As soon as school is done, kids run free & wild whether indoor or outdoors. Their playtime is limitless and it’s a challenge especially if you have a 5 year old who easily gets bored – like mine! If you are suffering from boredom tantrums, you are not alone.
One way to keep kids occupied while enhancing their talents is to enroll in summer sports clinic. It allows them to discover their talents, develop skills (who knows, your child might a scholar of sports), and spend all their energy on something productive. This is what I did for my son who recently completed his first day of soccer training.
It only cost us P1,500 for 10 sessions and it is near our home so me and my son just ride my bike to the venue. We need to wake up 5.30AM for the 7AM soccer class.
Feeding your child properly to have the energy for sports is essential. Here is how I fuel my son for his soccer sports clinic:
1. Cereals + Milk – this is what Ashton ate for the first day of training. I like it because it’s easy to prepare, easy to consume and allows me extra time to prepare my own breakfast (especially during the first day since both of us were adjusting to the schedule).
2. Rice, Egg, and Protein source – I realized soccer involves a lot of running and so I plan to serve Ashton heavier meals to meet the energy requirements of his sports. Like our own mothers, I also just started to add Star Margarine to his rice to make it more appealing, tasty, and nutritious.
Note though that if you feed your child a heavy meal like this, you have to wait at least 1 hour to fully digest the food and avoid indigestion.
3. ADD: Age appropriate milk – You can pair both items 1 & 2 with age appropriate milk. For example, kids age 5 years and above spend more energy and are more active and so their macro and micro nutrient requirements are different from kids 3 years and below.
Ashton is now drinking NIDO 5+, he started with NIDO 3+ when he was younger. Both contain probiotics and prebiotics that keeps his stomach healthy, especially after feeding him energy dense food for his activities. I give NIDO 5+ twice a day, in the morning (breakfast) and at night (before he sleeps).
4. MILO Energy drink – I really want my son to succeed in sports for his own future, not to mention grab a scholarship from his dream school because of his sports. But first, I need to make sure he is healthy enough to excel. My son’s weight has always been a problem probably because he is spending more energy versus what he is consuming. So, in the afternoons I have also started to give my son MILO and seen his weight improve because of this.
Sometimes, I run out of NIDO 5+ and I just give him MILO instead. Nourishing our children and helping them achieve their dreams really takes a lot of effort and it includes financial, energy, and emotional demands from us mothers. I am not shy to ask my relatives to bring Ashton milk versus other kinds of gifts i.e. junk food, toys, or juice drinks. In fact, the NIDO 5+ Ashton is holding above is a gift from one of his titas.
Ashton was extra excited because of the free 2-in-1 tumbler which we will start using tomorrow as his sports water bottle . You get it free with 1.6kg packs of NIDO 3+ and 1.2kg packs of NIDO 5+. It is 2-in-1 because you can use the top portion to store drinks like NIDO milk and the bottom portion can be used to store healthy snacks like cereals or fruit slices.
Apart from these supplements, I feed Ashton home cooked meals. Sometimes he eats a lot, sometimes not at all. The items above are helpful in meeting those gaps and I always try to explain their benefits and how it will affect his future performance. How about you? What are your tips to fueling your child the right way for sports or school?
Happy summer Mommy and Baby!
Mommy Lace is a blogger from the Philippines. She started this blog to share information on pregnancy, breastfeeding, childcare, family, and health.
