Comprehensive list of nutritional soup combinations for children

Absolutely avoid salt, sugar, nuts/seafood and other allergenic foods under 1 year old. Priority should be given to high-quality protein and minerals that are well absorbed by 1-6 year olds. Growth or conditioning needs should be matched as needed for those over 6 years old. Following this logic, it is 10 times more effective than buying hundreds of yuan of nourishing packets and stew soup.

Oh, by the way, I am not talking nonsense. The last time I took my baby to child care, the director of the nutrition department specifically emphasized to me that I have been in this trap before. When my baby was just 1 year old, I made him stew thick bone soup every day, thinking of supplementing calcium. As a result, after half a month of drinking, my baby suffered from indigestion and diarrhea. When I went to the hospital, I learned that the fat in the thick bone soup was dozens of times more than calcium, and the baby's intestines and stomach could not handle it at all.

First of all, let me tell you a few combinations that I always have at home and that my kids have been drinking for two years. They have been tried countless times and basically don’t make any mistakes. When the baby was growing up in the spring, what I stewed the most was oxtail bone, tomato and tofu soup. Blanch the oxtail bones in advance to remove the blood, then add two slices of ginger to a casserole and simmer for 1.5 hours, then add peeled tomato cubes and simmer for 20 minutes, and finally add tender beans. Just boil the curd for 10 minutes. You don’t even need to add too much salt. The acidity of the tomatoes is mixed with the aroma of the beef bones. My child can drink two large bowls at a time and is willing to chew the cartilage on it. Calcium and high-quality protein are supplemented. It is much more worry-free than taking calcium tablets. If your child is allergic to beef, you can substitute crucian carp. Fry the crucian carp until both sides are yellow and stew it in boiling water until it becomes milky white. Add a few slices of soft tofu. It is also very fresh. It just requires a little effort when picking the bones, or you can wrap the fish with gauze and stew it directly to avoid getting stuck in the throat.

Many parents ask what they should drink when their children always catch colds and have low immunity. My neighbor’s child downstairs just went to kindergarten and caught colds twice a month. I recommended yam and astragalus lean meat soup to her. I cut the yam into small pieces, added 3g of astragalus, and a small piece of lean pork and simmered it for an hour. I drank it two or three times a week. She met me last month and said that her child had only caught a cold once in the past two months, and it was still a slight runny nose. It healed very quickly. However, I would like to mention here that there are two opinions that are very quarrelsome now. One is that children should not touch warm and tonic ingredients such as astragalus, which will lead to premature puberty. The other is that it is okay to use a small amount. I specifically asked the doctor. As long as the drink is no more than 3 times a week and the amount of astragalus does not exceed 5g each time, it is completely fine for children over 3 years old. If you are really worried, you can switch to Pseudostellariae Radix Pseudostellariae, which has milder medicinal properties.

If your baby has bad breath, dry stools, or poor digestion recently, don't drink these oily broths. My baby ate too much and accumulated food some time ago, so I used 5g each of Poria cocos, fried chicken gizzards, and iron rod yam, and added a little lean meat to stew the clear soup. The stew has a faint medicinal aroma, and half a candied date was added to sweeten it. Oh, by the way, don’t add too many candied dates, especially if your baby is coughing. Sweet dates can easily produce phlegm and aggravate the symptoms.

There is another controversial point that I have to make clear. Many people say that "the nutrients in the soup are all in the residue, and drinking the soup is useless." This is actually half right and half wrong. If your child's digestive function is particularly weak and he has just recovered from an illness and has lost his appetite, then it is perfectly fine to drink light soup first to replenish water and a small amount of nutrients. After his appetite improves, he can eat the soup and meat together. There is no need to force your child to eat meat he doesn't like, which will make eating like a war. If the baby's digestion is good, eating the meat with soup will definitely be the most cost-effective. After all, the protein in the soup only accounts for about 10% of the ingredients, and most of the nutrients are still in the meat. This is the consensus of the nutrition community, and there is nothing to argue with.

I have also seen many parents stew various nourishing soups for their children, such as dangshen chicken soup and cordyceps flower soup. In fact, it is really unnecessary. Children under 3 years old do not need to touch these powerful nourishing ingredients. Normal meat, vegetables, and mushroom stews are enough. If they are supplemented, it will easily lead to precocious puberty. My distant relative’s baby is like this. Grandma makes ginseng chicken soup every day, and he starts growing at the age of 5. It is too late to regret.

Oh, by the way, here are a few reminders: Don’t add salt or sugar to children under 1 year old. Even if you think it’s tasteless, the umami flavor of the ingredients is enough. Your baby’s sense of taste is much more sensitive than yours. Don’t stew the soup for too long. 1-2 hours is enough. Stewing for too long will increase purine levels. If you have a family history of gout, keep it within an hour and use less seafood and animal offal to stew the soup. Don’t give your baby soup that is too hot. Forty or fifty degrees is just right. My colleague’s baby drank hot soup just out of the pot and burned the esophageal mucosa. He complained of pain after eating for half a month. It was so painful.

Actually, after all, there is no "complete guide". What I have written here are all the combinations that I have tried at home and have been recommended by doctors. You don't have to follow them exactly. For example, your child likes to drink tomato and egg soup, and it is no problem to drink it every day. Add some green vegetables and some mushrooms, and the nutrition is sufficient. When it comes to eating, the child is willing to eat and is happy with it, which is more important than any nutritional combination, don't you think?