Diet Menu for a Child

Overview

If your child is overweight, the only way to get her back within a healthy weight range is to lower the amount of calories she takes in on a daily basis and to try to ensure that she makes healthier food choices. Easier said than done, true, but this customizable sample diet plan may give you some ideas for diet options both of you can live with.

Breakfast

For breakfast, serve your child one fried or scrambled egg. Do not use butter or oil to cook the egg, instead spray the pan lightly with a nonstick cooking spray. You may use 1 tsp. of butter to spread on a piece of wholegrain toast to serve with the egg. Half a grapefruit, an orange, or a handful of berries will provide needed vitamin C while helping fill your child's stomach. As a beverage, serve him 8 oz. of low-fat milk.

Lunch

Lunch may consist of a sandwich served on pita or whole wheat bread. The sandwich should consist of several slices of meat---sliced roast beef, turkey or ham (avoid anything fatty like salami or bologna). Peanut butter and jelly is also okay, as long as you go very light on the jelly. As kids tend to be very hungry at lunch, have your child fill up on both fruit and vegetables---a large apple, an orange, a banana or some berries for the fruit course, and some baby carrots or carrot sticks served with a tablespoon of low fat or nonfat dressing for the veggies. For a beverage, you may use a juice box or pouch, but check to make sure it's 100 percent fruit juice and is not sweetened with corn syrup or any other type of high-calorie additive.

Dinner

A tasty dinner might consist of 3 oz. of lean meat that is baked, roasted or grilled (never fried or cooked with any type of sauce). Accompany the meat with a cup of cooked vegetables---beans are good, so is broccoli, squash, carrots and mushrooms. Corn is okay, if a bit starchy. Sweet potatoes are fine, but avoid white potatoes. In addition to the cooked vegetables, serve a tossed salad with a small amount (no more than 2 tbsp.) of low-fat, low-calorie salad dressing. Serve 1 cup of low-fat milk as a beverage.

Snacks

Popcorn is a good low-calorie snack, at least if you do not pop it in oil or drench it in melted butter. There are a number of different types and flavors of light, low-fat microwave popcorn, and if you can find microwave popcorn in single-size serving bags, this will help you to limit portion size. Baked, low-fat tortilla chips and fresh salsa are also a healthy snack, as are sugar-free popsicles or homemade popsicles made from pure fruit juice.

"Ants on a Log" is a snack that is fun for kids to make as well as to eat: fill celery sticks with low-fat peanut butter or cream cheese, then sprinkle the "logs" with raisins to make the "ants." Smoothies are also popular with kids and fun to make: just toss some berries in the blender with a banana, a cup of low-fat yogurt, a splash of low-fat milk, and (if needed) a few ice cubes to thicken it up. You can also dress up plain old fruit to make it a bit more fun: cut up apples, pineapple or melons (for example) into cubes, then stick toothpicks in them to make fruit "canapes." You can even thread fruit cubes onto skewers to make a fruit "shish kebab." For a dessert splurge, try making a kebab alternating strawberries, blueberries and pineapple chunks with small cubes of angel food cake, which is the lightest, lowest-fat type of cake you can find.

Fast Food Choices

Most kids love a trip to the nearest fast-food restaurant, and most parents love the convenience of grabbing dinner on the go. The problem is that most fast-food restaurant meals tend to be calorie-laden and not particularly healthy. Lately, however, many of the biggest fast-food chains have introduced customizable kid's meals, many of them with healthier (and less fattening) options. If you must get a burger, make it a small, single-patty one, without the cheese, if possible. Chicken nuggets will usually be lower in calories, but be sure not to use any honey-based dipping sauces. Skip the soda in favor of a juice box or skim milk, and pass on the fries in favor of fruit or a side salad.