I am a proud mother of 2 really active boys. It is not easy juggling between work as a busy doctor and responsibilities as a mother. My youngest Yi has just started preschool end of last year. He is the bubbliest person in our family. But he hasn’t started writing at home. We were quite relaxed about it because we thought this was normal.
After a month at school, feedback from his teachers hit us into realization that he seems to have difficulty following teachers’ instruction as he gets distracted easily by other things such as toys and noises. We try teaching him using games and apps which trains his writing skills, concentration and thinking speed. After consulting our pediatrician, she has also advised us to look into improving his nutrition by reducing excessive sugar intake and ensure he eats a well balance diet including nutrients like DHA, Gangliosides, iron and etc.
On certain days, Yi will come home acting up and refusing to sleep at night, still very energetic even at 11pm! Only to wake up next morning almost too late for school. After a few weeks, he has started to become attracted to the confectionery section in the supermarket, wanting to grab sweet things from the shelf. This leads us to suspect excessive sugar intake as the culprit. We have not previously introduced him to added sugars yet.
True enough, Yi has been exposed to confectionery recently during birthday celebrations at school. Now we are very conscious of the amount of sugar he takes— he promises to only take 1 candy every 2-3 days (even in school! If he doesn’t ask for it, we will just omit it) and we have also tried to omit added sugar in his daily diet. Since he still drinks about 3 cups of milk a day, we have started to research about sugar content in formulated milk powder for children too.
Excessive sugar intake may affect cognitive development such as learning. I have also read from a clinical paper that sweetened beverages consumption may reduce verbal intelligence score by 2.4 points per serving/day. Few other studies also highlighted that high sugar intake level in a child’s diet may also cause obesity, impact on sleep, cavities and sweet tooth too.
After some research, we have realized that a well-balanced diet plays an essential role in Yi's ability to learn, focus and develop as well. Children needs to follow the food pyramid as well. We call it eating the rainbow at home to make it more fun and exciting so the children are more enticed to try food from various categories.
What preschool children needs in a day:
2 servings of fruits
2 servings of vegetables
3 servings of grains, tubers, cereals and cereal products
2- 3 servings of milk and dairy products
1/2 servings of meat/poultry
1 serving of fish
½ serving of legumes
0 added sugar if possible!
for Yi at least 5 cups of water
Since he is still taking a fair amount of milk, we have started to research about formulated milk powder for children -- we come across Anmum Essential – and requested samples from Anmum Essential website. Our boy can be choosy at times, so it is important to provide him with nutritional drinks like Anmum Essential which contains key nutrients. Especially when nutritious food is not always available when we are out and about.
These are what we discovered:
Anmum Essential is backed up by over 90 years of research from Fonterra New Zealand R&D Center.
Anmum Essential contains MFGM Gangliosides DHA and has NO ADDED SUGARS. It has
15 Key Nutrients. It is important to support your child’s overall growth and development. Sharing with you what I have read recently, did you know that studies showed…
DHA helps to build brain cells but Gangliosides helps to form brain cells connections. Both DHA & Gangliosides are equally important and form a complete jigsaw puzzle for optimal brain development.
MFGM (milk fat globule membrane) helps to support emotional & behavioural development.
DHA helps to support brain development.
Prebiotic supports a good gut environment. Good gut environment is important for nutrients absorption, digestion and body defence system.
My boy enjoys Anmum Essential. He loves the taste and has been asking for more milk in between meals. Sometimes we even add the milk powder into his overnight oat or use it to make kids-friendly milkshake. We have now started to purchase Anmum Essential regularly too.
Parents you can get your Anmum Essential free sample from https://www.anmum.com/my/en/sample-request
