How does the diet affect a child's health?

About children's nutrition is said and written a lot, which is understandable: everyone wants the children to be full and healthy. However, among a multitude of factors, among the components of the ration calculated to within a milligram, an important point is often lost. And not even a moment, but a whole season ... That same season, in which it is necessary to feed the child. Sometimes this factor is missed even by nutritionists, and in fact, depending on the season of the year, there are significant changes in our body (and especially in the children's!), Various processes are changing, and such changes require appropriate "fine tuning" - including and with the help of a diet.On how the diet affects the health of the child - in our publication.

Impact factors

What is changing in the body, depending on the time of year?

The impact of summer heat or winter frost is felt by everyone. And whenever the seasons change, our body rebuilds the thermoregulation system. This system is very sensitive, reacts to heat or cold almost instantly, but without enough long-term adaptation, the "unusual" temperature will create additional stress on the body. "Of course, at home we try to create comfortable conditions, but this is not always possible, especially in summer heat.

Many people are meteosensitive and weather-dependent - that is, their condition depends on the weather and its changes. In infants, meteosensitivity is especially common - their bodies respond to pressure changes that the adult may not feel. Many mothers know that in windy weather, the children become restless, capricious, they are more puchit - this is due to the fact that the baby reacts to the pressure drop, due to which the wind also arises. So this natural factor must also be taken into account - for example, to exclude foods that cause increased gas production from the baby's diet: it is the expansion of gas bubbles in the intestine when the pressure is lowered, which is often a cause of concern.

The heat is more heavily transported in a moist stuffiness (for example, after a summer rainfall in the city), and it is much easier to catch a cold in cold autumn dampness. But also the lowered humidity, dry air are also harmful - more water is released during breathing (which means that this loss needs to be replenished with the addition of liquid in the diet), the mucous membranes and skin dry out - in such conditions, the risk of their damage and penetration of pathogens of various diseases, so, you need to take care of and immunity.

It directly affects our menu, it's so great when it becomes possible to feed the child fresh and healthy vitamin products right from the bed. However, the time of the year depends on the content of the substances we need, not only in vegetable dishes, but also in milk, eggs, fresh meat.

It was summer, summer ...

The most pleasant and useful time of the year is considered to be summer. Its advantages for children's health in general and for food in particular are known - sun, air and water, an abundance of fresh fruits ... You can only wish to make the most of this season in order to stock up on health for a whole year ahead - and ... go to summer problems.

Heat

Not everyone has air conditioners, let alone summer clothes, and there is nothing to say: in winter you can put more on yourself - in the summer often there is simply nothing to take off from yourself and the child. Even a completely naked person at a temperature above 30 ° C and high humidity feels noticeable discomfort, and when the temperature of the air is higher than body temperature - our system of thermoregulation is even hard ... For us in this situation there is only one salvation - water!

Everyone knows how our body "comes to life" with the arrival of sunny spring days after a long and dark winter.For such changes in our body is responsible for a special light-sensitive gland - epiphysis.In the children's summer menu should be a large, excessive (compared with other seasons) the amount of liquid - although not excessive, so as not to overload the cardiovascular system.Therefore, it is best not to drink children with sweet drinks and especially not "lemonades", which dry the mucous membrane more (due to acidity regulators), it quench thirst and diluted natural juices, fruit drinks, fruit drinks, mineral water without gas, fermented milk products (strictly followed the shelf life and storage conditions) and, of course, too strong tea.

If the stomach and intestines of the child are not accustomed to fruit and vegetable juice, do not rush into their introduction into the diet. This is an extra burden on the body, and without it, heat leads to stress, with which the baby's body "does not know how" to cope in full. For the same reason, it is not recommended to introduce complementary feeding to infants in hot weeks and months - unusual food will create additional stress, so it is better to wait until cooler weather is established. If the age of introduction of complementary foods has fallen to the beginning of summer, then you need to add new dishes with a small (2-3 weeks) delay in comparison with the terms for the rest of the year. Mother's milk is the most universal and correct food for the baby at any time of the year, and in the summer heat it is simply irreplaceable - the substances coming in with the mother's milk (including much needed water) are absorbed much better, and the composition of the mineral salts (whose consumption in summer increases, they are washed out with sweat) is the one that the baby needs.

Food allergy

Another seasonal problem for both mothers and children, not only nursing, but also older. With the abuse of certain foods (tomatoes, strawberries, citrus fruits, etc.), it can occur at any time of the year, but in summer the allergic reaction sometimes happens to those products that previously did not cause problems. This is due to the increase in the total number of allergens - just at this time, most plants bloom, there is more dust in the air, poplar fluff appears, etc. As a result, there is a so-called cross-allergy - a reaction to two allergens at once. Therefore, until the age of 5-7 years, you need to carefully introduce the child to the fruit. In summer, children grow particularly fast, so you need to take care of the building material for the body - proteins and calcium. Vegetable and fruit proteins are not enough for this, however, in the heat, children usually do not eat meat and fish dishes very willingly, and this food is digested worse (in the hot weather, the enzymatic activity of the stomach decreases). Therefore, it is better to cook a boiled egg or an omelette on milk in the morning, before the heat begins, and later in the evening - chilled curd dishes.

Golden autumn

Approximately from mid-August to the end of September, the "softest" period for our body begins - golden autumn, which should be used as much as possible to prepare the body for the winter, including by maintaining the summer high standard of fruits and vegetables. valuable products of this season - melons, melons and watermelons: September - the most "watermelon" month, and if the child without any problems perceives melons, watermelons should be on the table every day. Do not forget about berries, especially about bilberries and h The apples and carrots of fresh harvests are also a very valuable component of the autumn menu, and with pears and beets you need to be more careful: they create a fairly large load on the digestive system. In the autumn, with the approach of colds, meat and fish dishes, and with the onset of autumn dampness for children over 3 years will benefit from the addition of onions and a small amount of garlic: the phytoncids contained in them serve as an excellent preventive against traditional about starting at the time of seasonal epidemics of SARS.

And here is the winter

In the period of adaptation to winter weather, vitamins are especially needed, but not only "fruit and vegetable" - in the cold season, the need for fat-soluble vitamins is also growing in meat and by-products, fish, nuts and grains, and in fats themselves Well, and from fruit vegetables, special attention should be paid to citrus fruits (in December the most "tangerine season" starts), bananas and ... the most common, traditional, many undeservedly forgotten sauerkraut - the most valuable source vitamin organic acids, bioflavonoids and fiber. But you can give it only to children over 3 years old, little by little (up to 50 grams per day), best in salads. And, of course, winter is the time when domestic preparations and "frost" are most in demand - fruits, vegetables and berries of long-term storage, packed after quick and deep freezing. With the right preparation, such products are not much inferior to fresh ones, and in winter they are simply irreplaceable .

Spring road!

With the onset of spring, perhaps the most difficult time for the human body begins. Accumulated fatigue from stresses of the cold and dark period, in the products of less and less vitamins - no matter how you try to preserve them, there is a gradual destruction ... In addition, a very important reason for all the familiar "spring fatigue" is, oddly enough, an increase in the duration of daylight hours. It would seem that the lighter the better ... but the body is simply not "ready" for an increase in its own activity, which is started by the "third eye" that is already familiar to us - the epiphysis, adding to it frequent spring cyclones, pada pressure, a large temperature difference during the day, which is felt not only on the street, but even in a well-heated room ...

In such conditions, the usual nutrients - proteins, fats, carbohydrates - are clearly not enough for the normal functioning of the body. Of great importance are the so-called informational factors of nutrition, which are necessary not so much for the "building" of the organism as for the regulation of its activity: essential oils, organic acids, phytoncides, antioxidants.In meat, dairy, cereal products or not, but in fresh or at least frozen greens, vegetables, fruits is abundant, which, by the way, is one of the reasons why no vitamin-mineral complexes can replace natural vegetable products on our table. , alas, these valuable substances are also gradually destroyed during storage ... Of course, to give the child a fresh, "live" greens. It is not necessary to look for early greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes - "garden" of sprouted onions, watercress, spinach, etc. can be arranged without any special efforts on any well-lit windowsill. Dishes from such fresh greens can be given to children over 3 years of age and then neatly, so as not to cause problems with the intestines.And for children from one and a half years as a source of irreplaceable biologically active substances i seedlings of cereal crops (wheat, rye, corn) are not bad.

Dishes from sprouts in our time are perceived by most Russians as exotic, associated) with different health systems, as something alien - but few people know that our ancestors just such dishes and escaped from spring hypovitaminosis: "wheat sludge" (mass of grains and sprouts ) as a popular curative and restorative means is described in the herbalists of the 17th century, porridge, jelly were cooked from sprouted grains, added them to soups - well, and nowadays, children are more to taste fruit salads and mixtures with sprouted grains, It is not difficult to sprout seeds - you just need to remember that they get the highest nutritional value when the sprout has just pierced and does not exceed 2 mm in length.