Food Pyramid For Children

Children need age-appropriate nutrition – this also applies to the food pyramid! Adult health comes from childhood nutrition. Here you can find out what energy requirements a child has in which age group, and how to feed your child healthily and appropriately for children!

Eat healthy for kids

The food pyramid provides a good and clear guide to a healthy and balanced diet. This is doubly important for children:

1. they are growing
2. learn in childhood the nutritional behavior for the future

While the food pyramid for adults is primarily designed for low-calorie food and high protein, the focus for children is on avoiding false and deficiency symptoms of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements.

Malnutrition isn’t about eating too little – it’s about eating the wrong foods. In addition to physical impairments, deficiency symptoms also lead to poor concentration, fatigue, and loss of performance. A wrong diet can have psychological and physical consequences.

Food pyramid for children

The food pyramid is slightly modified for children. Basically, the same principle applies: you should eat a lot of the base and as little as possible of the top.

This is how the food pyramid for children is structured every day:

Stage 1 – Drinks

6 servings of drinks a day, of which at least 3 are water, but 3 may also be low-sugar juices, teas, or juice spritzers. Cocoa and milk drinks or lemonades do not count as drinks.

Stage 2 – Fruits and Vegetables

5 servings of fruit and vegetables, ideally 3 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruit. A natural fruit juice drink is also healthy, but this should be balanced in terms of calories with the energy requirement.

Tip: How about, for example, homemade carrot juice without a juicer? For the kids, it can also be diluted with orange juice.

Stage 3 – Filling supplements

4 servings of filling side dishes – cereals, potatoes, pasta, bread. For a high-fiber diet, the whole grain variety is preferable.

Stage 4 – Dairy products

3 servings of milk or milk products. The calcium it contains is particularly important for children, as it plays an essential role in the formation of teeth, bones, and growth. If a child does not tolerate lactose, lactose-free products are also healthy, but a dairy-free diet should be agreed upon with the pediatrician.

Stage 5 – Animal Products & Fats

1 serving of meat, eggs, or fish. The parents like to eat meat, but only a little of it should go to the children’s side of the table. Although animal foods contain valuable ingredients, they often also contain more fat than a child needs in a day.

2 small servings of vegetable fats or butter also complement the diet at this stage.

Stage 6 – Sweets

Of course, a portion of sweets is also allowed in the food pyramid for children! Here, however, it is important to know the child’s energy requirements, since high-fat meals must also be counted among the extras at the top of the pyramid.

Sweet without sin

Alternatively, healthy snacking is also possible with homemade yogurt or quark with pureed fruit and a little honey. So there are two levels of the food pyramid in self-made ice cream!

Does your child love cocoa?

Then use real cocoa powder and sweeten it very sparingly – this is how you combine “healthy” with “chocolate” without turning the pyramid upside down!

Energy needs of age groups

The basal metabolic rate of children is not defined solely by height and weight, as is the case with adults. Because children are growing and have to adapt their diet to the respective growth phases.

Of course, the values ​​are only a guide, as children have different activity levels. No distinction is made between boys and girls in the children’s groups – the energy requirements of children are not primarily based on gender. In later years, however, girls usually have a 5-8% lower basal metabolic rate.

Age in years – Energy requirement in kcal/day

• 1-2 years 1100-1200
• 3-4 years 1200-1400
• 5-6 years 1300-1600
• 7-8 years 1500-1700
• 9-10 years 1600-1900
• 11-12 years 1800-2200
• 13-14 years 2200-2600

Health of tomorrow

Childhood nutrition defines adult health. Bad eating habits are implemented, so children should learn to eat healthily as early as possible.

However, a healthy diet can prevent the development of these diseases of civilization in adulthood:

• Type 2 diabetes mellitus
• osteoporosis
• Caries
• coronary artery strictures
• obesity
• eating disorder

Eating out

If the children take part in meals in kindergarten or at school, it is advisable to also take this into account when eating at home. With small children, for example, the building blocks of the food pyramid can be cut out and put together to form a meal plan: What kind of building blocks were there in kindergarten, and what is still missing today? In this way, children learn in a playful way how to eat a healthy and balanced diet.

Tip: There are also memory songs for the food pyramid – because cooking is even more fun with music – even for the little ones!