Stating that snacks consisting of nuts should be added for children who go to school without breakfast, Private Ümit Hospital Dietitian Şükriye Eral said, “We can add snacks instead of children going to school hungry. At least they will not be hungry until lunchtime.”
With the opening of schools, the nutrition patterns of young children started to change. Stating that children who go to the first lessons in schools, especially in the morning, skip breakfast, experts advise families to include snacks. Stating that children who go to school without breakfast should consume snacks consisting of nuts and yogurt, and that their evening meals should be determined according to lunch, Private Ümit Hospital Dietitian Şükriye Eral said, “If meat, chicken and fish are served for lunch at school, we can prepare dinner with vegetables.”
“We ask our parents to have blood tests done for their children”
Stating that children in the school period should have a blood test and should be given nutritional supplements according to the missing vitamin values, Dietitian Şükriye Eral said, “At the beginning of the semester, my suggestion to our parents is to have a blood test done for our children. We want to determine if we have possible diseases, if there are problems with our vitamin and mineral stores. Possible blood sugar problems and thyroid diseases. Currently, especially children with blood sugar problems may have sleep problems at the beginning of the semester, they may be prone to sleep, or when they are very hungry, they may experience hand and foot tremors and darkening of the eyes. They can be very sedentary, especially during breaks at school, or they may have distractions and lack of concentration during the break before eating. They may also fall asleep after eating and tend to fall asleep in class. This affects their academic success a lot. Especially in children with iron deficiency or vitamin D deficiency, it is difficult for them to wake up in the morning. In order to prevent these again, we need to supplement them either in the form of nutritional supplements or with supplements recommended by our doctors.”
“If breakfast is not eaten before going to school, we should add a snack”
Stating that snacks are important for children who do not eat breakfast, Eral said, “Breakfast is a very important meal, but sometimes our children do not prefer breakfast and prefer sleep more. Therefore, we can add snacks instead of children going to school hungry. At least we can take advantage of dates and nuts and add milk and yogurt group. This way, we don't send our children to school hungry again. They will be fine until noon. Please keep in touch with the school at lunchtime. We want to be in contact with their teachers during feeding times, and if they go to a private school, we want to be in contact with our children at school meals to see what they are eating. They can arrange their evening meals in harmony with their lunches. If they have meat, chicken and fish for lunch at school, we can prepare their dinner with vegetables. On the contrary, if they eat vegetables at school, let's try to make one of meat, chicken or legumes in the evening.”
“Let's not give children very high allowances so that they do not have a tendency to junk food”
Stating that the allowance restriction is important for children not to shop too much in school canteens, Private Ümit Hospital Dietitian Şükriye Eral used the following statements:
“The canteen is very important for us, but children sometimes tend to go to the canteen when they are bored. We can think of the canteen just like grocery stores. It is not a place to go when you are bored. We need to explain to our children that it is a place to go when we need something. Let's not give very high allowances to children so that they don't tend to eat junk food. They can buy water. They can already have nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds and milk in their snacks. Let's ask them to take them with them. We want our children to be aware that they will not get anything extra from school.”
İHA Haber Kodu: 20241012AW306667