Nutritional Science & Dietetics

Child Nutrition

Childhood nutrition involves making sure that children eat healthy foods to help them grow and develop normally, as well as to prevent obesity and future disease.

The traditional or mainstream approach to good childhood nutrition is to follow suggestions based on dietary guidelines that are appropriate for a child's age and development level and that have been developed and recommended by government, research, and medical professionals. The guidelines include selections from different food groups to provide the vitamins and minerals young bodies need for natural growth and activity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Guide Pyramid recommends how many servings a day a child should eat of each food group, such as milk, vegetables, fruits, fats, and meats, and asserts that by sticking closely to the guidelines, parents can ensure their children get a well-balanced diet that supplies the vitamins, minerals and calories they need to support growing bodies and active lifestyles. However, in this age of what has been called "advanced medicine," there are those who seek to understand why so many among us, especially children, suffer from so much serious illness.