Healthy Habit Filled With Vitamins For The Child And Parent.

Vitamins are enormously important to a child's diet, no matter their age. 

Just feeding a child one fruit a day not only gives you the vitamins and minerals found within it but also helps prevent chronic diseases.

Teaching your child when their young to enjoy, even love, eating fruits instead of junk food will be a great way to make sure they continue doing so as an adult as well. Consider this just by feeding your child an orange you've provided him with : Vitamin A, B1, B2,B6, C, E and other vitamins and minerals.

All of that from just ONE orange!

Imagine just how much your child stands to gain if you take out the time to feed him healthy fruits instead of handing him a bag of fruit snacks or other sugar loaded snacks. Not that there is anything wrong with allowing a child to eat sweets or chips but those should be once-in-a-while snacks while healthy fruits should be something he eats on a regular basis. 

I went ahead and put together a quick list of some of Baby J.'s favorite fruits and the vitamins they contain. Just so you can have an idea of how healthy it is to make fruits something you feed your little one daily.

Orange:Vitamin A, B1, B2,B6, C, E and other vitamins

Banana:Vitamin A,B1,B2,B6, C,E,K and other vitamins

Apple:Vitamin A,B1,B2,B6, C,E,K and other vitamins

Blueberries: Vitamin A,B1,B2,B6, C,E,K and other vitamins

Cantaloupe:Vitamin A,B1,B2,B6, C,E,K and other vitamins

Grapes:Vitamin A,B1,B2,B6, C,E,K and other vitamins

Kiwi:Vitamin A,B1,B2,B6, C,E,K and other vitamins

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As you've noticed almost each of these contains the same vitamins, the difference is in the quantity. Which is great because your child might not like to eat blueberries but may love to eat grapes, no worries he is still receiving all the same vitamins he would have eating blueberries.

There are so many benefits to eating fruits. Some of them being :

• Reduced risk for stroke
• Reduced risk of various cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes.
• May protect against certain cancers.
• Dietary fiber from fruits helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease.

And one of the greatest fact about fruits is that the're low in fat, sodium and calories. The PERFECT HEALTHY snack!

It's important to check and see the recommendations for feeding your child fruits at during each age period. Baby J. falls in the category of 10-12 months and the recommendation is 1/4-1/2 cup of fruit a day. Which is just fine with him and me. I love seeing him taste new fruits and fall in love with them. 

Plus, teaching your child to eat the ACTUAL fruit will help them avoid having to take vitamin pills later on in life to compensate for what their missing. 

Just remember children learn by watching what you do...so make sure to eat plenty of fruits yourself!!

For more information on the importance of fruits check out: 

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/fruits-why.html . 

I also stumbled across this great infographic about various fruits.

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Here's what Baby J. had to say about his snack time today...:

Today's snack time was delicious.

Would you believe me if I told you he ate the entire thing minus the one tiny little slice I snagged for myself? I couldn't provide the orange pieces fast enough to satisfy him.

Even though he's old enough and knows how to handle eating orange slices by himself I prefer to cut them up into little bite size pieces and feed them to him myself. It helps keep him clean and avoids getting orange juice all over himself and the surrounding area.

Of course, I later on enjoyed a nice juicy orange myself.

Teach by example and all that!!

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