New Food Guide Pyramid Guidelines for Preschoolers

It seems many parents are concerned about the eating habits of their little ones as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced new healthy eating guidelines for preschoolers.  Asserting their independence, preschoolers often have sporadic eating habits at best sometimes willing to try foods and other times refusing to try anything unfamiliar.

In 2005, the USDA announced the myPyramid, a user friendly eating guideline.  Last year a more population specific division of myPyramid was launched for pregnant and breastfeeding women.  Now, for the greatest concentration of picky eaters the USDA is targeting 2-5 year olds.  Based on the most recent (2005) Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the interactive site promises to help caregivers and parents:

• increase kids physical activity and develop healthy eating habits
• determine if kids are growing as they should be using body mass index (BMI) and height-for-age charts
• Create customized eating plans which can be printed and posted at home

Preschoolers do tend to be picky eaters leaving parents to wonder if they are getting all the nutrients they need.  Teaching healthy eating habits at an early age can make a big impact not only in their healthy but also in the future food choices they make.  The new healthy eating tool boasts age appropriate information on food choices and calling on parents to serve as role models. 

What You Can Do
Mealtimes can be a frustrating experience with a strong willed preschooler, but trust in the fact they do actually listen to you and pay attention to the foods brought into the house.  It is important to be patient and understand that a child will not starve themselves so if they do not feel like eating what is served for dinner- fret not their appetites will get the best of them eventually.  The new preschooler myPyramid is a great tool for the parents and children in regards to what a well balanced meal means to a preschooler.  A young child’s tummy is much smaller than that of an adults and you may be pleasantly surprised when you discover your preschooler eats more of a variety of foods than you think.

Tags: preschoolers

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Baby Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.