Meal is always one of the factors that determine whether children are provided with enough nutrients for comprehensive development or not. Parents, please refer to the following article to allocate time for children to eat reasonably and scientifically to ensure the health of children!

How to allocate meals for children

Children are not like adults, every child’s meal is important. Children should eat 5-6 meals a day, including 3 main meals and 1-2 snacks.

The reason the baby has to eat so many meals, the stomach volume of the child is still small, can not consume a lot of food at the same time. Therefore, parents should divide the time between meals reasonably to develop the child’s physical as well as brain.

Parents should divide the time between meals reasonably to develop children's physical as well as brain.

The first meal to start the day should be about 30 minutes after waking up. Overnight, the amount of glucose in the baby’s blood dropped significantly. So this meal is very important. Foods such as bread, eggs, milk, cereals… are key foods for breakfast. It is also possible to add fruits such as bananas, apples, watermelons, grapes… for children.

The first meal to start the day should be about 30 minutes after waking up

Meals should be spaced 2-3 hours apart and should be varied. For example, if you drink milk in the morning, then eat porridge for the next meal, and change to rice at noon. In this way, the child will not feel bored and the child’s body is also provided with a variety of nutrients.

Mothers should also not extend the time of meals to 4 hours. Usually, a solid meal takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to digest, while it takes about 2 to 2.5 hours for a thin meal like porridge or soup to digest, depending on the child.

Meals should be spaced 2-3 hours apart and should be varied

The baby’s last meal of the day must be 1.5 – 2 hours before bedtime for the food to be fully digested. At the same time, limit your children to eating sour and fatty foods at this meal because it can make them full of stomach, indigestion and not sleep well.

Parents also note that children should not eat a lot of diuretics in the evening snack, causing them to wet the bed or have to get up to urinate, affecting deep sleep.

Limit your child's eating sour and fatty foods at this meal because it may cause bloating, indigestion and poor sleep.

Notes on children’s diets

Let go of the idea that your child’s snack is just a glass of orange juice, a cookie, or a piece of fruit. Because if children only eat such simple foods, their bodies will not be loaded with the necessary nutrients.

These foods should only be given to children right after the main meal such as dessert, should not be fed to them all day, making them full and will not want to eat the main meal anymore, leading to the child not getting enough essential nutrients.

Let go of the idea that your child's snack is just a glass of orange juice, a cookie, or a piece of fruit

When setting up a meal time frame for the child, the mother also needs to base on the child’s habits, preferences and sleep time. Parents, please make sure to make meals on time for about 2 weeks, so that the child gets into the habit.

After that, parents need to re-evaluate the feeding schedule to see if it is appropriate and monitor the baby’s eating situation to improve or not. When children gain weight and height according to the requirements in the growth chart, it proves that the amount of food taken in each day is enough.

Setting a meal time frame for children, mothers need to base on family meal habits, working time and nap time.

Please follow the notes shared above to map out a healthy eating time frame for your children!

See more 5 notes in children’s diet