How to Boost Child's Energy

Children require a lot of energy as they are active throughout the day. They also require ample of energy to carry out their routine activities like playing, studying etc. Read on to learn how you can boost your child’s energy so that he or she does not get tired easily.Boosting your child’s energy is an important and not too difficult task. Children who are not eating well tend to lose weight, get tired, and these can affect their academic performances. Children need to get more calories from food and drinks to gain energy. This helps them to gain weight, raise energy levels, and thus stay active. Sometimes children may need feeding or nutritional supplement recommended by their paediatrician. In this articleWays to Boost Child’s EnergyMore Meals and Fewer SnacksHighest Calories First; Lowest Calories LastAdd Extra Calories to the FoodsFeeding or Nutritional SupplementsMore Energy Boosting IdeasWays to Boost Child’s EnergyThe only way to boost energy is to get more calories in your children’s diet. The three basic things that you can do to meet the needs are as follows:Make your kids eat more meals and fewer snacks.Serve foods that are highest in calories first and lowest in calories at the last.Add extra calories to your kids’ foods and avoid giving foods with empty calories.More Meals and Fewer SnacksAllow your children to only eat between the meals and snacks. Serve them at least 3 meals a day and less than 3 snacks. Munching in between meals can reduce your kids’ appetite. Similar to this, offer them less drinks as they fill your children up and lower the appetite. It is better if you avoid giving drinks between meals.Highest Calories First; Lowest Calories LastYour kids would not like to eat number of times, so the secret is to offer them food with the highest calories first. The more calories the food has, the higher the energy it will provide. Then if your kids are still hungry, you can serve foods that offer lower calories. Highest calorie foods for kids less than year of age are breast milk, infant cereals, and strained meats. Foods that are lower in calories for them are custards, pureed or mashed fruits, mashed vegetables, strained desserts, and yogurts. For kids more than 1 year of age, there are plenty of high calorie foods like meat, poultry, fish, fattened milk, cottage cheese, nuts, etc. Fruits, vegetables, juices, and yogurt provide lower calories.Add Extra Calories to the FoodsFor babies, instead of water, you can mix infant cereal with expressed breastmilk or formula. Add a little oil to the meat and vegetable baby food. With fruits and desserts, you can add table cream. For bigger kids, the easy way is to cook the food with fats, such as oils, cheese, sauces, creams, and different kinds of fatty spreads, that could include non-hydrogenated margarine, cream cheese, mayonnaise, peanut butter or even chocolate spread that he would love. Use oils such as corn, olive, canola, or safflower oil.Use salad dressings, sour cream, table cream, or whipped cream. This will make the food much tastier. If you want to improve on the amount of calorie in the food, powdered carbohydrate is also a good option. You can sprinkle the powder on cereal, fruits, or desserts, or mix the powder with homemade products. You can also add the powder to juices and fruit drinks, or stir it into soups and casseroles.Feeding or Nutritional SupplementsTo help your kids gain weight, the paediatrician may recommend feeding or nutritional supplements. It is a liquid or powder that you can add to your kids’ drinks. These supplements give your kids the extra calories they need, and thus boost their energy. You should continue to give your kids the supplement until the paediatrician asks you to stop giving them after checking the kids’ weight and analyzing their needs.More Energy Boosting IdeasWhen you are buying groceries, look for milk or milk products that are having a high percentage of fat. Increase the percentage of cream intake day by day in your kids’ diet. Wrap more meats in the sandwiches. Substitute water with milk in recipes. Add sweetened whipped cream to desserts and sour cream to cooked foods. Melt cheese on meats and nachos or add grated cheese or foods your kids like to have with cheese. Choose higher fat yogurts. Add ice cream to milkshakes and other desserts. Keep an eye on your kids’ diet and everything will be fine.Which foods can help to boost energy of kids? How ensure that kids do not get tired easily? What are the causes behind low energy in kids? Discuss here.