School-age nutrition and fitness: in a nutshell

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Healthy food and eating for school-age children

• Our article on nutrition and fitness basics for school kids gives you healthy eating guidelines and ideas to help you ensure your child eats good food.
• For good food made easy, try these meals in minutes.
• Pack a goodness punch by including lots of your child’s nutritional needs in one dish. Try Everything fried rice, an omelette with the lot, shepherd’s pie, baked beans on wholegrain toast, or pasta bolognaise with a meat and vegie sauce.
• Healthy eating habits will help your child avoid falling into the trap of childhood obesity. Limit snacks such as salty chips, lollies and sweet biscuits, especially while your child is watching TV.

The importance of a healthy breakfast
A healthy breakfast wakes up your child’s body by starting the metabolism. Breakfast provides the energy your child needs for the day. Research has found that children who skip breakfast tend to weigh more. This might be because these hungry children eat more later during the day.

Mornings can be a mad rush for many families. Thankfully, breakfast can be relatively quick and easy to prepare, like yoghurt and fruit, cereal and milk, or toast.

School lunch-box ideas

In most schools, children can choose to get their lunch from the school tuckshop or bring their own lunch from home. Thanks to recent efforts by parents, the food in some tuckshops is now much more nutritious. Still, it’s probably cheaper and healthier to send your child to school with a lunch box from home, stuffed full of good things.

Sandwich ideas
Here are suggestions for a wholegrain-bread sandwich (or you can use pita bread, a baguette or rice cakes):

• cheese, lettuce and chutney
• swiss cheese and sliced gherkin (pickled cucumber)
• cottage cheese or ricotta and dates
• brie cheese and cranberry sauce
• pita bread pockets, roll-ups or turkish bread with lean meat or falafel and salad
• curried egg or mashed boiled egg and lettuce 
• chicken, mayonnaise and celery.

Fruit
A piece of fruit added to the lunch box is a good idea. You can:

• Peel and cut a kiwi fruit and put it in a separate container.
• Chop up strawberries and combine with grapes or blueberries, and put them in a separate container.
• Quarter an apple and squeeze some lemon juice over it – this will stop it browning by lunch time.
• Pop in a banana – they come in their own easy-to-peel packaging!

More lunch box ideas

• A drinking straw skewered with cubes of cheese and cherry tomatoes (or strawberries if they are in season and not so expensive)
• Carrot and celery sticks with hummus dip (put hummus in a separate container so your child can dip into it)
• Draw a silly smiley face and put it in your child’s lunch box. Your child can’t eat it, but it will get a laugh.

School-age activity

Your school-age child benefits from at least one hour of physical activity each day.

You can enourage your school-age child to be active by doing fun physical activities such as:

• playing at the playground, or swimming at the local pool or beach
• going for family bike rides or bushwalks
• walking to school – this also gives you a chance to spend time together having a chat.

Playing sport
Many children are ready for organised sport by eight years of age. Try to choose a sport that will help your child develop skills without getting hurt or losing confidence. You can also get children interested in sport earlier through play.

Some children don’t seem to like organised sports. That’s OK – there are plenty of other ways to support active children. But it’s a good idea to look for underlying causes of a dislike of sport, to see whether you can find a solution and to rule out any health or other issues.

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  Newsletter snippet: School-age nutrition and fitness: in a nutshell
  

  
  By Raising Children Network

  School-age children need to start the day with a healthy breakfast. It can be as easy as yoghurt and fruit, some healthy cereal or toast.
  
  You are your child’s eating role model, so it’s important to provide healthy meals and snacks at home.
  
  School lunch-box ideas

  • Try cutting sandwiches into quarters rather than halves so they don’t take too long to eat.
  • Make sandwiches using wholegrain bread, pita bread, a baguette or rice cakes.
  • Use different fillings, like Swiss, cheddar, brie or cottage cheese, curried or mashed egg, or chicken and mayonnaise.
  • Try carrot or celery sticks with a dip.
  • Include a piece of fruit, perhaps sliced or peeled to make things easier.
  • Remember that water is the best thirst quencher.

  This article is an extract only. For more information, visit  raisingchildren.net.au/nutrition__fitness/school_age_nutrition.html.

  Sourced from the Raising Children Network's comprehensive and quality-assured Australian parenting website www.raisingchildren.net.au.