5 Superfoods That Can Keep Your Child Healthy Throughout The Year

Include these 5 kinds of superfoods in your child’s diet, and see them be healthier throughout the year.

It’s upsetting for parents to watch their child suffer from seasonal woes on and off. While you might be giving your little one all types of food from lentils to chicken soup, it is equally essential to add superfoods that can build your child’s immune system and keep diseases at bay.

Always remember, good nutrition plays an important part when it comes to your child. Hence you must always a blend of different foods to your child.

Let vegetables do the talking

While your child might not want to dig into a bowl of sabzi you must include veggies like spinach, fenugreek leaves, carrots, bell peppers, beans and peas and so on in his/her diet daily. These veggies are not only a great source of iron, folic acid, zinc, magnesium, potassium, vitamin c, and vitamin a but are loaded with antioxidants and phytonutrients.

Easy fun ways to add veggies are whole wheat sandwiches, Frankie, veggie rice, mixed vegetable paratha multigrain veggie pizza vegetable lasagna whole wheat veggie pasta or simply your child’s favorite soup.

Say yes to yogurt

Yogurt is a yummy healthy option if you’re looking to boost your child’s immune system. It is not only a great source of protein but contains probiotics that enhance the growth of good bacteria strengthening the immune system.

Add it to your child’s diet in the form of shrikhand, lassi, buttermilk and fruit yogurt or palak/cucumber/dudhi raita. Make sure you make different variations of the same so that your child enjoys it and asks for more.

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Embrace fruits

Just like veggies your child may be fussy when it comes to fruits so try and purchase different types of fruits every week like watermelon peach apple strawberries kiwi oranges or even grapes. Feed your child different fruits each day and make sure he/she is consuming at least one serving daily.

Fruits are loaded with vitamin c, vitamin a, vitamin k, phosphorus, magnesium, folic acid and fiber which can keep your child healthy and infection-free. All you need to do is make fruit smoothie, milkshake, fruit salad, Fruit custard or rice fruit pudding to make it a little fun.

Bring in some protein

Protein is an important macronutrient as it ensures that your baby is capable of fighting most seasonal infections. It is needed for the wear and tear of body tissues and helps in building a strong immune system. Add milk, dal, pulses, chicken fish and egg to your child’s diet.

These foods are not just a great source of protein but contain calcium, zinc and good amounts of omega 3 fatty acids. Zinc can maintain levels of white blood cells that help fight infections. Make chicken/ egg soup/ grilled fish/ milkshake/ dal/ khichdi or any other recipe in which you can easily accommodate good amounts of any of the above.

Let’s go nuts

Nuts are a great way of boosting your child’s immune system. They are loaded with zinc, protein, omega 3 fatty acids, and vitamin e which can strengthen the disease-fighting mechanism. Make sure your child is getting some walnuts almonds, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts or peanuts for tiffin or make some chikki or home-made dry fruit sweets.

A version of this was first published here.

Image source: unsplash

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