Thirst is a sign that their body has needed Yyoung for afhletes: while. Donna Fletcher on September 15, at am. Young Athletes: What to Eat Before, During and After Sports. Your son or daughter should be eating a well-rounded diet of carbohydrates, protien, and good fats every day.

Feeding young athletes: tips for parents -

Child athletes put their bodies through more wear and tear than less active children, so they need to be even more diligent about eating healthy foods for growth and development. Children get hotter faster than adults because they have a greater body surface area for their body weight, which means they take in heat from the environment faster than adults.

They should drink very frequently during exercise and cold water is the perfect refresher. A good rule of thumb is that children need about 4 ounces or ½ cup of water for every 20 minutes of play. Make sure you teach your children about the importance of hydration, or they might just forget to drink all together!

Fresh fruit is also high in water and contribute to hydration—orange slice breaks during practice should be encouraged! If you provide them, they will drink them. In my professional opinion, sport drinks are ONLY necessary for intense activity lasting longer than an hour.

For exercise lasting longer than an hour, you can replace fluid and salt losses with water and a salty snack, like pretzels or saltines. They are the fuel for the car. Healthy carbs should be consumed hours before practice to maintain energy. Think— a sandwich or piece of fruit before practice.

Because children are growing, their muscles are still developing. Sports cause muscle breakdown, and proteins aid in muscle repair. There are so many healthful protein food choices that kids can eat and enjoy, such as peanut butter, low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese sticks, chicken, turkey, and fish.

A Greek yogurt after practice is the perfect amount of protein to repair worn out muscles! Did you know that certain fats , like omega-3 found in salmon, nuts, avocados and oil, are actually essential for brain health and development? As your young athlete grows, their appetite might grow with them.

THANK YOU so much for this information. I love it. I would have never thought about fresh fruit during practices — brillant. Your email address will not be published. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans break down energy needs based on age and activity level in the table below. The best meals and snacks for your athlete should include protein, complex carbohydrates, and plant fats.

Quality macronutrients make up a healthy, balanced diet. Example one is one serving of a popular brand of potato chips 49 g. Example two is half an avocado. The avocado may be low in protein and high in fat, but it contains healthy monounsaturated fats, complex carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber and other vitamins and minerals.

Neither of these foods would be adequate alone. A combination of healthy fats, protein, and complex carbohydrates can help your child feel full longer and give him more energy on the field.

There are two kinds of carbohydrates. Examples of complex carbs include whole grains like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, slow cooked oats, and whole grain bread. Simple carbohydrates break down fast and cause a spike in blood sugar. White table sugar and most foods made with sugar such as candy, soda, cookies or other desserts, are examples of simple carbohydrates.

Fruit and dairy also have carbohydrates. The high fiber content of fruit helps whole fruits break down slower so they are complex carbohydrates even though fruits are high in the natural sugar called fructose. Fruit juice, on the other hand, is concentrated, and the fiber is removed. So juice is a simple carbohydrate that digests quickly.

Animal protein is a complete protein that contains all the essential amino acids. Animal proteins contain saturated fat also so focus on lean quality proteins like chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, legumes and beans. I get the question all the time about protein supplements and shakes.

They can include allergens, heavy metals, and even sports enhancers, which can be dangerous and disqualifying in elite sports that test for human growth hormone HGH or other sports enhancers.

My suggestion is to steer clear of supplements and focus on quality balanced meals and snacks. If your athlete eats a plant-based diet or has a vitamin deficiency, a pediatric dietitian can make adjustments to the diet or suggest the best supplements.

Athletes should include polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats in their meals and snacks. Too much of those kinds of fats, especially before competition or practice can make your athlete feel sluggish. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are the brain-boosting omega-3 fats. These are mainly found in plant foods including avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and nut butter.

Moderate and intense physical activity puts an even higher demand on a young athlete, especially for calories and nutrients. Here I highlight the most important vitamins and minerals for young athletes :. A balanced diet focuses on quality foods that have a variety of these nutrients.

Instead of focusing on the numbers, use the food sources as a guide for putting together meals and snacks for your athlete. One of the biggest mistake kids make is not hydrating enough or correctly.

But, dehydration during intense exercise is dangerous. The key is to stay hydrated throughout the day and show up for the game adequately hydrated. Athletes need more water than the average amounts on the chart below. iIn my book, Eat Like a Champion, I outline the recommendations of 13 milliliters per kilogram per hour, and what that might look like for a young athlete.

Keep in mind kids need even more water to stay hydrated when they train for longer than two hours or in the heat. Elite athletes playing at a higher intensity and for longer have options. They can rehydrate with water and replenish electrolytes with foods that contain potassium fruit and veggies and sodium pretzels, beef jerky , or go the sports drink route.

The best athletes know that quality and timing of food matter as much as quantity. Here are a few tips to get the most out of food to improve performance, maintain energy and satisfy hunger and appetite longer. Nutrition to fuel training and competition is an ongoing process that starts in the pre-season.

During competitions, what young athletes eat before and after intense physical activity can affect their performance. Recovery snacks should have a combination of carbohydrates and protein. Kids that play moderate activity sports for less than an hour are probably fine with no additional snacks.

For 1 hour of moderate activity, a small snack like a piece of bread with peanut butter and milk is enough to refuel. For longer periods of intense activity, your athlete might need a large snack or another meal.

The focus of good nutrition for athletes should be on balance, quality and timing. Try to fuel your athlete with food first and skip the sports drinks, protein shakes and supplements. One of the biggest obstacles for families is trying to wrangle the kids together to sit down for a meal.

In my e-book, Fast and Nutritious Breakfasts for Young Athletes , I give parents a load of options and ideas for simple breakfasts. Some athletes skip meals and run low on fuel then overeat at the next meal.

If your athlete is ravenous when he comes home for dinner, it may be time to add another snack during the day or between lunch and dinner. Here are some examples of the top foods athletes should eat. Dinner Recipes for Young Athletes. For athletes, pre- and post-exercise snacks are part of recovery and are important for repairing and replenishing the body.

Sports are a fun way to get kids ofr the couch and onto foor playing field, but setting young athletes up Mediterranean diet and cultural heritage sustainable Electrolytes and fluid intake Replenish hair care require a atjletes: extra thought at Feeding young athletes: tips for parents. Whether your kids love swimming, Feedinf or horseback riding, the tips below will help you create a young athlete nutrition plan that keeps their bodies energized at every age! A well-balanced diet is important for all children, but as kids expend more energy through sports, their nutritional intake becomes even more essential to maintaining healthy growth and development. Many parents who are themselves very active tend to rely on protein as a source of pre-workout energy and post-workout recovery. Rather than protein, complex carbohydrates are the most important energy source for young athletes.

Feeding young athletes: tips for parents -

Sports Nutrition is near and dear to my heart. As a mother of four young athletes and a pediatric dietitian specializing in sports nutrition for kids and teens, I believe that good nutrition is the key to athletic performance. In my book, Eat Like a Champion , I give parents an in-depth and doable roadmap to feeding active and athletic children.

This article breaks down what you need to know to get started with balanced and nutritious meals that fuel the young athlete for performance and growth. The myth that the young athlete needs to cut out carbs or carb-load before a competition is pervasive.

Kids need carbohydrates as part of a balanced meal, and active kids need to make sure they eat enough carbohydrate foods because activity demands more. What about loading up on carbohydrates before a competition?

But loading up on carbs before a competition may lead to an energy crash, especially if other nutrients, like protein, are missing. They are a source of unnecessary sugar. I believe in food first.

For the young athlete, bananas and pretzels or beef jerky have enough potassium and sodium to replenish electrolytes. Yes, young athletes need more protein compared to inactive children.

Rather, protein is used to repair and build muscles, but consuming too much ends up stored as body fat. Diets that have excessive amounts of protein can lead to dehydration.

All three macronutrients are important but the goal is to have quality fats, carbohydrates and protein in balance. Another big myth is that playing sports compensates for unhealthy eating habits. Vitamins and minerals help the body function and create energy. Most athletes are fine with meeting the RDA of vitamins and minerals.

But, young athletes risk coming up short on crucial nutrients when sugar and salty, fatty foods replace nutritious meals and snacks. While they may use up the calories on the field from those ultra-processed foods , young athletes will feel sluggish and may not perform at their potential.

The two primary goals of feeding young athletes are to provide the nutrients for growth and the fuel they need for more energy for sports. The young athlete is still growing so their calorie and nutrient needs are even higher.

For the most part, the nutrition recommendations I give young athletes are the same I give for all children, except for a few tweaks here and there depending on the sport.

This can range from feeling sluggish and not performing optimally to dehydration, which can be dangerous. Nutritional needs change throughout childhood and adolescence.

Kids go through several growth spurts until they finish puberty and stop growing. Generally, boys have higher muscle mass and stop growing later than girls so their calorie needs are quite high through young adulthood.

While girls reach their adult height earlier and have less lean muscle on average, their calorie and nutrient needs tend to be lower starting in adolescence. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans break down energy needs based on age and activity level in the table below.

The best meals and snacks for your athlete should include protein, complex carbohydrates, and plant fats. Quality macronutrients make up a healthy, balanced diet. Example one is one serving of a popular brand of potato chips 49 g. Example two is half an avocado.

The avocado may be low in protein and high in fat, but it contains healthy monounsaturated fats, complex carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber and other vitamins and minerals. Neither of these foods would be adequate alone. A combination of healthy fats, protein, and complex carbohydrates can help your child feel full longer and give him more energy on the field.

There are two kinds of carbohydrates. It is hard for them to pay attention to hunger and satiety cues when they are engaged with an electronic device. Mangieri recommends that families power down the devices, turn off the television, and focus on fueling their bodies properly. Covering weight management, supplementation, fueling, hydration, and more, Fueling Young Athletes addresses the issues that families and athletes most often face, such as late-night practices, inconvenient school lunch times, demanding tournament schedules and travel leagues, and lack of sleep.

Previous Next. Call Us Hours Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm EST. Contact Us Get in touch with our team. FAQs Frequently asked questions. FREE SHIPPING! Need to access your Online Course or Ebook? Learn More. Home Articles Six Food Rules that Young Athletes and Their Families Should Follow.

Six Food Rules that Young Athletes and Their Families Should Follow Young athletes face distractions that can keep them from eating properly. Get the latest insights with regular newsletters, plus periodic product information and special insider offers. JOIN NOW. The preferred snack should include protein and carbohydrates carbs with a low glycemic index.

Examples of high glycemic index carbs that should be minimized include sweets, pastries, and refined grains. These cause sharp blood sugar spikes and lows, leading to more sweet cravings resulting in binge eating, which is not good for an athlete.

While younger kids who compete in shorter games might not need to pay as much attention to their game-time nutrition, older kids who are serious about their performance should follow these nutrition rules to maximize their athletic abilities.

Broccoli adds calcium, vitamins A and C. Sentongo recommends avoiding new foods that might upset your stomach during the game. Young athletes can stay hydrated by using this easy equation: take their weight lbs. Staying hydrated is especially important on the day of the game.

Anything too fatty, like junk food or milk, is digested slowly and will make athletes feel slow and sluggish.

Athletes should also avoid eating too many high-fiber foods, like beans, fruits and vegetables, which are also difficult to digest and cause stomach problems on the field. Some parents are encouraged to bring snacks for the kids to eat mid-game.

These include a small, plain or whole grain bagel, graham crackers, dried fruit, sliced orange, and half a banana.

While parents often pack sugary treats like granola bars, Sentongo recommends the same starchy foods kids should eat before the game. While on the sidelines, athletes should drink both water and sports drinks like Gatorade which have electrolytes and potassium to help them recover.

Though some athletes are getting creative with hydration options — pickle juice has grown in popularity in recent years — Sentongo recommends sticking with sports drinks, which have the right combination of salt and sugar that increases the absorption of electrolytes in the body.

After the game, athletes should eat a high-protein meal that contains poultry, meats, fish, or legumes. Though athletes may feel fatigued, Sentongo cautions against overhydrating, which can cause light-headedness and even more fatigue.

Energy drinks are becoming increasingly popular with young athletes. However, this is mostly because of marketing and not safety. Many young athletes who consume energy drinks strongly believe they have a positive effect.

However, research shows that young athletes who rely on energy drinks are more likely to engage in health-damaging physical intensity and experience more adverse health symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, hyperactivity, and insomnia poor sleep. Therefore, the consumption and reliance on energy drinks should be discouraged in athletes.

Pediatric gastroenterologist Timothy A. Sentongo, MD, specializes in chronic disorders that affect growth and nutrition in children, including short bowel syndrome, food intolerances, feeding problems and cystic fibrosis. At Comer Children's, your child benefits from the combined expertise of many of the nation's leading specialists in gastrointestinal diseases.

Our gastroenterologists are nationally and internationally recognized for providing breakthrough care of complex digestive diseases. Save time by skipping the trip to the doctor's office and video conference with your provider instead.

Schedule an Appointment Online. Get an online pparents opinion from one of our experts without having to leave your home. Get a Second Opinion. MyChart UChicago Medicine. Written By Timothy Sentongo, MD. Sentongo, MD.