Student Athlete Recruiting Education
Student Athlete Recruiting
Education
THE ATHLETE'S KITCHEN
Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD
Nutrition for Sports Kids
If you are the parent of an athletic child, you may wonder: Do kids have special nutritional needs for growth and sports, or are they just small grown-ups who can follow the nutrition recommendations given to adults? This article looks at some of the nutritional concerns for growing athletes and offers tips to help you fuel your athletic child for optimal growth and performance.
Protein: Adequate protein is very important for children to grow well and to build strong muscles. Athletic child-ren may need 0.5 to 1.0 gram of protein/pound of body weight. This comes to 40 to 75 grams of protein for a 9 year old who weighs 75 pounds. Children can easily consume this much in three glasses of milk (30 gms protein) plus a small serving of protein-rich food at lunch and dinner. If your child drinks little milk and routinely eats meatless pasta dinners, s/he risks a protein deficient diet. Although children need adequate protein, extra protein will not build bigger muscles. Even strength training (using light to moderate resistance that reduces stress on the ligaments and joints) won't bulk-up kids' muscles. The hormones that kick-in at puberty create muscular bulk.
Fluids: Adequate fluids are very important for child athletes. Your job as parent is to be sure
palatable fluids are available at both training sessions and competitions. That means cold water, dilute juice, or sports drinks. Young athletes who engage in competitive, nonstop physical activity lasting more than 30 to 40 minutes risk becoming overheated, more than adults who exercise at the same rate for a similar amount of time. Compared to adults, children produce more body heat at a given running speed, sweat less (each sweat glands produces about 40% less sweat than an adult sweat gland), and gain heat faster from the environment (because children have a greater body surface area in respect to their body weight). All this means: Drink frequently! Children are in fluid balance if they urinate every 2 to 4 hours; the urine should be pale yellow and copious--not dark and concentrated.
Calorie needs: Active children may need as many calories as their parents, if not more. For example, the average 6 year old boy or girl who weighs about 45 pounds requires about 1,800 calories per day (40 calories/lb) plus 100-300+ more calories for sports. The average 9 year old (78 lbs) needs about 2,500 calories (32 cals/lb) plus more calories for sports. Normal growth is a sign your child is eating enough; training does not stunt growth when energy needs are met. But if your child seems overly fatigued, irritable and letharic, suspect inadequate calories.
Junk Food: Most active children can meet their nutrient needs within 1,200 to 1,500 calories of a variety of wholesome foods. Hence, they have space for some fatty "junk food". Don't try to restrict all fat; children generally need to eat a diet with about 30% of the calories from fat. If they eat significantly less fat, they may consume too little energy. Yet, do be careful that "junk snacks" don't kill the appetite for nutritious meals. This is particularly important if your child eats too little lunch at school, then ravenously devours too many afternoon treats. Eating a second lunch after school is a preferable fueling practice.
Planning: Children often eat poorly because they and their parents have failed to plan for better choices. For example, when you are rushing off to after school practice, do you think ahead and bring bagels and bananas to be eaten in the car--or just succumb to the candy bars or chips from the snack shack? What about fluids--does each of your children have a water bottle? Before evening games, have you enjoyed an early pasta dinner--or do fast food burgers fill empty stomachs on the way to the event? Proper post-game refueling with carbohydrates and fluids is important. Do you have juice boxes handy?
Weight & Pressures to be thin: Even among third graders, dieting is common. In a California study, 30-45% of 9 year old girls (and 46-80% of 10 year olds) had disordered eating behavior. Dieting among young athletes in sports that emphasize leanness (ballet, gymnastics, figure skating, running) is standard. This pressure to be thin and acquire the "perfect body" bodes trouble ahead. Dieting, after all, is a health risk for developing a full blown eating disorder. As a parent, you need to recognize that dieting is not just about eating; it is about feeling not "good enough", having a poor self-image, and low self-esteem. As a parent, be sure to downplay body size as an important currency of worth, and instead value and accept individual differences. Never comment about the size of large children; your child will conclude s/he must be thin to be valued and loved, and will start dieting. This is particularly important with young girls who are coping with body changes during puberty. Their efforts to control weight may lead to a a sense of frustration, guilt, despair, and failure, and to a pattern of unhealthy eating and eating disorders.
Epidemic of childhood obesity: Competitive sports, directed at winning games with the best athletes, offers little but humiliation to overweight kids who long to fit in and be adopted by their peers. Yet strength training (appropriately prescribed and competently supervised) is good for obese children because it gives them a chance to shine; they are often the strongest in the class.
Nancy Clark, MS, RD specializes in nutrition for exercise. She offers private nutrition consultations at Sports Medicine Brookline. Her popular Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 2nd edition ($14.36) and The New York City Marathon Cookbook ($23) are available via Amazon.com