It has always been a tradition for a lot of our African homes whereby mother(s) wakes up and hastily decide meal for everyone at home will feed not minding the implication to the physical or mental health and the nutritional balance needed for the body mass, healthy family is one who plans their meal, follow it up consistently.
Believe me, the testimony is always there for such people who categorically have a meal plan, you'll notice how efficient such individuals come out when tasks are given. Also, there is a higher tendency to save up more having your Home Meal Plan and averting most man-made stress.
The health of a family depends to a large extent on how effectively the nutritional needs of each family member are met.
Family members differ in various ways such as age, sex, health, and responsibilities, and their nutritional needs vary accordingly.
An understanding of these characteristics of different stages of people in the family circle and their nutritional needs will help you amount to effective planning and preparation of family meals.
Let's look at the age range
The different age range of people in the family include:
1. Infants (0-1 year)
2. The Toddler (1-2 years)
3. Preschool Children (2-5 years)
4. The Adolescent (12-18 years)
5. The Adult
6. The grandparents.
Each range has different characteristics that influence their nutritional needs and meal planning, which I'll state below:
📍Dietary needs of infants (0-1 year)📍
Infancy covers the period from birth to one year, it is a period of rapid growth.
The characteristics of infants which influence their nutritional needs include:
1. They grow rapidly. A child's birth weight is normally doubled after the sixth month in most cases. Within 3 months, a baby gains about 20 percent of the birth length.
At this stage, the different organs of the body e.g the brain and the nerves are developing. Hence the child needs good food that can promote growth.
2. Healthy infants are active. The infants normally kick about using both hands and legs. Thus, he needs energy foods both for his exercises and body processes.
3. Infants are more liable than adults to many deficiency diseases. They, therefore, require a good supply of vitamins, especially Vitamin C, A and D.
In the latter half of infancy, milk should still form a major part of the diet. Breast milk is the best for the infant. A healthy infant needs about "160m/kg/ a day of breast milk".
Vitamin supplements should be added to infants' food.
Infants need calcium for strong bones and teeth. They can obtain this from breast milk or formula (through bottle feeding)
They also need iron for the production of red blood cells and to prevent anemia.
After the first six months of an infant's life, he can be introduced to sources of iron such as liver, egg yolk, etc.
Initially, cooked baby foods or commercial preparations could be used, but as the child approaches the toddler age, the baby may start sharing more and more of the family meals.
To be continued...
STAY HEALTHY! STAY SAFE
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