Healthy eating for all ages

Babies and toddlers

Breastmilk is the best food for your baby. It gives them all the nutrients that they need to grow, and breastfeeding is a great way to bond with your baby. It’s common to feel some discomfort when you first start breastfeeding, but it soon feels quite natural. If breastfeeding isn’t going well for you and your baby, try some new positions or techniques – the Raising Children website has helpful tips.

Raising Children has lots of advice on breastfeeding and bottle-feeding your baby. At some point, you’ll need to wean your baby off breastmilk. The Raising Children website also has tips to help you move your baby onto other foods.

One-year-olds can eat at the table with the whole family – and they can eat what you are eating. Just mash or mince it up, but avoid very spicy or very salty foods. By two years old, they can start eating finger foods, like diced vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, and bite-sized pieces of fruit.

Like so many other parts of life, kids learn by watching you, so show them that you enjoy healthy eating. Now is a good time to cut down on fast foods and packaged biscuits, and to be a healthy role model for your kids.

Offer your kids a mix of healthy foods. They may not eat everything you offer the first time around. If they don’t like something, try again in a few weeks.

School-age kids

Breakfast is a really important start to the day. It’s often a mad rush to get your family out the door, but breakfast can be quick and easy. Cereal or toast doesn’t take long to prepare, and can reduce the chance of unhealthy snacking later in the day.

Kids will eat what is available, so try to have healthy snacks in the house, rather than biscuits or packets of chips. If they really are hungry, snacks like fruit, nuts, a piece of toast or some yoghurt will fill the gap just fine.

Try to fill your child’s lunchbox with healthy foods – sandwiches made with wholegrain bread, fruit and vegetables, yoghurt, or hard-boiled eggs. Get them involved in making their lunch, so they can learn about making healthy food choices.

Feeding Our Families has ideas for quick, healthy – and often low-cost – meals.

Raising Children has great tips on healthy eating for kids at different ages. The Nutrition Toolkit has more ideas for helping your kids to stay fit and healthy.

Teens

Encourage your teen to eat different kinds of food from the four food groups:

• Teenagers need at least three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit every day.
• They need at least six servings every day of breads and cereals, which provide carbohydrates, fibre and other nutrients. They are a great source of energy for growth, sport and fitness, and ideal to meet the demands of intense physical activity.
• Teenagers need at least three servings of milk and milk products every day, preferably low fat. Milk and milk products (such as cheese, yoghurt and ice cream) are valuable sources of calcium and protein. High-calcium foods are needed to build strong bones during the teenage years.
• Teens need one or two servings each day of lean meats, chicken, seafood, eggs and dried beans, peas and lentils. These foods are important sources of protein, iron and other nutrients. Teenagers need them for growth, mental and physical activity, and sports.

Other healthy eating tips for teens

Teenagers need to drink at least six to eight glasses of water every day. They need to drink more during hot weather and when they are very active (especially before, during and after sports events).

Eat regular meals and snacks, but limit foods high in fat, salt and sugar - encourage your teen to try low fat varieties of milk, cheese and yoghurt.

Keep sugary foods and drinks to mealtimes to protect teeth from decay, and eat meals without adding extra salt.

Many fast foods, takeaways and snacks are high in fat, salt and/or sugar. This includes chocolate bars, muesli bars, potato chips, French fries, doughnuts, pies, sweets, fruit leathers and soft drinks. Try lower fat takeaways include rice and noodle based takeaways, burgers and kebabs, crumbed or grilled fish instead of battered fish, thick chunky chips instead of thin chips, and fruit.

Make sure your teen eats enough for growth and physical activity - they ned more energy (calories) and nutrients than ever before, to help them grow.

Diabetes prevention

Insulin in our bodies helps to convert the glucose we receive from food into energy. Diabetes is a condition where your body doesn’t have enough insulin to do this. We can avoid developing type-2 diabetes by eating healthier foods and doing moderate exercise for half an hour each day.

Type-2 diabetes

This is the most common form of diabetes in New Zealand, and it is preventable. You can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, and avoiding fatty foods.

Risk factors

There are some groups of New Zealanders who are more likely to develop diabetes, and if you fall into two or more of the following groups, you should see your doctor for a diabetes check:

• You are overweight
• You have a family history of diabetes
• You are European, and over 40 years of age
• You are of Māori, Pacific or Asian descent and over 30 years of age
• You have given birth to large babies (9lbs/4kg or over)
• You have had high blood glucose levels during pregnancy
• You have high cholesterol or high blood pressure

A doctor can test you for diabetes or pre-diabetes, a stage where glucose levels are high, but not high enough to diagnose diabetes. A diagnosis of pre-diabetes can give you a chance to change your exercise and eating habits, to avoid onset of type-2 diabetes.

Type-1 diabetes

People whose bodies do not create insulin have type-1 diabetes. Most people with type-1 diabetes develop it as children or teenagers, and it is not caused by diet or lifestyle. There is no cure, but it can be controlled by insulin injection and healthy eating habits.

Diabetes in pregnancy

Some women develop diabetes during pregnancy (known as gestational diabetes). A pregnant woman’s body requires two to three times the normal amount of insulin, and if her body doesn’t produce this, it leads to high levels of glucose in her blood.

In most cases, gestational diabetes can be managed by diet and exercise during the pregnancy. It usually goes away after the baby is born, as the body no longer needs high levels of insulin.

Useful websites