IMPORTANT NOTICE: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months and continued breastfeeding for as long as possible. Growing up milks are formulated to meet nutrition needs of healthy young children older than 1 year and should not be fed to infants.
In order to preserve your toddler’s health and keep him away from diseases and infections namely during cold and flu season, you can’t lock him inside the house and hope that germs won’t find the way to him, yet you can give him healthy snacks that will enrich his diet with various essential nutrients to strengthen his immune system and stimulate it to resist harm.
So, if you would like to charge you child’s immunity with energy, all you have to do is to fill his day with these snacks:
- Serve you toddler steamed carrots tossed with sweet orange juice, mashed sweet potatoes with a few drops of maple syrup or fruit smoothie with some spinach and cabbage. These types of vegetables are rich in Vitamin A which is very good at fighting infections.
- Serve your child various types of berries along with low-fat vanilla flavored yogurt as a side dip. Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries all contain antioxidants and Vitamin C.
- Serve you child a cup of low-fat yogurt with granola, fruits or nuts high in Omega 3, for a delicious snack chockfull of good fats and probiotics.
- Serve your child a cup of milk full of minerals, vitamins, essential nutrients for growth and immunity, as well as probiotics. Given that the major role of probiotic bacteria is to improve the immune system’s function by reducing the number of IgA plasma cells, increasing the phagocytosis rate, raising levels of T white cells and natural killer cells, in addition to treating diarrhea and boosting gut’s immunity and ability to fight illnesses. If you want, you can add cacao to the milk or serve it along with oat or cereals with no added sugar.
- Serve you child oatmeal with honey* and a sprinkle of cinnamon, a slice of whole wheat toasted bread with a spoon of homemade jam or some boiled broccoli florets with melted cheese on top. Such snacks are rich in Vitamin E that is necessary to defeat germs and viruses.
Hope that you will like this list of snacks and get inspired to make various recipes in order to enrich your toddler’s diet and thus keep his immune system healthy and ready to fend off illness.
Read More: Ways To Strengthen Your Child’s Immune System
Note : Honey plays a crucial role in taste development, particularly in early life, as it introduces infants to a diverse range of flavors and helps shape their palate.
However, honey can contain the bacteria that may cause infant botulism. Consequently, honey should not be introduced before 12 months of age unless the spores of Clostridium botulinum have been inactivated by adequate high-pressure and high-temperature treatment, as used by industry.
Whenever honey is used in our products, it undergoes an externally validated treatment that ensures our products are safe to consume.
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