Guide to nutrition for children

Expertly reviewed by Sarah Almond Bushell, Registered Dietician & Children’s Nutritionist

Want to make sure your kids are eating a healthy diet?

Maybe it’s something you’re already embracing and want to perfect? Or perhaps you’ve thought about it, but haven’t had chance to action it just yet…

The Children’s Nutritionist, Sarah Almond Bushell, has helped us put together some top tips and recipes for a balanced and child-approved diet.

Knowing the balance can be tricky - but this article is designed to help.

Skip to:

• Importance of nutrition in children
• What a healthy kids’ diet looks like
• Recommended calorie intake for children
• How to make healthy eating fun for kids
• 5 lunch ideas for kids
• 4 snack ideas for kids
• General advice on school lunches

Why healthy eating for children matters

Healthy eating for kids goes hand-in-hand with lots of positive things.

For instance, children who are of a healthy weight are reportedly:

• Fitter
• Healthier
• Better at learning
• More self-confident¹

Research has also found that they’re less likely to develop health problems as they get older too.²

What’s more, if you introduce healthy eating habits to children at a young age, then they’re more inclined to adopt this way of thinking and living into their lives and continue with it into adulthood.

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What a healthy children’s diet looks like

We all need to be getting the right quota of essential minerals, vitamins, fats, carbs, protein etc. to help lead a healthy life.

However, the levels do vary between adults and children. Children are still growing and developing, and they tend to be more active than adults.

Recommended nutrients for children

Children aren’t mini adults, so we can’t just serve up the same food as us and expect them to thrive.

When feeding children, we need to pay attention to these key nutrients:

• Protein
• Fat
• Iron
• Calcium
• Vitamin D
• Omega 3
• Fibre

We also need to consider that children need to eat 5-6 times per day.

As well as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, offer a mid-morning snack and a mid-afternoon snack. Some children will also need a bedtime snack.

Snacks should be considered “mini meals”, made up of at least 3 different food groups rather than just an apple or a banana.

How to serve up those recommended calories

We need to provide the right balance of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that are essential for good development, as well as replacing all the energy that children burn off every day.

But what does this look like in reality?

We have the NHS’s Eatwell Guide to refer to, but that’s really designed for adults and so is not suitable for children under 5.

Children over 5 can follow its direction, providing they are healthy, well, and not fussy eaters.

Even so, building a balanced meal can be daunting – so it’s worth knowing exactly why each element benefits your child:

Proteins

When planning your children’s meals and snacks, start with the protein foods first.

Offer them a source of protein 2-3 times per day (3 if your child is vegetarian). You’ll find this in foods like:

• Meat 
• Eggs
• Fish
• Nuts
• Beans
• Soya food
• Pulses

Children don’t need extra protein as such, but protein-rich foods tend to have lots of extra vitamins and minerals (like zinc, B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, and omega 3) that support:

• Growth
• Immune systems and recovery
• Repair of tissue (great for stumbles and scraped knees)

Not all protein foods contain the same nutrients.

Red meat, for example, contains iron which babies, young children and teenage girls need quite a lot of, whereas white meat does not.

Oily fish like salmon, mackerel, or trout contains Omega 3, but white fish like cod has very little.

Children can have up to 2 portions per week of oily fish, but girls shouldn’t have any more. That’s because oily fish contains pollutants that are thought to affect female fertility.³

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Carbohydrates

These are your energy-providing foods. They include potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals, oats, couscous, and other grains.

Most of your child’s carbohydrates should be wholegrain, as this helps them achieve their requirement for fibre. You can also increase your fibre intake by leaving the skin on potatoes.

As well as fibre, wholegrain starchy carbohydrates provide B vitamins, magnesium, selenium, calcium, and iron.

Aim for starchy carbs with each meal and as a part of most of your children’s snacks.

Fats

Contrary to popular belief, children do need to have fat in their diet. This is because fat is a really concentrated source of energy which aids their growth and development.

Healthy fats include olive and rapeseed oil (this includes margarines made from them). Other healthy fats are avocado, oily fish, nuts, and seeds.

It’s best to keep saturated and trans fats to a minimum. These are found in animal fat, processed meat (such as sausages and burgers), and in foods like pastry, biscuits, and cakes.

Dairy foods

Children should have 3 portions of dairy foods per day.

Best known for their calcium content, they also supply protein, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin A and some B vitamins.

Young children benefit from full-fat versions of milk and yoghurt. Providing they’re not fussy (as this could limit their nutrient intake), older children can have semi-skimmed or reduced-fat versions.

When you are buying yoghurts, be aware of those with added sugar. There will always be 5g sugar in yoghurt, which is the naturally occurring sugars found in milk.

However, anything above this number tends to mean that extra sugar has been added.

Vitamin D

This is sometimes called the “sunshine vitamin”, as it mainly comes from exposing our skin to UV rays from the sun.

However, in the UK we have very low levels of these rays between October and March.

There are some foods that contain vitamin D, like

• Oily fish
• Eggs
• Fortified breakfast cereals, and
• Fortified soya drinks.

Our guide on making sure your babies and children get enough vitamin D can help to increase your child’s intake. However, it’s very difficult for children to get enough from their diet alone.

The best solution is to take a vitamin D supplement: the Department of Health recommend all children under 5 take a 10µg vitamin D supplement daily.⁴

What about fruit and vegetables?

One group of foods we haven’t mentioned yet are fruit and vegetables.

Children need to have their 5 a day, but for under 5s their portion size is around half of what an adult might eat.

Fruit and veg provide immune-supporting vitamin A and vitamin C, as well as fibre for healthy digestive systems.

Ideas for making healthy eating for kids fun

Children under 7 make their food decisions based upon what food looks like. So, making food fun can make it more appealing to them. We’ve scoured the internet for some fun healthy food ideas for kids (of which there are many). Here’s our pick of the bunch:

Idea 1: Salad in a jar

Yes, you’ve heard right, salad in a jar. Getting your kids to cram salad pieces of their choice into a jar is fun and makes the salad look more appealing too.

Idea 2: Cucumber caterpillars

We’ve head of caterpillar cakes, and now there’s cucumber caterpillars. You can make them as short or as long as you like and you can even give them a name if you want to!

Idea 3: Breakfast burritos

A burrito? For breakfast? Grab some tortilla wraps (preferably wholegrain) and fill them with as many healthy toppings as you like – cheese, tomatoes, spinach, or egg. Experiment with different combos and let your kids choose their favourites.

Idea 4: Turn it into a kebab

Fruit or veg, meat or carbs - it can be a kebab! Cut the food up, slide it on to a kebab stick, and encourage your child to get involved. Don’t be afraid to make up random food combinations. When food is fun, it’s more appealing and far more likely to be eaten.

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Healthy lunch and snack ideas for kids

If you’ve been wondering, ‘What should I put in my preschool lunchbox?’, ‘What do you put in your child’s lunchbox?’, ‘What can I give my child for lunch?’ and many more of those types of questions, this article is here to help you nail those lunchbox queries. N

ow, let’s tuck into those ideas!

5 lunch ideas for kids

A lunchbox needs to be made up of a few different items for it to be balanced.

Start with your protein food and add in your starchy carbohydrate.

Next, add a fruit, a veg, and finish off with a dairy food. Include a drink but remember water or milk are all children really need.

Keep reading for these school lunch ideas:

1. Lunchbox pasta salad
2. Super salad wraps
3. Salmon and salad bagel
4. Soft cheese and salad sandwich
5. Super versatile meatballs

1.  Lunchbox pasta salad

Ingredients

• 400g pasta
• 4 to 5 tbsp fresh pesto
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• ½ lemon, juiced
• 200g mixed cooked veg such as peas, green beans, courgette (chop the beans and courgette into pea-sized pieces)
• 100g cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 200g cooked chicken, ham, prawns, hard-boiled egg, or cheese⁵

2.  Super salad wraps

Ingredients

• 1 tortilla
• 2 tbsp hummus
• 1 lettuce leaf
• ¼ carrot, shredded or grated
• 4 cucumber sticks and/or 2 avocado slices
• 1 tbsp fresh tomato salsa or chopped tomatoes
• A handful of grated cheddar cheese6

3. Salmon and salad bagel

Ingredients

• 1 wholemeal bagel
• 1 small can (105g) or half a large can of pink salmon
• 1 level tbsp of reduced calorie mayonnaise
• Large pinch of black pepper
• 4 slices of cucumber
• A small wedge of lettuce, the equivalent to 2 tbsp when shredded7

4. Soft cheese and salad sandwich

Ingredients

• 2 thick slices of wholemeal bread
• 2 tbsp medium fat soft cheese
• 3cm piece of cucumber, finely chopped
• 20g celery (about ⅔ of a stick), finely chopped
• Small wedge of lettuce, to give 2 tbsp when shredded
• Pinch of black pepper or paprika, optional8

5. Super versatile meatballs

Ingredients

• ½ medium onion , roughly chopped
• 85g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 200g lean pork mince
• 200g turkey mince
• A grating of nutmeg
• 1 tbsp plain flour, plus more for dusting
• Rapeseed oil for frying
• 1 tbsp butter
• 400ml of hot beef stock
• 2 tbsp single cream9

4 healthy kids’ snack ideas

Children need 2-3 snacks per day spaced apart in between meals.

Snacks should be considered “mini meals”, made up of 3 or more different food groups so that children get a variety of nutrients.

Keep reading for recipes on:

• Chocolate dipped tangerines served with crackers
• Rainbow fruit skewers served with yoghurt, swirled with almond butter
• Peanut butter stuffed dates, served with a cup of milk
• Harissa sweet potato wedges

1. Chocolate dipped tangerines

Ingredients

• 1 tangerine, peeled and segmented
• 10g dark chocolate, melted¹¹

2. Rainbow fruit skewers

Ingredients

• 7 raspberries
• 7 hulled strawberries
• 7 tangerine segments
• 7 cubes peeled mango
• 7 peeled pineapple chunks
• 7 peeled kiwi fruit chunks
• 7 green grapes
• 7 red grapes
• 14 blueberries¹¹

3. Peanut butter stuffed dates

Ingredients

• 6 medjool dates
• 6 tsp peanut butter
• A sprinkle of cinnamon¹²

4. Harissa sweet potato wedges

Ingredients

• 1kg sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges
• 1 tbsp harissa paste
• soured cream and chives, to serve¹³

Some other school lunches advice

Help keep your child’s school lunch nice and fresh by:

• Putting it in a proper lunch bag or lunchbox.
• Make sure the bag/lunchbox is leak-proof!
• Keep cold food chilled with an ice tray or pack.
• Keep hot food separate to the cold food.
• Don’t try and keep lunch cool with a frozen drink.¹⁴
• If your child is a fussy eater, use an “easy lunchbox”, a lunchbox with different compartments to keep all the different ingredients separate for them. If there’s something in particular they don’t like, it won’t contaminate mix with the rest of the food in their packed lunch.¹⁵
• Don’t just stick to standard sandwiches, lunch box ideas involving wraps and pots of fillings are more exciting for children to put together and enjoy.
• Always add some salad and veg to your child’s lunch box; it’s an easy way to make sure they get their 5 a day. Ideas include: carrot sticks, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, celery shapes, and lettuce leaves.¹⁶
• Add in some bite-sized fruit that’s easy to eat. Try chopped-up pieces of apple, peeled satsuma segments, halved strawberries, a small handful of blueberries, grapes that have been cut in half, or small slices of melon.¹⁶
• Tinned fruit can also be included as one of your child’s 5 a day, so make sure you add them into their lunch box too. Tip: Choose fruit that’s in juice over fruit that’s in syrup, to avoid extra unnecessary sugar.¹⁶

The final say

Hopefully you’re tempted by these lunch box ideas and can’t wait to give them a try…

Remember, you don’t have to rigidly stick to the recipes. It’s possible to swap out some of the ingredients, depending on what your children do and don’t like - just make sure they’re just as healthy.

Last updated: 5 September 2022