Preschool years are a phase of rapid growth and development of a child. This is the period between 1-6 years of a child’s life. It represents a period of rapid physical, mental, social, intellectual and emotional growth. During this period the child’s motor skills develop and refine and a world full of curiosity and exploration opens up for the children. They finally start to become more aware of their surroundings and environment. In this phase, there is strengthening of muscles specially of the back, buttocks and legs. Along with strengthening there is a significant increase in the height of the child as well. The bone mass also increases. Basically, there is an overall increase in the child’s body including their teeth, skin, nervous system, connective tissue etc.

Along with this, there is a noticeable difference in the motor development of a pre-schooler and they actively participate in the day to day activities like climbing up the stairs, scribbling on a sheet of paper (or walls). All this develops the child’s motor coordination and awareness of their own body.

Preschool years are also a phase during which the child shows great improvement in his ability to think and reason. It is this time where children learn colours, counting, shapes, alphabet etc. Therefore this phase also marks an increase in the Cognitive Development of the child.

Also, during this period, the child also becomes more aware of their feelings and emotions and start making friends. Hence this period also marks the development of social and emotional skills of the child.

All of this rapid development in the child’s physical, motor, cognitive and social skills also increases the demand of nutrition required in the child’s body. It is this period where the child would learn about food. Imparting nutritional knowledge and knowledge about food is very important during this period to ensure proper growth and development during the coming years of a child’s life. This is the period of imparting good table manners and good eating habits to a child.

For the proper growth and development of a child during this period, the nutritional needs of the child also increase. There is an increase in the child’s protein requirements, energy requirements, fat requirement and mineral and vitamin requirements like Calcium, Zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folic Acid etc. All of these are important to ensure that the child leads a healthy life with a strong immunity and enough nutrients are available for their growth.

In the preschool years, children develop various associations with foods. For example, sweets may mean a reward for good behaviour. Hence these years affect a child’s food related attitudes and practices. Also during these years food preferences are highly influenced by parents, siblings, friends and television advertisements. Therefore, adoption of good food habits and good eating habits must be encouraged in pre-schoolers. This can be done by the following methods:

• Establish routines where the children sit down with the whole family and eat and talk together during meal times. Avoid watching television during meal times.

• Meal times should not be made unpleasant by force-feeding picky eaters. This puts off children, and they develop a negative association with food and eating. Instead, 'active feeding’ should be done by engaging the child in some activity while feeding her/him, which makes it a fun experience. Create opportunities to engage the children in fantasy and pretend play. For Example, the aeroplane game where the spoon full of food is the aeroplane which lands in a child’s mouth.

• Keep a 'snack-box' handy, containing healthy snack foods such as pieces of fruit, vegetables, or small sandwiches.

• Do not give the child too large a serving. It is better to offer a second helping later. This helps children to learn not to waste food.

• Introduce new foods at the time when the child is really hungry. This increases the likelihood of its acceptance.

• If the child does not like particular foods, do not worry, as likes and dislikes change over time. Placing only small amounts of foods that the child dislikes on the child's plate at family meal timings increases its chances of being accepted. The child is encouraged to eat new foods when s/he observes the whole family enjoying them.

• Inculcating the habit of having breakfast before leaving for school is important, as research shows that children who eat breakfast in the mornings are able to concentrate better on their studies.

• In case the child does not like drinking milk, it can be given as milk shake (banana, mango, strawberry, etc.), or as custard, curd, yoghurt, paneer, kheer, or any milk-based food preparation. Therefore good substitutes or a way of incorporating certain food items disliked by the child is an important practice. Like Green leafy vegetables, and other vegetables are generally not liked by children. Hence they can be incorporated in meals by disguising them, such as kneading them into dough to make methi/bathua/palak parantha or poori or given as lauki/mint/ onion-tomato raitas, or as carrot halwa etc.

• Foods should be attractively served by using natural colours, or cut out in different shapes and sizes. This makes the food interesting for children.

• One can also replace frying as a cooking method with baking or steaming.

• Extra sugar can be avoided by naturally sweetening desserts with fruits.