As we all know, healthy nutrition is important for all children but for children who have thalassemia it is vital. For school aged children, parents sometimes have a hard time getting their children to eat nutritious meals - and to fit in servings of nutritious food in the day.
My husband and I started a new plan this fall. We decided that instead of offering them big meals we would offer them a number of small servings of different nutritious foods for each meal. We did this by dividing the portion sizes of their meals in half, but adding more variety in each meal. For example breakfast is 1/4 cup yogurt, 1/2 egg (for each) child, strawberries, 1/2 banana, blueberries and rasberries, and milk. For lunch, instead of packing on snack and 1 big meal I pack many small snacks - apples, pears, berries, carrots, cucumbers, cheese etc, while I give them only half the portion of the actual meal that I used to give them before. The snacks in between are usually fruits or veges - and dinner now consists of 1/2 the amt of chicken etc compared to what I would previously give them - along with sweet potato, squash, zuccini, tomotoes, broccoli, cauliflower etc. With some creative fruit dish as a desert.
This is the normal routine, and of course they get treated once in a while
By cutting down portion sizes I feel that I am able to add more variety and nutrition for them. I hope this idea works for you guys as well
Sharmin