Whether it's training for a soccer game or playing a backyard game of catch, children's athletic performance, development, and growth depend largely on eating the right foods.
Unfortunately, most children (and adults) forget just how important nutrition is to good health and athletic performance. Many children, especially in the years before puberty, have poor eating habits (skipping breakfast, eating the same foods day after day). As a result, their diets are missing nutrients and their growth and athletic performance may be impaired.
It is important to recognize that children are not miniature adults; they have special nutritional needs. It is especially important to meet their nutritional needs as they enter puberty, when they experience rapid growth as they undergo hormonal changes marking the beginning of adolescence.
The most appropriate diet for the youth athlete is one that:
Such a diet can be achieved by planning intake to include a variety of foods on the USDA's MyPlate [1]. Especially for children, MyPlate serves as a visual guide for choosing foods and planning healthful meals.
As parent, you should promote the three basic principles that are key to a high-performance diet:
To improve your child's diet, you can:
Variety and balance in the family menu will underscore the importance of eating different foods to provide the range of nutrients needed for growth and development. Ideally, this is achieved by regularly scheduled meals at home plus nutritious snacks [6]. Providing nutritious meals around hectic practice schedules and away from home [10] is a particular challenge. Workouts may disrupt your child's meal schedule, resulting in a greater reliance on convenient fast food or the child eating alone at home before or after the family eats. As a result, it is very important to help your child make nutritious choices wherever he eats, whether it is at a fast food [11], family-style or ethnic restaurant [12], a grocery or convenience store [13], or on an airplane, or while competing in a foreign country [14].
Parents should educate children about basic facts about the different food groups and how different foods help or hurt athletic performance. Attempts to teach children nutritional concepts and information should take into account their age and developmental level (for example, by explaining to a 7 year old that foods containing carbohydrates, like bread and pasta, provide energy for their muscles, and that dairy foods like milk help build strong bones).
Revised November 19, 2013
Links:
[1] https://mail.momsteam.com/node/3478
[2] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/dangers_of_supplements.shtml
[3] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/vitamins_primer.shtml
[4] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/minerals_primer.shtml
[5] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/eating_behaviors_and_patterns.shtml
[6] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/healthy_snacks.shtml
[7] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/nutritional_counseling.shtml
[8] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/choosing_nutrient_dense_foods.shtml
[9] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/special_fluid_needs.shtml
[10] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/food_on_the_go.shtml
[11] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/food_on_the_go.shtml#fastfood
[12] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/food_on_the_go.shtml#familystyle
[13] https://mail.momsteam.com/alpha/features/nutrition/food_on_the_go.shtml#grocery
[14] https://mail.momsteam.com/node/272