Growing Healthy Kids
Kids need high quality sleep, high quality nutrition, and lots of play to grow healthy bones. Bones need the raw materials of proteins, vitamins and minerals to lay down more bone – but they also do not grow without force being placed across the bone. Form follows function!
Unfortunately, today’s “kid food” typically means highly processed foods that make it easy for the kids to chew and simple for the parents to prepare and clean up. Chicken nuggets, French fries, fruit and veggie pouches are examples of highly processed foods that do not require complex oral manipulation (aka, chewing!) so the kids do not get the functional stimulation they need. The ubiquitous nature of this diet also makes it hard for parents to identify whether their child has an orofacial myofunctional problem, so the functional side of development is lagging in addition to the structural side. The highly palatable nature of these foods with added sugars and salts also unfortunately skews a child’s preferences away from natural healthy foods.
We enjoy following this resource, maybe you will too! https://mymunchbug.com/
A few other resources include the Weston Price diet https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/dietary-guidelines/