Being a mom, healthy food and kid’s nutrition is my main area of concern and also if their immunity is well supported with the food that they eat. We always keep a track of our child’s growth and development. But let’s not forget that some kids meet the milestone early or on time while some can be late. Do not go behind the milestones but appreciate steady growth in the child. I have found this tracker by PediaSure which is helping me keep a check on my child’s growth. It is easy to use and reassures me that I am on the right track. Monitoring growth is a vital part of child development and the #FirstStepToGrowRight. But growth and nutrition go hand in hand. When I began using this tracker I got a better understanding of nutritional gaps that my child may be having and so I began to plan meals accordingly.

But every mother will agree with me when I say it’s not easy to feed kids all veggies and greens that are rich in vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients! So how do we make sure that our kids eat the right thing? I came up with a few fun tips that I follow and they work really well.
Start with breakfast. As we all know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should not be missed. We all are super busy in the morning but still make it a routine to have breakfast and do not allow your kids to skip this meal. Make sure to include protein rich items to keep them energized for their day. For easy yet on the go menu; you can try omelette or omelette roti rolls, boiled eggs, wheat or multigrain breads and peanut butter.
When it comes to meal time, try to make things which are liked by your kids with a healthy twist to it. But to make meal time enjoyable, you have to take care of few things:
- Kids comfort: Make sure your child is comfortable while having his/her meal. Sit at the dining table instead of the sofa.
- Eat with family: While having lunch with the entire family may not be possible, make sure for dinner the entire family sits together. Kids enjoy their meals with everyone around and also eat well when they see others eat.
- Talk to them: Make meal time interesting by talking to the kids. Avoid TV and phones. When you talk to them and include them in your conversations, the kids feel more connected and bonded.
- Be a role model: When the child sees their parents following a healthy diet, they follow suit but if they see their parents relishing junk and not so healthy meals, they will demand it too. So set a healthy eating habit for yourself before you ask your kids to do the same.
- Get kids involved: When kids get involved in cooking, they enjoy the meal even more. From a basic task of washing the veggies to standing next to you and watching you cook makes them feel excited.
While making mealtimes interesting, we should also be more attentive to:
Make a healthy shift in your ingredients: You can shift regular breads to brown breads, ice-cream to homemade smoothie, whole milk to low fat milk, soda to regular water, butter or regular cooking oil to olive oil.
Sugar Intake: We all know that kids get a sugar rush, so keep a tab on their sugar intake and avoid anything sweet especially during the night time.
Sweet cravings: Kids will crave for sweets, cakes and donuts and there is no need to say no to these cravings but make sure the demand is not entertained on a regular basis. Make them a special treat rather than everyday indulgence.
Include more fruits in their diet: While we are keeping a tab on the sugar intake of our kids, fruits have natural sugar which is good for their body. So, include fruits in their diet. Make the plating more interesting and fun to encourage your kids to eat them. Try some interesting food art.

Picky eater: Many kids are very picky about what goes into their mouth and will spit out if they don’t like what they eat. It’s absolutely ok as just like us, even kids can have preferences. Be more attentive about certain things to help them eat better.
- Don’t make them eat snacks before meals. Most of the times when the child is hungry, he/she will eat what has been served to them.
- Don’t force-feed your child. Kids understand their body requirements too and sometimes we want to feed more but the child may have reached the capacity.
- Don’t worry if your child is eating less. If he/she is active throughout the day, the child is getting the required nutrition. Just make sure to add all kinds of food in their meal.
- Hide the veggies inside the meal. Make a pizza for your child but when making the paste, add a lot of veggies in the puree, your child will not even realize he/she just had aubergine or a broccoli. You can also make a wheat base of the pizza instead of all-purpose flour. Try making a healthy Pav-Bhaji by adding various veggies along with the potatoes and smash it. Your kid will relish the food and you will do a happy dance.

Last but not the least, milk mix, which gives the required nutrition in one glass is a perfect option for kids. I have personally been using PediaSure for my kids and they have been enjoying their glass of milk, much more than before. PediaSure has 37 vital nutrients, minerals and vitamins required for kids to help them grow in height and get the right weight. It also helps build the immune system and boost brain development. It’s available in 3 flavors and suitable for kids above 2yrs of age.

We should make sure our kids have a well-balanced diet. We cannot always keep them away from their demands for junk but we can make sure we make their meals interesting, nutritious and healthy at the same time. I hope you take the #FirstStepToGrowRight with the GrowRight Tracker too and craft the perfect diet plan for your child, whilst tracking their growth regularly. Share with me your tips and tricks too, that help your little one get the right nutrients.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not reflect the views of any brand. Any omissions or errors at the author’s end does not assume any liability or responsibility on any party mentioned in the blog.
46 replies on “What you should do when you feel your child is undernourished?”
Have a healthy diet plan for kids I so important but the kids won’t agree or accept that so having a good supplement goes a long way. Pediasure is definitely one of the best brands.
So true. I follow all of this especially being a role model..but with in laws and all it’s quite difficult to keep watching what they eat at all times. Hoping to change this soon.
I agree with the tips you have shared, even sometimes I also hide veggies inside their favorite food!!
Such amazing tips. Absolutely live bu the idea of nutrient dense foods. It makes our life so much easier when thinking about our childs nutrition
These are some great hacks and pointers to ensure that good and healthy food is consumed by our kids. Eating with family instills good eating habits.
Eating healthy, starts from role modeling. When kids are young, they listen to what we say but as they grow, it is not very easy to convince them. I try to bring variations in my cooking and recipes so that my kids can have the taste and the nutrition.
Such great tips. I really like the idea of adding in fruits in their diet. And I also like the fact that you have included advices for picky eaters.
Having a dedicated meal plan and involving my son is something we too do and this has worked a lot for us.
This is really quite an exhaustive post with so much information. I’m very impressed at the depth of detail you have shared. Undernourished children are indeed worrisome for parents.
Indeed! Monitoring growth is a vital part of child development. And tracker by Pediasure is really helpful in tracking child growth. Thanks for sharing this informative article
Great tips Hansa. yes, good nutrition is one of the most important aspect for kid’s overall growth and well being. as you said, nowadays kids are picky eaters, so we have to be creative with our recipe and presentation. pediasure is a great brand and help a lot in providing good nutrition to kids.
Nutrition is must for boosting kids immunity and at certain age they do become fussy eaters but being a mom we know how to deal with it. Hiding veggies in their food is what I do most of the time.
Getting kids to eat right and in the right quantities is always a perpetual challenge for parents across generations. You have given some practical tips to tackle this issue, I think the whole family needs to make a shift here towards a more disciplined and healthy diet for the children.
It is important for everyone to have a balanced and complete nutrition for healthy physical and mental growth .Of course as adults we may try to eat healthy but kids are a different game altogether. Nice tips to get kids to eat healthier.
These are the wonderful tips for we moms definitely going to save this and I always to that I give my daughter the proper nutrition for healthy lifestyle.
Fruits in diet plays an important role in kids nourishment. Also colourful foods attract them and they get nutritious food.
Pediasure is an added advantage.
Meal plans work mostly well with kids. Your post is well described and the tips are really practical.
I really loved your reommendations buddy, this tracker from pediasure sounds so worthy
Not a mother but yes this is a concerning thing for mothers if the child is undernourished. Your tips are well described in here.
Its important to keep a track on the kid’s growth. Would surely check this tool for my daughter, seems quite useful.
Adequate nutrition is very important for the kids overall development. Often kids nowadays are picky eaters and so is my daughter and I could so relate to all the tips you mentioned because I practise most of these
Making a plate that is full of nutrition do get tiresome at a time and with Pediasure one can have all the required nutrition for the fussy eaters.
I trust in Pediasure too for my son and I have seen the visible changes in his height too. This is a great option for kids
Great tips shared, Hansa. I too have a fussy as well as picky eater son and I often create food art to entice him for having his meal. Pediasure tracker really helps to track the growth of your child which is very vital.
We mothers are always worried about the right and balanced nutrition in our kids. Now with 8 years of motherhood, I have slowly started to understand how to effectively make them get proper nutrition and I love to mask the green veggies in their parathas and rolls. 🙂
Those are such valuable tips, dear Hansa. I struggle at times because my daughter is such a fussy eater. It takes me so much time just to figure out how to keep her diet healthy and at the same time, tasty, so she can enjoy everything she eats. I will follow these tips, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this it’s really informative as these are some really good pointers to keep track your kids health and growth
Being a mother, I absolutely understand when you say being worried for the health and growth of our Lil one. I too have been monitoring her growth via this growth monitor by Pedia Sure and glad to understand it better. Quite a detailed post this is.
It is also important to talk to the kids about the importance of nutrition and what undernourished means. Also as you said one needs to watch out the sugar intake as well.
Healthy diet plan is necessary for kid’s . And we should keep an eye on kids overall growth. I do give my son pediasure
That’s really nice.
Loved reading your comprehensive post. I too am tracking my daughter’s growth with this tracker
Indeed very useful.
Now these are some amazing points to ensure our kids get proper nutrition to grow healthy. Thankfully, this growth tracker from PediaSure is so helpful in understanding if our kid’s growth is on mark or not. PediaSure indeed has been a great drink in helping our children get proper nutrition to grow and develop.
This is a great article, some amazing points to ensure our kids get proper nutrition to grow healthy
Well my daughter is an extremely fussy eater and I try to come up with new recipes with the staple food that we make at home. Alsi getting her involved in preparing food helps a lot.
Very well written post Hands. It is very important to be a role model to our kids! I too am using Pediasure’s growth tracker to measure my son’s growth
It’s so hard to keep a track of the nutritional intake of children. No matter how much we parents try, sometimes they just want to eat foods that have hollow calories with no benefit whatsoever.
Kids will be kids… they always go for things we say no far… but ya we have pediasure to help us get the right balance
Focusing on kids health like height and weight is really important. Right nutrition become critical in it and tracking growth parameters.
Absolutely. Keeping a track ok kids growth and development is very important
These are great tips and completely agree on teh being role model tip. Learning from what they see.
Good one… if intake of food is not enough for development, this product can may be help …
Very well written post. Growth tracker definitely gives us the liberty to design our child’s meal as per his/her nutritional requirement. I too have been using it for months now.
That’s really good. A perfect way to tracker kids growth.
I am also using this growth tracker by Pediasure and its really helpful
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