Children feel better when they eat well. During the preschool and kindergarten years, your child should be eating the same foods as the rest of the family, to learn more about proper nutrition.
Your job as a parent is to offer foods with nutritional value in a calm environment and to have regular times for eating. Your child’s job is to decide whether he or she is hungry and how much food to eat when it’s offered. Check out this plant botanicals guide.
8 Tips for Parents:
- Offer a range of healthy foods. When children eat a variety of foods, they get a balance of the vitamins they need to grow. Healthy options include fresh vegetables and fruits, low-fat dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheeses) or dairy substitutes, lean proteins (beans, chicken, turkey, fish, lean hamburger, tofu, eggs), and whole-grain cereals and bread.
- Don’t expect children to “clean their plates.” Serve appropriate portion sizes, but do not expect your child to always eat everything served. Even better, let your children choose their own portion sizes. It is okay if children do not eat everything on their plates. At this age, they should learn to know when they are full. Some four-year-olds may still be picky eaters. Parents can encourage their children to try new foods, but they should not pressure eating. Check more about exipure diet pills.
- Offer regular meal times and sit together. Serve foods at regular meal and snack times. Try to be careful to not offer foods between these eating times. Children who are eating or “grazing” throughout the day may not be hungry at mealtimes, when healthier foods tend to be available. When it is meal or snack time, turn off the TV, and eat together at the table. This helps create a calm environment for eating.
- Limit processed food and sugary drinks. Another parent role is to limit how much processed food is in the house and to limit fast food. Most important is to limit sugary drinks. Sugary drinks include soda, juice drinks, lemonade, sweet tea, and sports drinks. Sugary drinks can lead to cavities and unhealthy weight gain.
- The best drinks are water and milk. The best drinks for children are water and milk (including non-dairy milk). Milk provides calcium and vitamin D to build strong bones. Ice cream is okay once in a while, but it should not be offered every day. Whole fruit is preferable to fruit juice—even if it is 100% juice—as juice is a concentrated source of sugar and low in fiber. If you offer juice, make it 100% fruit juice and limit it to 4 oz. or less per day. It is best to serve juice with a meal, as juice is more likely to cause cavities when served between meals.
- Small portions for small children. It is important to pay attention to portion sizes. Four- and five-year-olds need smaller servings than adults. Encourage your children to choose their own serving size, but use smaller plates, bowls, and cups. See Energy In: Recommended Food & Drink Amounts for Children. Visit https://www.amny.com/.
- Turn off the TV—especially at mealtimes. Television advertising can be a big challenge to your child’s good nutrition. Four- and five-year-olds are easily influenced by ads for unhealthy foods like sugary cereals, fast food, and sweets. The best way to avoid this is put in place a “media curfew” at mealtime and bedtime, putting all devices away or plugging them into a charging station for the night.
- Teach table manners. At this age, your child should be ready to learn basic table manners. By age four, he or she will no longer grip the fork or spoon in his or her fist and be able to hold them like an adult. With your help, he or she can begin learning the proper use of a table knife. You can also teach other table manners, such as not talking with a full mouth, using a napkin, and not reaching across another person’s plate. While it’s necessary to explain these rules, it’s much more important to model them. Your child will watch to see how the rest of the family is behaving and follow their lead. It’s easier to develop table manners if you have a family custom of eating together. Make at least one meal a day a special and pleasant family time. Have your child set the table or help in some other way in preparing the meal.
Norah says
October 6, 2013 at 5:47 amHi Rachel,
We certainly live in a world in which everyone can share their thoughts and experiences through the written word. As with people, there will always some we immediately “click with” and others with whom we find no common ground. Readers are not compelled to read everything that is written but may choose what to read or what to disregard. As you say, if you don’t like it, there are some positive responses that can be made. Ignoring writing that one doesn’t can send as strong a message to the author as a comment. Saying nothing can scream as loudly as some words.
Thanks for sharing.
RachelintheOC says
October 6, 2013 at 9:39 pmThank you for reading and comment, Norah. I don’t review books for a few main reasons: 1) no time and 2) I read client books mostly, and then if time, I read for pleasure books of my choosing and 3) if a book is bad, I would rather send my suggestions to the author personally than dress them down in public (something I would never do anyway) but who am I to take away someone’s dream?
As authors, we have to accept that people will hate our work and can be cruel about it. The best we can do is learn how to take criticism, valid or not, and keep writing.
Janie Junebug says
October 6, 2013 at 10:13 amI certainly don’t look down on indie authors. If you want something, then find a way to make it happen. Indie authors do just that. I don’t like everything I read, but sometimes the books I don’t like have been published by one of the Big Houses.
Love,
Janie
RachelintheOC says
October 6, 2013 at 9:41 pmGreat point, Janie. There are books that people have loved that I’ve thought, ‘meh’ (Gone Girl put me to sleep) but hey, each book and each author’s style will fit with some, and not so much others.
That’s always been the nature of books and readers.
Sgaron Gerlach says
October 6, 2013 at 10:35 pmI read mostly indie authors now – I figure if it’s good enough for me to be one, it’s good enough for me to read others. I trade content editing, proofreading, and beta-reading with other independent authors (my final editor is my English prof BFF). Some of the best books I’ve read are self-published, and they contain worlds and “people” I would never have seen or met if I’d been snobbish (and highly hypocritical) about self-published books. I do have to wade through a lot of crap & have closed the electronic covers of two indie books in the last week alone because they weren’t very good – but I’ve had to do that with trad published books as well, some written by long-standing best-selling authors.
I’ve found that any time you challenge someone’s method of earning income, that person will become (perhaps understandably) snarly – a pretty natural reaction to a perceived threat. And they seem to think the louder they shout and the more insulting they are, the more right they are. Silly.
Sharon Gerlach says
October 6, 2013 at 10:37 pmAnd you’d think I could’ve spelled my own first name right! Lol Drat this android keyboard.
RachelintheOC says
October 10, 2013 at 2:20 pmI see it here, sweetie. I’ll respond below.
Sharon Gerlach says
October 10, 2013 at 2:00 pmWell, my original comment never posted, making me look like an idiot for my second comment, which to you looked like my first comment. Ah well – such is my life. I originally spelled my name wrong. You’d think by this time I’d have it memorized… This is what I said:
I read mostly indie authors now – I figure if it’s good enough for me to be one, it’s good enough for me to read others. I trade content editing, proofreading, and beta-reading with other independent authors (my final editor is my English prof BFF). Some of the best books I’ve read are self-published, and they contain worlds and “people” I would never have seen or met if I’d been snobbish (and highly hypocritical) about self-published books. I do have to wade through a lot of crap & have closed the electronic covers of two indie books in the last week alone because they weren’t very good – but I’ve had to do that with trad published books as well, some written by long-standing best-selling authors.
I’ve found that any time you challenge someone’s method of earning income, that person will become (perhaps understandably) snarly – a pretty natural reaction to a perceived threat. And they seem to think the louder they shout and the more insulting they are, the more right they are. Silly.
RachelintheOC says
October 10, 2013 at 2:23 pmI appreciate you weighing in, Sharon (and for the record, I typed your name Sahron, so we’re both off today lol).
Regardless of HOW someone publishes, it’s the stuff — the book itself — that matters. A great cover on a crap book will not create wonderful reviews. I’m always shocked by the number of authors who are happy with their self-pub’d books, rife with mistakes and a cover their kid drew, yet not understanding why no sales…. But hey, who am I to judge?
For many, just writing a book and having ONE person read it is success. And that’s GREAT.
karen brees says
October 11, 2013 at 8:58 amNicely said, Rachel. Loved the post.
RachelintheOC says
October 19, 2013 at 8:16 pmthank you, Karen. xx
Stephanie N. says
October 12, 2013 at 9:37 amLoved this post. I read an article some bit ago that said writers are the only art medium where going indie is not considered ground breaking or creative. Many have coined it taking a short cut but I for one never bought into that. I’m going indie because that is what feels right at this time and trust me, I’ve heard all the negative comments from friends who don’t write and don’t get it. I read just as many indie books as I do traditionally published and I have had good and bad experiences with both. There are many best sellers that just didn’t float my boat and other unknown indie projects that blew me away. I just think as indie writers we have to not only work on producing great content but also seek out quality/professional editing and cover art to dial it in. Some of the best advice I was given came from an editor of a large magazine in New York who also happens to have a traditionally published book. She said, “Write because you love it or you have a story to tell but never quit your day job.”
RachelintheOC says
October 19, 2013 at 8:18 pmVery true. Good advice!
I think, at this point, any kind of a general bias is probably so out of date as to not count. Indie authors are having more and more success, and traditionally pub’d authors are leaving to pursue their own course. I’m thrilled to be watching all these changes, and to be a part of it in some small way.
James Kafka says
October 12, 2013 at 10:13 amBeing rejected by traditional publishing was the best thing that could have happened to me. It made me realize why I started writing in the first place, I wanted to be different. I don’t like fancy art-work covers. I don’t like being told I have to write in a specific style. Creativity is best served when there are no boundaries; no limits on page or word count. I recently went to a writing conference and the look on other authors face when I told them I self-published said it all. I was the enemy, and they didn’t consider me to be a real author. This happens a lot and it is getting very frustrating.
RachelintheOC says
October 19, 2013 at 8:20 pmYes, it does happen a lot. I take solace in the fact that I can pay my rent monthly on my royalty check, and a midlist author with a traditional publisher can’t say the same. The days of publishing houses doing everything for authors is long over.
Best of luck to you, James.
JLOakley says
October 19, 2013 at 7:48 pmI’ve worked hard for my novel. Pitched it many times at conferences, query letters. Nothing. Self-publishing it was the best choice for it. And now with awards, book club choice and library talks, its notice keeps growing. A couple of days ago I spoke at a remote library on the Olympic Peninsula. It was truly wonderful to hear the compliments from librarian and readers. Then I went to an indie bookstore. Because of my choice of publisher, a little hostile. I generally have good relations with bookstores. What can a writer do? Oh, well. I’m glad for my choice and am getting my next novel out soon.
RachelintheOC says
October 19, 2013 at 8:24 pmIt’s interesting you say that, JL. Libraries and indie bookstores have been somewhat well, mixed, but the market is growing there like never before. The advantage of smaller and hybrid publishers (and even say, Smashwords) are the distribution options they offer to authors.
I similarly experienced that with the local city library — didn’t care about me, my book, none of it. They were more than dismissive, downright rude. It’s disconcerting but says far more about them than me. Same with your situation. Just keep writing!
Dean M. says
October 22, 2013 at 8:18 amI live a few doors down from a publishing executive here in Australia who bemoaned to me recently that the *rise* – he said that word with as much derision as he would if someone had farted in his space suit – had wrecked publishing in the traditional sense. He went onto declare there must be a concerted battle waged by traditional publishers against indie authors to ensure they do not get a foot hold and thus cause devastation to literature at large.
Of course, I didn’t reveal to him who I was but I just let him finish his good old rant and nodded.
I read recently that his publishing house passed on Hannah Kent’s novel (Burial Rites) which has become a publishing sensation down here in Australia.
Independent authors are here to stay and those who invest the time and the integrity that is required into their craft will trump the naysayers every single time.
Though the venom, thus far, seems to have come from the traditional side, the worst behavior I have witnessed towards independent authors has come from within the indie community itself. Sadly, I doubt it will ever go away but I do hope that those pursuing integrity will find each other and band together in greater numbers.
Suzy Soro (@HotComesToDie) says
November 3, 2013 at 9:36 amI got hired to critique Indie books for a book website. I was paid $20 per review and I did 3 before I quit. One was stellar, took the guy 10 years to write it. He hired a top-notch editor, NOT his friends, to proofread and edit. The other 2 were unreadable. Just crap. It was obvious they’d used their friends and not editors to help them. After I wrote my reviews for the 2 crap books, I checked out what others said about them on both Amazon and Goodreads and was not really surprised to see they got decent reviews.
When I look at a book for myself, I only read the 1 and 2 star reviews. Friends and family give 5’s. (my book included) I want to see what the people who hated it have to say about it. And uniformly, the negative critiques are the same: the person is a terrible writer, or repeats themselves, has pages of info-dumps, tells not shows etc etc. All the markings of someone who can’t write. And even if you can’t write, for the love of God people, pay a top-notch editor. It’s worth it. I’ve seen books turned into treasures based solely on the use of a good editor.
So I understand the critiques.