My girlfriend has sent me numerous e-mails asking me to write a post about protein intake. Let me start out by saying I am NOT a dietician, nutritionist, or doctor. I'm a mom trying to raise a healthy kid who has food allergies, some of which include chicken, pork, and turkey. With that in mind, here's a little information about protein.
My favorite child nutrition site is the MayoClinic's Children's Health. This site will give you some guidelines for nutrition. You'll find the following information about protein (it does include older ages, too):
2 to 3 year old girls and boys: 13 to 50 grams protein
4 to 8 year old girls: 30 to 90 grams protein
4 to 8 boys: 35 to 105 grams
This information leaves you with one obvious question: how do I get my kid to eat that much protein if they won't eat meat or are allergic to it????
My daughter is 4 and is on the smaller side. I shoot for about 40 grams of protein a day. Diary and fish are her two primary sources of protein. Her secondary sources are beef and beans. Of course, wheat is another major contributor.
Since I'm writing this post, I've broken down her protein intake: 10 grams per meal, 5 per snack (2x daily). One grilled cheese sandwich on wheat bread has about 11.5 grams of protein according to the USDA protein page (check out this site for a big list of foods and protein levels). Her fish sticks from Trader Joe's have 14 grams. A homemade muffin has about 4 grams. With just these three foods in a day, she's already consumed 29.5 grams of protein. Throw in sides with those meals, drinks, and snacks and it's easy to reach 40 grams a day without a meat at each meal. If you throw in a meat, you're golden for the daily intake.
I'm quite certain my friend wants more than just this information...she wants food ideas! Okay. That'll be the theme for the week! Keep reading, Kim, to get some food ideas for the week!
I'm hoping y'all share some of your favorite ways to sneak in protein to your child's diet that I can share this week!
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