Kids health and nutrition

Today's kids are very finicky with the food. All they want most of the time is junk food like burgers, pizza, chips, cakes, cold-drinks etc. In our time we were not so much fond of such eatables as these were not in very much culture. What we loved to have were milk cakes, toffees, chat, gol gappas, south Indians food etc. But these too were given once a while to you.

As a parent I really worry about the intake my kids consume on daily basis as it's responsible for healthy mental and physical development of children.  Junk food are low on nutrition and contain important unnecessary fats. As per doctor such food lowers the metabolic system and make our child lazy, sluggish and prone to obesity and dental cavities.

Parents know having fruits, green vegetables, grains, dairy products etc are good for health. But for a kid what should be the minimum intake and what are the products whose consumption on daily basis is enough of our kids. This lead me to explore on this and found the following information.

Food Group	Food Items	Serving Size	Nutrition
Grains	Rice Pasta Cereal Bread Rolls Wheat Biscuit Noodles	1 cup 1/2 -1 cup 1/2 -1 cup 1-2 slices 1/2 -1 roll 1 1/2 cup	Carbohydrates
Vegetables	Cooked vegies Cauliflower Medium potato Carrot (sliced) Spinach Broccoli Tomato Salad	Half a cup cooked vegetables or one cup raw, leafy vegetables.	Vitamins and Minerals
Fruits	Dates Berries Apricots Grapes Bananas Peaches Oranges Mangoes Melons Pineapples	Half a cup frozen for raw fruits, or 6 ounce fruit juice, or1/4 cup dried fruits	Vitamins and Minerals
Dairy Products	Milk Yogurt Cheese Custard	250ml 200g 40g 250ml	Milk Proteins
Lean Proteins	Meat Beef Chicken Fish Eggs Dried beans Peas Lentils Peanut butter	100 g (2 slices), cooked 3/4 cup, chopped 1 chicken leg 1 medium fillet 1 3/4 cup canned or cooked beans, lentils or peas 1 tablespoon	Meat Protein
Fats, Sweets and Oils	Low-fat mayonnaise Light salad dressing Soft margarine Vegetable oil (canola, safflower, olive or corn)	1 tablespoon oil or mayonnaise	Fat and Sugar

From the above food items we have to chose any one at least to cover up the respective food group:

• Breads, cereals, legumes and other grain foods
• Vegetables, salads
• Fruits, dry fruits
• Milk, yogurt and cheese
• Meat, fish, poultry, eggs and legumes to ensure an adequate intake of all the essential nutrients

And the diet  chart for kids :

Breakfast  7.00 am - 8.00 am

A glass of any juice / Milk + stuffed Paratha / oats + any fruit

Morning Break 10.00 am - 11.00 am

Some dry fruits + unsweetened fruit smoothie

Lunch 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm

Cheese / curd + salad / jacket potato + rice / chapati + Dal / vegetable

Evening Snacks 4.00 pm - 5.00 pm

semi-skimmed milk + low-fat crisps / biscuit  + one fruit

Dinner 7.00 pm - 8.00 pm

Salad + Whole wheat pasta/chapatti + vegetable +  juice (with fruit and ice cream) / milk

Night Snack 10.00 pm

A peanut butter or cheese slice + skimmed milk

We indians have many other options to replace the food items with the same nutritions like daal chilla, dosa, idli, stuffed rolls, sandwitches, etc. These options avoid monotnous food  items and bring excitment in kids for food varieties.

Last but not the least, water and other fluids are equally important. There amoint of consumtion vary with weather and the avtivities our kids do. Still as a standard our kids must have at leady 1 - 2 liter of fluids.

~~Nidhi

Ebola Virus..Preparation to avoid Ebola Virus in India

 Central health ministry has started taking strict measures to avoid Ebola virus. Most of the top hospitals and agencies have been warned about Ebola virus. Also government has ordered to observe and diagnose the people coming from different countries. This virus is so dangerous as 90% chances are there for ones death.
Health ministers organised a meeting with all the related agencies to avoid the Ebola virus. This meeting included the representative member of India in World Health Organisation(WHO) "Nata Menabde".
Nata Menabde discussed about the count of people in West Africa effected  from this virus and measures to avoid the virus.

World bank Gini, will give 20 Crore dollar to West African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone. The above money will be used to protect and treat the people effected from Ebola virus. Mr Jim Yong Kim told that the this has been organised to help the three most countries effected from Ebola virus. Mr Kim told that world bank is fastening the process of fighting back the people effected from Ebola.

Whole world people is fearing off from Ebola virus. 90% of the people effected from this virus are dying. Though now only west African countries are effected from this virus. But this disease is reaching soon to other countries in small scale.  World Health Organisation has declared this as unstoppable disease.Lets study more on Ebola.

Ebola symptons:

Initial symptoms:
• Fever
• Severe headache
• Joint and muscle aches
• Chills
• Weakness

Advanced symptoms:
• Nausea and vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Red eyes
• Raised rash
• Chest pain and cough
• Stomach pain
• Severe weight loss
• Bleeding from eyes, bruising or other orifices
• Internal bleeding

How to treat:

-No treatment
-No medicine
-Organisations are working on Anti virus vaccine







Virus started 40 years back:
-40 years back in 1974 first case of Ebola virus was recorded in African counties Sudan and Congo.
-Firstly this disease Ebola was spread in Democratic Republic of Congo  near Ebola river.
-Since then, this virus spreads 15 times in Africa.
-Growing in African countries.
-In 2014, firstly it is recorded in March.





How Ebola virus spread:

-Virus spread through mucous and other body fluid or secretions such as stool, urine, saliva and semen of infected people,
-It is transmitted through direct contact with the infected person and it is not an airborne virus.
-In contact with Infected blood and stool
-Animals in infected areas.
-Sex with infected person
-Infected dead body









Indians should not think that they are far from the reach of Ebola virus and are safe as there are close to 45,000 Indians living in Ebola-affected countries. There are chances that Ebola outbreak may occur in India if the Indians affected from this virus plan to come back home. Unlike other infectious diseases which originate from rural areas, the Ebola outbreak originated from urban areas.

Precaution taken up in India:
-Special medical checkup of passengers in Indian airports
-Medical checkup of people from Liberia , Gini , Nigeria and Sierra Leone in Indian Airport.
-There is a alert in America and Europe also.

Countries trapped with this virus:

West Africa countries--- Gini , Sierra Leone and Liberia , etc.

Ebola killed,  more than 890 people in 2014.
Almost 1600 people are infected.
People from different countries are infected.

~~By Shiva