Navigating Nutrition: A Parent’s Handbook to Micronutrients
Written by: CDHF
Updated: April 28th, 2025
Why is Nutrition So Important During Childhood?
Nutrition plays a key role in your little one’s health. Moreover, childhood is important for growth and development, brain health, immune system support, and promoting healthy eating habits. We’ll discuss what vitamins and minerals are, their roles, food sources where they are found, and an easy, balanced meal plan for your child.
Exploring the World of Vitamins: Their Functions and Their Sources
Vitamins are small nutrients that our body needs to carry out various functions. Here are the main essential vitamins children need to function properly.
| Vitamin | Roles/Functions | Food Sources |
| Vitamin A | Helps with vision, immune function, growth and development. | Beef liver, herring, salmon, eggs, dairy products, carrots, red and yellow bell peppers, broccoli, and spinach. |
| Vitamin C | Helps with healing cuts and scrapes, immune support and helps with the absorption of iron found in plants. | Oranges, broccoli, tomato, spinach, grapefruit, and strawberries. |
| Vitamin D | Helps the body absorb calcium which is important for building and maintain strong healthy bones, helps with nerve function and helps support the immune system. | Some rich sources are egg yolks, liver, saltwater fish and fortified foods like milk and some plant-based milks, cereal, and yogurt. |
| Vitamin E | Helps immune function, involved in metabolism and may help delay pr prevent certain chronic diseases. | Peanuts, almonds, spinach, broccoli, mango, tomato, kiwi.*Young children (typically under 6 months) should not be given nuts in their whole form as they are a choking hazard. |
| Vitamin K | Helps with building strong healthy bones and blood clotting. | Dark green leafy green vegetables, natto (fermented beans), vegetable oil, turnips. |
| Folate (Vitamin B9) | Helps with brain health and helps support growing bodies. | Spinach, asparagus, edamame and brussel sprouts, fortified breakfast cereals. |
| Vitamin B12 | Important for nerve function and creating healthy red blood cells. | Clams, oysters, salmon, ground beef, eggs, tempeh, fortified nutritional yeast, milk. |
Exploring the World of Minerals: Their Functions and Their Sources
Minerals are other small nutrients that are also important for many bodily functions. Here is a list of key minerals, their main functions, and food sources.
| Mineral | Roles/Functions | Food Sources |
| Calcium | It helps with building strong, healthy bones, and tissue and nerve function. | Milk, fortified plant-based milk, fortified tofu, yogurt, cheese, panner cheese, tahini (ground sesame seeds) |
| Iron | Iron helps make red blood cells and is involved in growth, brain development and cell function. | Beef, chicken, seafood like oysters and sardines, beans tofu, spinach. |
| Magnesium | Involved in enzyme and energy production. | Pumpkin seeds, spinach, soymilk, some cereals, avocado, broccoli, cashews, almonds, kidney beans, and edamame. |
| Potassium | Helps with fluid balance in the body and muscle movement. | Apricots, lentils, raisins, bananas, kidney beans, potatoes, and acorn squash (USDHHS, 2022c). |
| Zinc | Helps your little one from getting sick, helps with healing their cuts and scrapes, and supports their growing bodies. | Oysters, richest sources are beef, crab, pork, pumpkin seeds, lentils |
Meal & Snack Ideas for Your Little Ones
Childhood is a crucial time when food habits are developed. During these years, it’s important for parents to model good eating behaviours. An excellent resource to learn more about incorporating good food habits in your home is Canada’s Food Guide.
Your small one is currently in a phase where they can be picky in what they eat. So, it is understandable that it may be hard to get them to eat many of these new foods.
One tip you can try is incorporating new ingredients into food they already like adding vegetables to spaghetti or macaroni and cheese. Mixing vegetables or even fruit into sauce, stews, mashes, or purees is a great way to hide the taste or colour while ensuring your child gets their vital vitamins and minerals and is introduced to new foods as well.
Here are some examples of meals and snacks you can use as inspiration when planning meals for your child.
| Meal/Snack | Amount | Food |
| Breakfast – Peanut Butter & Banana Toast Beverage – Whole Milk | 1 slice ½ tbsp. ½ sliced ½ cup | whole wheat toast Peanut butter banana whole milk |
| Snack – Fruit & Yogurt Beverage – water | 3 1/3 cup ½ cup | dried apricots yogurt water |
| Lunch – Stir Fried Mandarin Chicken & Noodles Beverage – Water | 1 oz 1 tsp ¼ cup ⅓ cup 1 tbsp. ml ½ cup | Bite sized chicken breast pieces olive oil cooked cabbage, carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts cooked whole grain wheat noodles Equal parts soya sauce and orange juice, and 1 tsp. brown sugar (to flavour chicken) water |
| Snack – Strawberry Smoothie | ¼- ½ cup ½ cup ½ tsp | frozen strawberries and whole milk honey |
| Dinner – Ground Beef & Vegetable Quesadilla Beverage – Water | 1 oz ¼ cup ½ piece 1 tsp ½ cup | cooked lean ground beef sauteed green bell pepper, tomato, and onion grilled flour or corn tortilla olive oil water |
| Snack – Crackers and Cheddar Cheese Beverage – Whole milk | 4-8 1 oz (28g) ½ cup (115g) | crackers cheddar cheese Whole Milk |
*This is not intended as a meal plan but rather as examples of snack and meal ideas. Consult with your Pediatrician and Registered Dietitian to determine the individual needs of your child.
**Children 6 months old and under require breast milk or formula exclusively and daily vitamin D supplementation. Solid foods can typically start at 6 months, and breast milk or formula may be continued in conjunction with solid foods.
About George Brown’s Culinary Management Nutrition Program
Students from the Culinary Management Nutrition Program Food and Nutrition Management Program (Postgraduate) H402 | George Brown College at George Brown College Chef School participated in an academic writing content to create an article on micronutrients for children for CDHF. The course, Nutrition Analysis , is taught by nutrition professor, Dr. Linda Gillis. With such impressive work, two students had their work combined and won first place. Congrats to Karen Kwan and Huan Tran for winning. George Brown College provides students with real world applications and opportunities for learning.
This content was made possible due to an unrestricted educational grant from Culturelle Probiotics.
