Healthy Growth

Kids are going to grow no matter what we feed them, but we don’t just want them to grow, we want them to grow healthy and strong! When you visit the doctor or the WIC office, your child will most likely be measured. They will take your child’s height and weight. You might even get to see a growth chart to see the progress of your child’s growth. We want to see a nice, steady progression where their weight matches with how tall they are.

You can help your child grow well by:

• Making good food choices for them
• Teaching healthy eating habits
• Encouraging active play

Healthy Food Choices

Infants (0 – 12 months)

• Breastfeed! Breastfeeding can help babies grow well because they only eat what they need, not more. When a baby is fed from a bottle, it is much easier to overfeed them which can lead to too fast of weight gain and even overweight children or adults later in life.
  • If you do bottle feed, try to mimic breastfeeding, allowing the baby to tell you how much they need to eat.
    • Use the paced bottle feeding method and a slow flow nipple.
    • Start with smaller amounts in the bottle
    • Only feed the baby when they are acting hungry and always watch for fullness cues. They might not need to finish the whole bottle!
• Start baby foods/solids around 6 months and try out as many different foods as you can before age one. Stick to healthy foods and avoid processed foods.
• Wait until 12 months of age (or later) to start any juice with your baby. Juice has a lot of sugar and kids tend to drink less water if they have juice. They may also fill up on juice and not eat healthy foods. Try to avoid or limit other sugar drinks like chocolate milk, sports drinks, or kool-aid.

Children (12+ Months)

• Encourage your child to help in the kitchen or with grocery shopping.
• Take time to sit down and eat together.
• Have your child taste test new fruits and vegetables and find new favorites.
• Choose fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and nuts or seeds for snack time. Keep choking risks in mind for younger children.
• Help kids choose plain water, skim or 1% white milk, or 100% fruit juice instead of sugary beverages like soda.

Physical Activity

• Encourage at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, preferably outdoors.
• Walk or bike with your kids to school and to their activities.
• Take family walks, hikes, and try new sports together.
• Play games outside instead of watching TV indoors.
• Model healthy behaviors for your kids and make fitness a family priority.

Find out more here!

Limit screen time

• For children under 18 months old, avoid use of screens (other than video-chatting).
• Caregivers of kids 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce screens should choose high-quality shows and watch it with their kids to help them understand what they’re watching.
• For kids ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

Read more about screen time here.

What if my child is overweight?

A large increase in weight without an increase in height may mean your child is becoming overweight or obese.

Kids who are obese or overweight are more likely to become obese or overweight adults. Our current generation of kids have a lower life expectancy than their parents due to obesity. This is why it is important to address the reason for the weight gain early and adjust some family habits!

Overweight adults and some very overweight children may have problems with:

• High Blood Pressure
• High Blood Cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Heart Disease
• Stroke

Try these tips with your child or ask your WIC staff for more support!

What if my child is underweight?

They may need help getting the calories and nutrients they need. Try these high calorie diet boosters:

• Cheese – Cube as a snack, melt over vegetables, potatoes, toast, or casseroles, or grate into eggs, rice, soup, and hot cereal
• Offer whole milk.
  • Use milk, instead of water, to cook hot cereals.
• Use full-fat yogurt and puddings.
• Add extra fats to foods such as butter, margarine, oil, cream cheese, mayonnaise, or half & half.
  • Put butter or mayonnaise on vegetables, breads, hot cereals, potatoes, crackers, sandwiches, soups, and casseroles.
• Add avocado to toast, a sandwich, tacos, or as a side dish.
• Add peanut butter to bread, crackers, toast, and apple slices.
  • Note: thickly spread peanut butter is a choking hazard for children, especially under 2 years of age. See this article on Choking.
• Use powdered nonfat dry milk to make “super-milk” by adding ¼ cup powdered milk to 1 cup whole milk, or to milkshakes or yogurt (refrigerate before drinking).
• Add powdered nonfat milk to mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and casseroles.
  • Note: children under age 2 should not be served powdered milk to drink by itself, but it can be used to add calories to foods.
• Add Instant Breakfast to whole milk or instant pudding for a sweet treat.
• Eggs: Layer calories into scrambled eggs by making with half & half, cooking in butter, and adding cheese on top.
• Add extra olive or canola oil when cooking lean meats, vegetables, stir-fry or soups.
• Blend a fruit smoothie of 1/2 banana, frozen berries, milk and 1 tablespoon nonfat powdered milk. Add peanut butter for even more calories.
• Peanut Butter Dough: Mix approximately equal amounts of creamy peanut butter and powdered milk together.  Aim for dough-like consistency. Sweeten with honey to taste and shape into cookies for your child to eat.

Get more tips here!