How to Get Your Child To Eat More Fiber

Getting your child to eat a healthy diet can be a challenge. Ensuring that your child is getting enough fiber in their diet can be an even bigger challenge. While the task may seem overwhelming there are some easy ways to get your child to eat more fiber.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fresh Fruit and Veggies
• Whole Grains
• Beans
• Flax Seed
• Creativity

1. The first step is to determine how much fiber your child needs in their diet. For children over the age of three they need their age plus 5 grams of fiber. So for an 8 year old they would need a total of 13 grams of fiber each day.

2. 
    
   Fruit

   To increase fiber intake offer your child fresh fruits. Instead of giving your child applesauce try giving them sliced apples. An apple has about 3 grams of fiber while applesauce only has 1 gram. Pears have 5 grams of fiber so they would be a wonderful addition to your child's diet. Berries are also a very good source of fiber. Try adding some berries into your child's morning cereal.

3. 
    
   Veggies

   You should also provide your child with fresh veggies. A half cup of peas has 4 grams of fiber and a half cup of corn has another 2 grams of fiber. By adding in an additional serving of veggies a day you could easily add 2-4 grams of fiber to their diet.

4. 
    
   Grains

   Get rid of the white and bring in the wheat! Whole grains are best for your child and contain much more fiber than white bread or rice. Switch from quick oatmeal to the old fashioned oats for additional fiber. Get rid of the white bread and serve your kids brown rice. Each of these changes can add 1 gram of fiber to your child's diet.

5. 
    
   Beans

   Add beans to your child's diet. Mix black beans or kidney beans in with some veggies. Not only will it add additional flavor but it will also add fiber. Half a cup of black beans contains 7 grams of fiber!

6. Adding flax seed to your child's food is also an easy way to add fiber to their diet. You can sprinkle flax seed on yougert and cereal. You can add flax seed to pancakes, casseroles, or muffins.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure your child is drinking plenty of water to ensure that the increase in fiber does not cause constipation.
• Slowly increase fiber intake to avoid stomach craps, pain, or constipation.

[rwhite-writer]

on 2/5/2009 Great tips! By helping our children increase their fiber intake, we're also discouraging child obesity. Thanks for an informative article!