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Healthy eating for your child

Encouraging your child to eat healthy food from an early age helps them to make healthy choices as they get older. This reduces their risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

What is healthy eating?

Your child needs different nutrients to grow and develop. To get these nutrients, they need to eat a wide variety of fresh, healthy foods from all of the recommended 5 food groups.

1. Vegetables

A variety of vegetables helps to protect your child from all kinds of diseases. This is because veggies provide energy, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre and water.

2. Fruit

Like vegetables, fruit also provides energy, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre and water.

3. Grains (cereals)

Grains give your child the energy they need to grow, develop and learn.

Healthy options include mostly wholegrain or high-fibre varieties, such as breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, oats, quinoa and barley.

4. Lean meat, fish, poultry and meat alternatives

Lean meat, fish, chicken and vegetarian protein sources — such as eggs, beans (legumes), tofu and nuts — give your child iron, zinc, vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids and protein for growth, and brain, nerve and muscle development.

5. Dairy

Milk, cheese and yoghurt give your child protein and calcium. Calcium helps build strong bones and teeth. Reduced fat dairy is recommended for children over the age of 2 years, but not for younger children.

How much should your child eat?

The standard Australian Government dietary guidelines are as follows:

Fruit and vegetables

• 2–3 years: 1 serve of fruit and 2½ serves of vegetables every day
• 4–8 years: 1½ serves of fruit and 4½ serves of vegetables every day

Grains (cereals)

• 2–3 years: 4 serves every day
• 4–8 years: 4 serves every day

Lean meats, fish, poultry, egg, tofu, nuts and seeds, and beans/legumes

• 2–3 years: 1 serve every day
• 4–8 years 1½ serves every day

Dairy

• 2–3 years: 1½ serves every day
• 4–8 years: 1½–2 serves every day

Find out more on with our handy infographics on how much food does my child need.

Healthy snacks

Healthy snacks can help your child to meet their daily nutrition requirements.

Always keep a variety of healthy snacks in the home, such as fruit, veggie sticks with healthy dips such as hummus, natural yoghurt with chopped fruit, and healthy homemade muffins or muesli bars that are low in refined sugars.

Avoid giving your child sometimes food as snacks, as they are a poor source of nutrients.

Foods to limit

'Sometimes' foods, also called junk food or 'discretionary' foods, are called that because they are not essential for your child’s dietary needs. These foods are usually high in salt, saturated fat and sugar, and low in nutrients. Examples include chips, biscuits, chocolate, cake, ice-cream, meat pies and other pastries, lollies, many fast foods and fried foods.

These foods increase the risk of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes. Limit them to special occasions and small amounts.

Food intolerances and allergies

Some children have allergies or intolerances to certain foods, such as dairy, eggs, nuts and seafood.

For your child’s safety, it’s best to see a doctor or an accredited dietitian to confirm an intolerance or allergy, and learn how to manage it so they don’t miss out on any key nutrients for their growth and development.

Tips for encouraging healthy eating habits

You can encourage your child to eat healthily by:

• making mealtimes happy, fun occasions
• having them eat with the family at the dinner table
• not keeping sometimes food in the house
• saving sometimes food only for special occasions
• keeping a fruit bowl in a handy place, as an easy snack choice
• teaching them about how foods are grown and where they come from
• making healthy foods fun — for example, by cutting sandwiches, fruit and vegetables into interesting shapes
• getting them to help with shopping, cooking and preparing foods, as appropriate for their age
• encouraging them to try new foods, without forcing them
• turning off the TV and computer at mealtimes, and when possible eat together with them