Denizli Private Surgery Hospital Dietitian Elif Topuz Ülkü emphasized that children should not go to bed full before going to bed at night; “Children should not go to bed full at night, if they go to bed full, they can get diabetes at an early age,” she said.
Private Surgery Hospital Dietitian Elif Topuz Ülkü made important warnings about the daily eating habits of school-age children and balanced nutrition and sleep. It is stated that it is important for children to consume enough water every day and at the same time, insufficient water intake can lead to health problems such as constipation. For this reason, it was emphasized that families should raise awareness of their children about water consumption. It was also stated that children should eat dinner a few hours after coming home from school, which will help them avoid over-fullness. It was pointed out that children should not go to bed full before going to sleep at night, if they go to sleep full, it leads to diabetes at an early age. It was stated that having dinners with different contents than lunches can contribute to children's feeling happier by increasing their nutritional diversity. It is important for parents to offer healthy and clean food to their children and to resist peer pressure. It is stated that unhealthy and attractive snacks offered in school canteens can negatively affect children's food preferences. For this reason, families are encouraged to contribute to the development of their children's palate and diet by offering healthy alternatives.
“Children should not go to bed full at night, they can get diabetes at an early age”
Dietitian Elif Topuz Ülkü emphasized that children should definitely consume water during the day. She stated that children should consume water regularly every day. At the same time, Ülkü stated that children should not go to bed full at night, if they go to bed full, they will get diabetes at an early age, “Water consumption is very important during the day. Sometimes we see that too much water consumption is taken due to toilet problems. But this leads to constipation and many problems. Therefore, we recommend regular water consumption, at least a liter of water consumption. When they go in the evening, we want them to have a dinner within a few hours of their arrival so that they are not too hungry. If the content of this dinner is a little different from the midday meal, the child will be visually happier. For example, if you have meatballs, you may prefer more vegetables in the evening or vice versa. We usually want to finish eating within a few hours before bedtime. So the child should not go to bed too full. He should not prepare himself for sugar at that age. For this reason, he/she can finish his/her meal within an hour, and he/she can apply the order as I mentioned with breakfast as soon as he/she gets up from bed,” he said.
“Children can consume unhealthy foods against peer pressure”
Dietitian Ülkü emphasized that it is critical for families to stand up to peer pressure as well as offering healthy and clean ingredients to their children. Unhealthy options in canteens, which may look more attractive, may affect children's preferences. For this reason, it is recommended that families contribute to the development of taste and order by offering healthy alternatives to their children, Ülkü said, “Of course, there is also a psychological side to this. Now, when you give something to your child, no matter how healthy and clean those ingredients are, the child has a hard time adapting if his/her friend next to him/her uses different eye-pleasing canteen work. Of course, it is a difficult process for families here, but it is important that they push them a little bit in order to form a palate and order in the future. Of course, there can be products like pastries and cakes that they make at home. There is no such thing that there will always be only fruits and nuts, but we don't prefer packaged products and bakery products that we don't know what goes into them and that we don't make ourselves. Obviously, the biggest problem we have is that the menus are too high in carbohydrates and as snacks we are given products with too much sugar content such as the cake fruit juice I mentioned earlier. Now I don't want to put blame here, but usually when there are things that children like, these kinds of things usually come out because they are wanted to be eaten, but the quality of what is eaten is very important.”
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