Protein Requirements for Age group - 5 to 8 years

Protein for Children (5-8 Years)

After water, protein is probably the most abundant and plentiful element required for wellbeing and maintenance of body cells and tissues. An average full-term baby weighs around 2.5 kgs at birth and should be exclusively breast fed only on mothers’ milk for at least for first 6 months of life. Subsequently, during the weaning phase use of protein rich components, would help the growing infant to build a better body structure and immune response, as adult in later stages of life. Since the growth and development of growing child surges in the initial years of life, importance of protein should not be neglected.

Optimal protein nourishment commencing right from the childhood, can represent overall wellbeing of an adult in future and its supply should be prioritize accordingly. In this write up, we are going to discuss on the ways where protein can be incorporated in a paediatric age group, followed by a sample diet chart to get an idea about how to go about planning a balanced meal.

The pointers below could possibly assist caregivers to include proteinases sources in every meal for apparent reasons: -

1. Introducing yogurt and herbed dip with fresh fruit cuts.

2. Incorporating nut trail mix (Assorted, combined nuts and seeds to get viable dose of proteins)

3. Combination of cereals, millets and pulse in a form of pancakes, parathas etc.

4. Use hummus (chickpea dips), Guacamole, cottage cheese (Paneer) to make dips.

5. Chicken or tuna vegetable stuffed salad stuffed in pita bread can be a great snack for nonveg eaters.

6. Fermented products like idly, dhokla with stir fried vegetables can be a great option too.

7. Protein stuffed poha, egg scrambled can also be useful.

8. Inclusion of assorted sprouts, soy chunks in a form of patty/cutlets possibly could help too.

For the best supply of balanced diet, the below table cannot be missed to demonstrate the example, how a balanced diet looks like: -.

Breakfast	Paneer stuffed sandwich/sprouts sandwich/scrambled eggs
Morning Break	Small box of nuts (2-3 Protein Diskettes) +1 small banana
Lunch	Grain rotis+pulse (or any proteins) + veg +dairy product
Post school	A glass of semi skimmed milk + roasted gram
Late evening	Soup bowl of veg soup with mushrooms
Dinner	Grain +vegetables +dal/pulse+ curd /whole wheat veg pasta /spaghetti Bolognese (with lean meat ).

This is mere a sample diet and cannot be interchanged as a personalized and customized nutrition plan. Protein sources should be tried and included in every meal, to enable satiety also they help in generation of new cells, requisite for growth and development of muscle tissues during the most crucial years of child.