Dietary nutrition has an important impact on the physical and intellectual development of children (this article mainly discusses children and preschool children, namely 1 to 6 years old), and his life. Many attentive mothers often worry that their young children are not eating well enough and their nutrition is not keeping up. So, how can we accurately determine whether a child is eating enough?

　　 It is often impossible to make an accurate judgment by looking at how much food a child eats (or calculates calories). This is because the energy requirements of different children vary greatly. Studies have shown that crying children who are hyperactive and crying require up to 3 to 4 times more energy than quiet children of similar age. Taking a 2-year-old child as an example, if it is a particularly quiet child, it may be enough to consume 700 kilocalories of energy per day; if it is a hyperactive crying child, it may be enough to eat 1700 kilocalories or more (of course, large Some moderate 2-year-olds are around 1200 kcal). The situation is the same for preschool children. Those who are particularly active and naughty need to eat more energy, which is about 3 or 4 times that of quiet children. Take 4-year-old children as an example. Kcal energy may be enough; if it is a hyperactive crying child, it may be necessary to eat 2000 kcal or more (of course, most moderate 4-year-old children are about 1400 kcal).

The huge difference in 　　 energy requirements means that children’s food intake will also vary greatly. The recommendation that recommends how much food a 2-year-old child should eat and how much food a 4-year-old child should eat (please refer to the book "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2007") is only applicable to some children, or most children, but not necessarily your child. Of course, it is still instructive to know how much food a 2-year-old or 4-year-old child should eat, but it is not reliable to use it as a method to judge whether your child is eating enough.

　　 The reliable and easy way is to observe the weight of the child. Weight has a direct relationship with nutrition, especially total energy intake. Appropriate weight means that your child eats properly. Low weight means insufficient food, and high weight means too much food. Therefore, attentive mothers should measure the child''s weight regularly (such as once a month) and continuously (until the child grows up). To do this is not difficult, just go to the supermarket to buy a weight scale and go home. When measuring the weight of a child, the best method is to let the adult hold the child to weigh the total weight, and then put down the child to weigh the weight of the adult. The two numbers are subtracted to get the child''s weight Less clothes to reduce deviations). Of course, if the child is willing to cooperate, it is OK to weigh the child alone.

　　Weighing your child’s weight is not difficult, but the difficulty is how to judge whether the weight is appropriate or not. Adults only need to measure their weight once, they can basically judge obesity, weight loss or normal. The child''s weight is much more complicated, because the child''s body (weight) is in the process of increasing. Therefore, the child''s weight needs to be measured several times in a row (with a certain time interval, usually one month) to evaluate whether the growth rate is appropriate. The specific method is to first prepare a "standard growth curve chart of children under 7 years old in China", and then mark the weight value of the child weighed monthly on the chart, and connect these values of your child into a curve to see if it is in the above Within the appropriate range of the chart. The biggest advantage of using this standard curve chart is that you can see what level your child''s growth rate is-just like the test score ranking.

In addition to weighing, you can also judge whether the child has enough nutrition from the aspects of whether there are signs and symptoms of nutritional deficiencies and whether the results of the physical examination are abnormal. But this requires professional knowledge and methods, which are generally difficult for parents to master. More than that, doctors in most hospitals, even children''s hospitals, do not master it.