The festive food season is upon us and the temptation to overindulge is great, especially as excessive sugar and salt foods on offer are rife around Christmas. And for parents with young children (and even with older children) this can feel like a minefield.
Here Melanie Taylor, Paediatric Dietetic Assistant Practitioner with Nottingham CityCare’s community paediatric dietetic team who provide advice on food and nutrition to young people and their families explains how to keep it healthy for young ones this Christmas.
Firstly, it is Christmas so enjoy and have fun and don’t get overly stressed about your children eating too much of the higher saturated fat, sugar and salt options. If for most of the year they don’t eat these foods, then a few days of consuming them will not have much impact on their long-term health or interaction with foods.
Snacks in themselves are not the issue, it is the type of snacks. Some snacks can be a source of high saturated fat, sugar and salt like crisps, chocolates, sweets, shop bought cakes, fizzy drinks. For little ones (under-fives), these types of snacks should be avoided as much as possible, as high salt intake could risk dehydration and high sugar options can lead to tooth decay.
Healthy Alternatives
There are plenty of colourful, tasty and healthier alternatives also around Christmas like unsalted finely chopped nuts, roasted chestnuts, low-salt crackers and bread sticks, small cubes of hard cheeses, yoghurt, oatcakes, vegetable sticks with plain yoghurt and herbs or hummus dip, fruity breads like malt loaf, cranberries, figs and other dried fruits, satsumas and other fresh seasonal fruit. And keep it colourful and fun – for example as well as the food, the tablecloth, napkins, Christmas crackers, plates – it really is all about marketing!
For the older child, sometimes forbidding or restricting the high saturated fat, salt and sugar options may make your child want more, especially if they see you and others enjoying them. So when serving these foods, do ensure that you also serve the healthier alternatives at the same time. Be a role model, openly enjoy the healthy options and try not to gorge yourself on the less healthy options, however tempting!
Other quick tips:
- Ensure your child is hydrated by drinking plenty of water. If they are eating more salt than normal and rushing around with excitement, they may get dehydrated.
- Before going to parties, feed them a healthy meal consisting of fibre and protein scrambled egg or low salt/ sugar baked beans on toast followed by fruit. Fibre and protein tend to keep you fuller for longer, which will hopefully stop them bingeing on unhealthy snacks
- Try to limit the portions of high saturated fat, salt and sugar foods if part of the meal. See this website for more details on suitable portion sizes: https://infantandtoddlerforum.org/toddlers-to-preschool/portion-sizes-for-toddlers/toddler-portion-sizes-table/
- Make low-salt gravy for the roast dinner – look for low salt stock cubes and use the water that the vegetables are cooked in
- Be careful with rich puddings as it may upset small tummies. You can give them yoghurt and fresh fruit alternatives.
- Try and keep to your food routine during the festive period, though of course there will be exceptions including Christmas Day. Just be aware if there are large gaps between meals, little tummies will need something, and prevent the temptation of bingeing on the foods that we may not want them to eat. Fruit or veggie sticks with a small sandwich could help.
Useful links:
Healthy Eating for Children (bda.uk.com)
The Eatwell Guide - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Healthy snacks | British Dietetic Association (BDA)
lots of websites with ideas/recipes for festive healthy snacks for children, see below for examples:
Date published: 22 December 2022
