http://www.girlshealth.gov/

Parents & Caregivers

Home Parents & Caregivers Nutrition

Nutrition en Español

Helpful tools for your daughter

• Food pyramid
• Healthy Weight Index (BMI)
• Important vitamins and nutrients
• The BodyWorks program is designed to help parents and caregivers of young adolescent girls (ages 9 to 13) improve family eating and activity habits.

Parents play a big role in shaping their children's eating habits. The resources in this section can help you teach your daughter about healthy eating. The resources here include the Federal government's latest nutrition guidelines, which can be used as a guide to help you plan and cook healthy meals for your family. Your daughter can use the tools in this section to learn more about healthy eating on her own or you can use the resources together. Your daughter can also calculate her Body Mass Index (BMI) to see if she's at a healthy weight. Other resources in this section can help you spot a possible eating disorder or help your daughter make better food choices when eating out.

Featured articles

1. Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans
2. Cooking with Kids
3. Fats and your Child
4. Fiber and you Child
5. Helping Teens Make Healthy Choices
6. Nutrition and Teens: A Guide for Parents

Web sites

1. girlshealth.gov: Nutrition - We have created the girlshealth.gov section on nutrition to help adolescent girls learn more about some of the unique health issues and social situations they will encounter during the teen years. This section provides information, resources, and links to help your daughter learn more about nutrition and staying healthy.
2. Kidnetic - Kidnetic.com is a web site that communicates healthy eating and active living information in meaningful and useful ways to kids aged 9-12 and their families. Kidnetic.com is intended to encourage kids and their families to begin the process of behavior change toward healthy lifestyles.
3. Best Bones Forever!™ - We have created the Best Bones Forever!™ site to encourage girls to have strong bones, to stay active and eat foods high in good nutrients.

Publications

1. Children's Snacks: Ten Tips for Healthier Snacking (Copyright © Mayo Foundation) – Kids love snacks, but the content in some snacks can be bad for their health. This fact sheet provides parents with ten tips for healthier snacking for children.
   
   http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/childrens-health/HQ00419/METHOD%3Dprint
2. The Gluten-Free Diet: A Guide for Parents (Copyright © Center for Young Women’s Health) – This guide helps you and your family better understand the restrictions of a gluten-free diet, how to identify gluten-free foods, and how to adapt to a gluten-free lifestyle.
   
   http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/gluten_free_parent.html
3. Helping Your Child: Tips for Parents – This website encourages you to take an active role in helping your child — and your families — learn healthy eating and physical activity habits.
   
   http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/child.htm
4.   Milk Matters! – This publication talks about the importance of calcium for pre-teens and teens. It includes tips for getting more calcium in your teen’s diet.
   
   http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/strong_bones_lifelong_health_mm1.pdf
5. Nutrition and Teens: A Guide for Parents (Copyright © Center for Young Women’s Health) – Family members play an important role in helping teens to become healthier. This website offers nutrition and wellness tips for you and your family.
   
   http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/nutrition_parent.html
6. Nutrition Tips for Kids (Copyright © American Academy of Family Physicians) – By helping your child establish a healthy diet and regular exercise, you can reduce their risk of high cholesterol and obesity. This article has tips on how to establish healthy habits in your children.
   
   http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/healthy/food/kids/495.html
7. Tips for Parents: Weight and Eating Behavior Problems in Teens (Copyright © American Academy of Family Physicians) – This publication can help you recognize the signs of an eating problem or disorder in teenagers. It discusses emotional eating, signs of anorexia and bulimia, and the health risks of obesity.
   
   http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/healthy/food/kids/1051.html

Organizations

1. Center for Young Women's Health
   
   http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/
3. Division of Adolescent and School Health, CDC
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/about/index.htm
4. Food and Nutrition Information Center, USDA
   
   http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/
5. Kids With Food Allergies
   
   http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/
6. National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
   
   http://www.celiaccentral.org/
7. Nutrition.gov
   
   http://www.nutrition.gov/

= This article, publication, website, or organization is from the U.S. government.

= You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader® to view some of these files after you've downloaded them. If you have problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®.

Content last updated November 11, 2007

top