants that protect us from disease. Steaming or microwaving vegetables ensures that you don’t lose nutrients. Boiling vegetables like broccoli halves their vitamin C content.

Frozen vegetables are good – they often contain more nutrients than fresh because they are frozen within hours of being picked.

Choose baked potatoes or boiled new potatoes rather than chip.

If you do buy frozen chips, oven chips are lower in fat, and its best to choose the thick-cut variety as they absorb less fat. Sweetcorn or corn on the cob makes a good alternative to potatoes and it provides fibre as well as one portion of your 5 a day.

Iron deficiency is the commonest nutritional deficiency and will leave your child tired and run down so try to ensure that your child eats meat at least twice a week or that they have some green vegetables, wholegrains, pulses or dried fruit like apricots combined with some vitamin C.

Most children do not eat enough omega 3 fats. Ideally it would be good to serve oily fish like salmon or sardines twice a week. Including oily fish in the diet can help to improve the concentration in children who have attention deficit disorder or who are dyspraxic.

When buying fruit juice, choose pure fruit juice and not a juice drink which may well contain no more than 8% juice

After school is a great time to get your child to eat something healthy as they generally come home starving. The trouble is most children dive into the biscuit tin or grab a chocolate bar after school. Have something ready prepared on the table. Cut up fruit on a plate is much more tempting than fruit in a fruit bowl and children like raw veg with a tasty dip. It’s quick and easy to make delicious wraps, pitta pockets or pasta salads and it’s a good idea to have a low shelf in the fridge where children can help themselves to tasty healthy snacks.

The liking for salt and salty foods is a learned preference and most children eat twice as much salt as they should. Too much salt causes high blood pressure which increases our risk of developing heart disease and strokes. Diets high in salt have also been linked to asthma, brittle bones and fluid retention. Processed foods tend to contain a lot of salt.

Maximum daily recommendation of salt for children is
  • 1 – 3 year olds 2g salt
  • 4 -6 year olds 3 g salt
  • 7 – 10 year olds 5 g salt
Whilst some foods are labelled with the salt content pre serving, others may give the amount of sodium in grams per 100g of food. If you want to know what the salt content is you need to multiply the sodium figure by 2.5 ie 1g of sodium per 100g =2.5g salt

Annabel's tips on feeding your child and recipes

  • Food for fussy eaters
  • Breakfast
  • Main meal- lunch and supper
  • Desserts
  • Lunchboxes
  • After School
  • Parties
  • Top Tips
      • For more on nutrition, recipes and feeding your child and family visit www.annabelkarmel.com

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