Six Basic Food Groups
Good child nutrition begins at home with a balanced diet. A balanced diet includes foods from each group:

• Breads, cereals, rice and pasta or grains
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Milk, yogurt, cheese
• Meat, poultry, fish, dried beans, egg and nuts
• Fat and sweets group in moderation.

This children's "food pyramid" is based on the USDA's research on the best food choices to promote good health. Parents can use it as a general guide in choosing a healthful diet that is right for their children.

Full details are available at http://www.mypyramid.gov/.The new MyPyramid.gov This site lets parents key in their child's age, gender and physical activity level so that they can get a more personalized recommendation on their daily calorie level, based on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The USDA provides the following healthful child nutrition tips for parents on ways they can help to meet these new food guidelines:

• Set a good example for children by eating whole grains, vegetables, and fruit with meals or as snacks. This is a great way to promote good child nutrition!
• Let children do the following: Select and help prepare a whole grain side dish; decide on the dinner vegetables or what goes in salad; choose what fruits they eat with lunch.
• Depending on their age, have children help shop for, clean, peel, or cut up vegetables and fruits.
• Allow children to pick a new fruit or vegetable to try while shopping.
• Add fat-free or low-fat milk instead of water to oatmeal and hot cereal.
• Pack a juice box (100% juice) in children's lunches versus soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages.
• Make a dip for fruits or vegetables from yogurt.
• Top casseroles, soups, stews, or vegetables with shredded low-fat cheese.
• Try a baked potato with fat-free or low-fat yogurt.
• For dessert, make chocolate or butterscotch pudding with fat-free or low-fat milk.
• Make fruit kabobs using pineapple chunks, bananas, grapes, and berries.
• Offer raisins or other dried fruits instead of candy.

Children and Snacks
An excellent way to promote good child nutrition is to be "armed" with nutritional snack ideas, for example:

• Baked potato chips or tortilla chips with salsa
• Pretzels (lightly salted or unsalted)
• Bagels with tomato sauce and low fat cheese
• Flavored rice cakes (like caramel or apple cinnamon)
• Popcorn--air popped or low fat microwave
• Veggies with low fat or fat-free dip
• Low fat cottage cheese topped with fruit or spread on whole-wheat crackers
• Ice milk, low fat frozen or regular yogurt (add skim milk, orange or pineapple juice, and sliced bananas or strawberries to make a low fat milk shake
• Frozen fruit bars
• Vanilla wafers, gingersnaps, graham crackers, animal crackers, fig bars, raisins
• Angel food cake topped with strawberries or raspberries and low fat whipped cream
• String cheese

More Healthy Eating Tips for Children
Relax, be patient, and get educated with practical solutions for handling the "ups and downs" of your child's feeding. Here are a few more ideas:

• Have your child help during meal times. For example, they can set the table and help you mix foods.
• Children tend to eat more if they are allowed to eat on their own.
• Make foods interesting by cutting them into different shapes. Expose children to a variety of foods often. Verbally praise children for trying new foods and eating well.
• Explore child nutrition books, many have helpful suggestions.
• New foods should be introduced gradually, about one a week, and children may need to be exposed to new foods many times before accepting them.
• A little bit of the new food served alongside familiar foods over a period of time helps children become comfortable with the new food.
• Trust your child's appetite. Forcing children to eat can start a lifelong habit of overeating.
• If your child won't eat certain foods, perhaps spinach, don't worry. Just offer a similar food-group food like broccoli or carrots.
• Involve kids. Sometimes picky eaters eat foods they helped plan, buy, or make.
• Offer choices, but not too many, rather than asking open-ended questions such as "What do you want to eat?"
• Grow a vegetable garden. Let your child help you to water the plants.

Children and Nutritional Supplements
Although most parents strive to provide their children with well-balanced diets that incorporate the right amounts of food from all major food groups, the reality is that good child nutrition for optimal wellness often needs to be supplemented to ensure a healthy lifestyle and body. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a daily multivitamin for children with poor appetites, erratic eating habits or special nutritional needs.

In fact, many pediatricians and nutritionists advise that the majority of their young patients take a multivitamin as part of their daily dietary routine. "As a pediatrician and the mother of two young children, I understand that a daily multivitamin is critical to ensuring that children get the correct amounts of essential nutrients to help support their proper growth and development," said Diane Barsky, M.D.