Why You Should Feed Your Child Dried Fruits, Nuts and Seeds

Once the child starts going to school, the mother’s concern would now be on how she can increase the concentration and learning skills of her child and the right food here plays a critical role. One of the best ways is to make them have nuts, dried fruits and seeds in their daily diet. These not only provide healthy fats and proteins, but also micronutrients that play an important role in boosting memory and immunity of the child. Here we give you a lowdown on nuts and dried fruits, plus interesting ideas to include them in your child’s diet.

Why to Feed Nuts to Children

This includes healthy nuts such as almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, and pistachios etc.

• Benefits – Daily consumption of nuts contributes significantly to the child’s vitamin E, omega-3 fats, fiber and protein requirement. Nuts are also a good source of nutrients like zinc, iron, calcium and B-complex vitamins. These nutrients help build up a child’s immunity, concentration and general health. If from the early childhood the habit of nut consumption is established, it would help keep cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar levels in control which will help in their adult lives.
• Watch Outs- Studies suggest that nuts may trigger severe allergic reactions in some children, so you need to be a bit watchful when feeding your child these. This would include hidden nuts in products like chocolates, breakfast cereals, namkeens, spreads etc. Nuts are also dense source of energy and particularly rich in fats. Excessive consumption, along with other high calories foods, may lead to weight gain.
• How to add to the daily diet- These can be given simply as snacks (trail mix) or in powdered form. The powdered form can be practically added to all the recipes your child consumes like cereals, gravies, chapattis, dals, soups, salads, porridge, pulao, sandwich, pizza, pasta etc.

Benefits of Dried Fruits fro Your Child

This includes raisins, currants, dates, prunes, dried apricots, apples and figs etc.

• Benefits- Not only are these a dense source of energy but also are rich in fiber, potassium, iron and antioxidants like polyphenols. These nutrients together have a large spectrum of health benefits and are particularly beneficial in boosting the immunity of your child.
• Watchouts- Since these are rich in calories and particularly sugars, too much consumption of these is not advised as it may lead to dental caries in the child.
• How to add to the daily diet- these can be given to your child to snack on. They can also be added to their breakfast cereals, porridge, sandwich, pasta etc.You can soak a handful of any one or mixed dried fruit over night. This can be then mashed to a paste. This can be used as a spread on their bread/chapatti. This spread can also be used in dips/chutneys for their snacks like fries, fritters, pakoras, cutlets etc.

How Seeds Helpful for Children

This includes flaxseeds, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, and chia seeds.

• Benefits- These seeds help provide certain vital nutrients which are required for the healthy brain and physical development of your child. These are proteins, essential fatty acids like omega-3 and 6, vitamin E, calcium, iron, zinc etc.
• Watchouts- You need to check them for their freshness(by tasting) as the high oil content of these seeds make them prone to rancidity.
• How to add to daily diet- Roast and powder these. Now, use it any dough, curry, soup, cereals, porridge and salads. You can also add these to dips, sandwich spreads or chutneys.