5 Essential Nutrients for Healthy Children – Part 1: Fiber

I believe that both adults and children need to consume more fiber, a complex carbohydrate.  Our hectic lifestyles and on the go consumption of food often prevents both adults and children from consuming the much needed fiber in our daily diet.

Not consuming enough fiber results in constipation.  The next time you child is constipated evaluate their diet to see if the child is consuming enough whole grains.  Fiber also makes you feel full so you don’t consume on mindless calories and helps fight off type 2 diabetes, a disease which most of the children at high risk.

You can get fiber from lentils, beans, adding veggies and fruits to your diet. Replace all your white carbohydrates with brown or whole grain breads, pasta etc.

So how much fiber should your child eat?

According to the WebMD article, add 5 to your child’s age to figure out how many total grams of fiber your child should eat.  A 2 year old should be eating 7 grams of fiber a day.

My 2 year old recently had a bout with constipation or more like real hard stools as a result of me not paying close attention to her diet for a few days.  She would struggle and cry every time she would poop as the poop was rock solid.  After a lot of persuasion, more water and some fiber she stools returned to normal.  Now every time she refuses to eat her lentils or beans or veggies (fruits are hardly a problem with her), I remind her of the “ouchie ouchie” and low and behold she eats a few bites.