5 things to keep in mind while offering sweets to your child during Diwali

Follow these tips by Dhvani Shah Naturopathic Nutritionist, Mumbai to ensure your baby eats a healthy and a balanced diet.

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Written By: Debjani Arora | Published : October 18, 2017 10:07 AM IST

When Diwali is just around the corner sweets and savouries are going to be in abundance all around. Your little one is going to enjoy gorging on the various kinds of mithais for sure and it is difficult to keep them away from these delicacies. Here are 12 superfoods to boost your child s immunity.

Festive seasons are the time when we all go kaput with our diet rules and the same happens with kids too. But with kids, it is important to rein control over the sugar intake so that they don t go haywire and develop bad food habits. Too many sweets and farsan intake would also mean too less nutrition intake during the festivities. So, parents be more vigilant and make sure that your child enjoys a balance of both sweets and nutritious foods this Diwali. We spoke to Dhvani Shah Naturopathic Nutritionist, Mumbai to know how to control sweet cravings in kids during festivities. Here are tips to celebrate Diwali with your newborn.

However, she believes that kids should not be banned from eating sweets for the fear of cavities or malnourishment. Instead plan how to consume sweets and teach them to eat in moderation. Homemade sweets that have ghee, elaichi, cardamom and other such natural flavouring agents help in digestion too, so they are not all that bad, she says.

Here are few things that you need to keep in mind while offering sweets to your kids, according to Dhvani:

  1. Choose the right ones: If sugar is your concern choose mithais that are not just based on mawa and sugar. The dry fruit mithais or paneer based ones like the rasgullas or Sandesh are perfect for the little ones. A homemade halwa or kheer is also good as they have more ghee and dry fruits in them.
  2. Stick to homemade sweets: The colourful sweets that come in around 101 flavours during Diwali look appealing and taste better too, but limit giving your kids store-bought sweets. If you are making ladoos and barfis at home stick to offering only those to your kids. Homemade sweets are best for your kids as they are devoid of any preservatives and flavours. Remember these flavours, colours and additives do your kid more harm than the sugar in the sweets. Know why artificial food colours are bad for your health.
  3. Plan them well: Don t allow your child to have sweets randomly at any point during the day. Always have sweets either as a mid-meal or an evening snack, don t keep it for the desserts, as it could lead to a sugar overdose. In this way, your child will not kill her hunger and have her meals on time too. In fact, offer a sweet before you are going out for a Diwali party or a mela as having something sugary beforehand will satisfy your kid s sugar craving and limit her junk food intake at the do.
  4. Combine sweets with right foods: Whenever you offer a sweet don t forget to give her something to eat with it which is protein rich, like a cup of milk, channa etc., which makes it easier for the sweet to digest and limits overeating of the same.
  5. Ensure proper water intake: It is important to make your child drink enough water during these festive seasons to flush out toxins as it is understandable that they will be consuming more of junk and sweets than healthy foods.

Here is a small example of how much sweet is permissible for your baby:

  • Sheera or kheer one small bowl of about 200 gm one serving
  • Barfi or ladoo half the portion (75 gm) twice day

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