Diet Menu for a Child

Diet menus for a child should never be overly restricted and should always include healthy options from the five food groups. Children need to eat a healthy, balanced diet to support growth and development. Daily exercise should always accompany a healthy diet for children to promote your child's overall well-being and weight maintenance.

Healthy Food Options

Diet menus for a child should revolve around whole-grain breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and dairy products, and high-protein meats, nuts and beans. The first step for parents to take when creating a diet menu for their child is to make a daily log of everything their child eats and drinks during the day for at least a week. A daily food and drink log will allow parents to see what their child's current daily diet consists of and show them areas in which they can improve to create a healthy diet plan.

For children who eat too much junk food and/or fast food, parents can replace such foods with healthy meals made at home from low-calorie foods. Parents can replace high-calorie foods such as hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries with grilled chicken, baked fries and a variety of fresh vegetable options. Snacks such as potato chips, candy and ice cream can be replaced with pretzels, fruit and frozen yogurt.

Parents often do not realize that many of the drinks such as sodas, fruit punch and sports drinks are high in sugar, calories and sodium and can add many empty calories to your child's diet. Try replacing high-calorie drinks with water, sugar-free drinks, juices and low-fat milk. When purchasing juice drinks, make sure they are 100 percent juice and not a low-juice and high-sugar and/or high-fructose syrup combination.

Positive Parent Reinforcement

It is imperative that parents never tell their children that they need to diet or that they are on a diet. Children are highly volatile and any negativity toward food can lead to possible future food problems and eating disorders. Instead of telling your child he is on a diet, use positive reinforcement to tell him the entire family is going to make better, healthy eating decisions.

Support your child's diet menu with regular exercise. Implement time limits on television and video games, and encourage your child to participate in activities such as playing outdoors, riding a bike, playing basketball and/or swimming. Children will also burn calories by helping around the house with daily chores such as taking out the trash or vacuuming the floors. Try creating time in the evening to participate in activities as a family such as going for walks or visiting a local park. Family activity time will allow the entire family to exercise together, increasing health and strengthening family bonds.