The Balanced Diet I follow for Aakash
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Recently I had posted about the overall approach I am following for Aakash. As mentioned in that post, sharing about the diet that I am following for him.
The best way to describe the diet that I follow is to call it a Balanced Diet. Before entering into the details about this diet, I want to mention about 2 contradictions that I could see in various parents’ approach to diet. This is my general observation based on discussions happening in various Social Forums and not specific to any one of us.
Everyone’s focus is Socialisation. My question is how can we even visit our friends and families with a restrictive diet. Even during our own family eating times, the child may be isolated from siblings if it has a unique diet.
My another concern is in the name of the remedy, we are avoiding natural foods and going for medicines and supplements. Medicines are foreign to our body and we cannot escape the side effects. And supplements usually claim they are from natural sources. If our food is natural, why would we then need them? These are two questions which keep lingering in my mind.
Because of these 2 questions only, I decided that wherever Aakash goes, he shouldn’t be looking at other’s plates with yearning and he should be eating what others are eating.
Before I started the current form of the diet, I want to say the state of Aakash before it. Aakash was/had
· a picky eater
· was very hyper
· suffered from lack of immunity with recurring cold
· Sensitivity in mouth
· Sensitivity in hand
· Lot of sleep issues-Used to wake up at 4-4.30 am in the morning
· Lot of gut issues-like bloated stomach, constipation, worms
· Excess Food Cravings and wants to eat continuously
· Sugar Craving(see the pic I have attached as to why eating excessively and excess food craving are all linked)
· Acid Reflux
· Unable to manage him when taking out
· Many other behaviour issues like shouting, screaming, pestering, biting, hurting others by twisting their fingers
Today we have crossed most of the above problems. Now a days, any of these issues happen very rarely. But to reach this stage it took me 1 to 2 years from the time I started this diet.
Now I will explain the diet. It’s nothing special. I had met and discussed with a couple of dieticians for myself since I am overweight for my height.
The diet consists of
1. 6 times small meals instead of 3 large meals
2. Lots of fruits and vegetables
3. Less carbs, oil, salt and sugar
4. Removed all readymade foods like pickle, jam, sauce, ready made masalas etc. Instead of ready made masalas, I grind the masalas then and there when preparing the food. It may not reduce any pesticides as the sources are not organic. But it does avoid preservatives that goes into prepared food. Also changed from Table Salt to Rock Salt. Also we get freshly ground Gingelly oil from a known oil mill rather than store bought packaged oil.
That is trying to get/eat food with less of industrial processing. These are all small things that have improved Aakash’s and our health.
4. Along with this, I have added some extra things which I learnt by trial and error
So here is our food chart for the day. Now a days, Aakash wakes up around 6 to 7 am.
06:00 am- 1 Tumbler Lukewarm water and 2 small Bananas
8:30 am- Breakfast-Idlis/Chapati/Dosas with mostly Spinach/Mint/Tomato/coriander Chutney
11:30 am- Bowl of fruit (Aakash eats almost all of fruits)
01:00 pm- Lunch-Rice/Millet-Gravy-Greens/Vegetables(Aakash eats almost all vegetables including Bitter Gourd)
05:00 pm- Tea/Snacks-tiffin items/fruits
08:00 pm- Tiffin item/fruits
At any time, we don’t worry about eating a full stomach as the next meal is not very far away.
The chart looks simple I hope. And that’s what makes it easy for me and for Aakash.
Points to add
What I am going to cover here is specific points in the diet that helped Aakash cross over the initial difficulties he faced
a) About his picky eating habit and sensitivity in mouth. For this issue, I had tried OT in the initial stage. But had stopped all therapies when I shifted to homeschooling. I had not done any specific sensory intervention to correct this. I did what our parents have done with us when we were babies/kids to introduce the foods.
b) As we all know Water is important to aid digestion. So I give importance to have water on time. To reduce Aakash’s gut issues, I started an alarm in my phone that rings every 45 minutes reminding me to give him water. All of us in the family (Myself, Prem and Aakash) have each of us a 1 litre water bottle. In the morning we fill it up (Aakash does this as one of his tasks 😊), and through the day we drink this. We do drink more than 1 litre water, but having our own bottle helps us not to lose track of the minimum amount of water we drink.
c) We have lots of fibre through some notable fruits and Vegetables like Cucumber, Carrot, Pomegranate, Banana Stem, Banana, Papaya, Greens(Coriander, Mint, Curry leaves) and Spinach. I attach a lot of importance to Spinach and it has helped Aakash. Even the morning chutneys are with Greens because of the importance of Spinach and green leaves in the digestion. In Spinach also we go for a wide variety which includes Palak, Moringa leaves, Agasthi, Methi Leaves and Amaranthus leaves. Some of these I grow in my own garden also.
d) When we eat out, Aakash gets affected by worms. So once a week, we try to have bitter gourd and Turkey berry and Agasthi, once a month, all of which are good for deworming.
e) We have 1 cup of pre-boiled Omam-jeera water some time during the day. Sometimes this could be Aakash’s 6 am drink. We always have this solution ready as it helps in aiding digestion and reducing bloating immensely.
f) A cup of curd along with breakfast or lunch or both. The probiotic bacteria that comes with curd is the best catalyst for digestion process. Though lot of discussions happen around milk products for our kids, I find curd immensely useful. This and the little tea he has are his only milk consumption. He does not have any other milk products except when we occasionally have it outside.
g) I frequently prepare millets for lunch as they are easy to digest.
h) Garlic is very good for reducing bloating and improving digestion. Towards the evening, we give slightly roasted garlic (with very less oil). As Aakash only peels it, no extra work for us and he gets engaged too, as a Bonus 😊
i) We avoid Maida, but Wheat is part of diet.
j) We do occasionally have junk food breaks like pizza or a burger
To recap, we earlier faced issues like constipation, acid reflux, bloating, worms etc which lead to sleepless nights and lots of behaviour issues. Most of our time were spent on managing this behaviour. Today with this balanced diet his digestion issues and resultant behaviour issues are gone and he sleeps long and well. So we are able to focus on his learning now and Aakash is also always fresh.
——————————————————
Recently I had posted about the overall approach I am following for Aakash. As mentioned in that post, sharing about the diet that I am following for him.
The best way to describe the diet that I follow is to call it a Balanced Diet. Before entering into the details about this diet, I want to mention about 2 contradictions that I could see in various parents’ approach to diet. This is my general observation based on discussions happening in various Social Forums and not specific to any one of us.
Everyone’s focus is Socialisation. My question is how can we even visit our friends and families with a restrictive diet. Even during our own family eating times, the child may be isolated from siblings if it has a unique diet.
My another concern is in the name of the remedy, we are avoiding natural foods and going for medicines and supplements. Medicines are foreign to our body and we cannot escape the side effects. And supplements usually claim they are from natural sources. If our food is natural, why would we then need them? These are two questions which keep lingering in my mind.
Because of these 2 questions only, I decided that wherever Aakash goes, he shouldn’t be looking at other’s plates with yearning and he should be eating what others are eating.
Before I started the current form of the diet, I want to say the state of Aakash before it. Aakash was/had
· a picky eater
· was very hyper
· suffered from lack of immunity with recurring cold
· Sensitivity in mouth
· Sensitivity in hand
· Lot of sleep issues-Used to wake up at 4-4.30 am in the morning
· Lot of gut issues-like bloated stomach, constipation, worms
· Excess Food Cravings and wants to eat continuously
· Sugar Craving(see the pic I have attached as to why eating excessively and excess food craving are all linked)
· Acid Reflux
· Unable to manage him when taking out
· Many other behaviour issues like shouting, screaming, pestering, biting, hurting others by twisting their fingers
Today we have crossed most of the above problems. Now a days, any of these issues happen very rarely. But to reach this stage it took me 1 to 2 years from the time I started this diet.
Now I will explain the diet. It’s nothing special. I had met and discussed with a couple of dieticians for myself since I am overweight for my height.
The diet consists of
1. 6 times small meals instead of 3 large meals
2. Lots of fruits and vegetables
3. Less carbs, oil, salt and sugar
4. Removed all readymade foods like pickle, jam, sauce, ready made masalas etc. Instead of ready made masalas, I grind the masalas then and there when preparing the food. It may not reduce any pesticides as the sources are not organic. But it does avoid preservatives that goes into prepared food. Also changed from Table Salt to Rock Salt. Also we get freshly ground Gingelly oil from a known oil mill rather than store bought packaged oil.
That is trying to get/eat food with less of industrial processing. These are all small things that have improved Aakash’s and our health.
4. Along with this, I have added some extra things which I learnt by trial and error
So here is our food chart for the day. Now a days, Aakash wakes up around 6 to 7 am.
06:00 am- 1 Tumbler Lukewarm water and 2 small Bananas
8:30 am- Breakfast-Idlis/Chapati/Dosas with mostly Spinach/Mint/Tomato/coriander Chutney
11:30 am- Bowl of fruit (Aakash eats almost all of fruits)
01:00 pm- Lunch-Rice/Millet-Gravy-Greens/Vegetables(Aakash eats almost all vegetables including Bitter Gourd)
05:00 pm- Tea/Snacks-tiffin items/fruits
08:00 pm- Tiffin item/fruits
At any time, we don’t worry about eating a full stomach as the next meal is not very far away.
The chart looks simple I hope. And that’s what makes it easy for me and for Aakash.
Points to add
What I am going to cover here is specific points in the diet that helped Aakash cross over the initial difficulties he faced
a) About his picky eating habit and sensitivity in mouth. For this issue, I had tried OT in the initial stage. But had stopped all therapies when I shifted to homeschooling. I had not done any specific sensory intervention to correct this. I did what our parents have done with us when we were babies/kids to introduce the foods.
b) As we all know Water is important to aid digestion. So I give importance to have water on time. To reduce Aakash’s gut issues, I started an alarm in my phone that rings every 45 minutes reminding me to give him water. All of us in the family (Myself, Prem and Aakash) have each of us a 1 litre water bottle. In the morning we fill it up (Aakash does this as one of his tasks 😊), and through the day we drink this. We do drink more than 1 litre water, but having our own bottle helps us not to lose track of the minimum amount of water we drink.
c) We have lots of fibre through some notable fruits and Vegetables like Cucumber, Carrot, Pomegranate, Banana Stem, Banana, Papaya, Greens(Coriander, Mint, Curry leaves) and Spinach. I attach a lot of importance to Spinach and it has helped Aakash. Even the morning chutneys are with Greens because of the importance of Spinach and green leaves in the digestion. In Spinach also we go for a wide variety which includes Palak, Moringa leaves, Agasthi, Methi Leaves and Amaranthus leaves. Some of these I grow in my own garden also.
d) When we eat out, Aakash gets affected by worms. So once a week, we try to have bitter gourd and Turkey berry and Agasthi, once a month, all of which are good for deworming.
e) We have 1 cup of pre-boiled Omam-jeera water some time during the day. Sometimes this could be Aakash’s 6 am drink. We always have this solution ready as it helps in aiding digestion and reducing bloating immensely.
f) A cup of curd along with breakfast or lunch or both. The probiotic bacteria that comes with curd is the best catalyst for digestion process. Though lot of discussions happen around milk products for our kids, I find curd immensely useful. This and the little tea he has are his only milk consumption. He does not have any other milk products except when we occasionally have it outside.
g) I frequently prepare millets for lunch as they are easy to digest.
h) Garlic is very good for reducing bloating and improving digestion. Towards the evening, we give slightly roasted garlic (with very less oil). As Aakash only peels it, no extra work for us and he gets engaged too, as a Bonus 😊
i) We avoid Maida, but Wheat is part of diet.
j) We do occasionally have junk food breaks like pizza or a burger
To recap, we earlier faced issues like constipation, acid reflux, bloating, worms etc which lead to sleepless nights and lots of behaviour issues. Most of our time were spent on managing this behaviour. Today with this balanced diet his digestion issues and resultant behaviour issues are gone and he sleeps long and well. So we are able to focus on his learning now and Aakash is also always fresh.
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