Your Child’s Is 4 And Wants To Do More!
Your child is becoming MORE CONFIDENT.
As your child tries new things, you continue to be their teacher. They will try to do what you do. If you eat healthy foods, they may too!
Your child can help you in the kitchen. Children like to eat foods they help prepare.
- They can peel foods using their fingers. Practice shucking corn or peeling a banana, an orange or a hard-boiled egg.
- They can roll food into a ball. Roll dough into balls or make meatballs.
- They can crack the shell of raw eggs. After some practice, crack the eggs needed to make scrambled eggs, omelets or for use in recipes.
- They can mash foods. Use a fork or potato masher to mash bananas, cooked potatoes or cooked beans.
- They can make sandwiches and toss salads. Lay out the ingredients and let your child make their own sandwich. Have them add ingredients to a salad and mix.
Here are some examples of what meal and snack portion
sizes might look like:
Your child may eat more or less than these amounts.
Breakfast
Morning Snack
Lunch
Afternoon Snack
Dinner
Offer water between meals and snacks.
For meal and snack recipes and videos using foods you get on WIC, sign up for wichealth.org
Fruits
3 servings a day
(1½ cups total)
1 serving = ½ cup
EXAMPLES:
Cooked or soft raw fruit.
Mashed, sliced or chopped.
Offer a variety: red, yellow, orange, blue and green.
Vegetables
3 servings a day
(1½ cups total)
1 serving = ½ cup
EXAMPLES:
Mashed, sliced or chopped veggies.
Offer a variety: dark green, orange, red, yellow and purple.
Grains
8-10 servings a day
(4-5 ounces total)
1 serving = ½ ounce
EXAMPLES:
½ slice whole grain bread or tortilla.
¼ cup rice or noodles.
½ cup dry or ¼ cup cooked cereal.
Proteins
3-5 servings a day
(3-5 ounces total)
1 serving = 1 ounce
EXAMPLES:
Size of 3 dice-sized cubes cooked lean meat, poultry or seafood.
1 egg.
¼ cup cooked beans, peas or tofu.
1 tablespoon peanut butter.
Dairy
5-6 servings a day
(2½ cups total)
1 serving = ½ cup
EXAMPLES:
Low-fat milk.
Yogurt.
Cheese.
Other option: Soy milk.
Look What I Can Do!
- Your child learns a lot from being with you and being active. Be active as a family! Together you can:
- Play a game of tag
- Cook meals together
- Dance together
- Run
- Hop
- Swing
- Throw and kick balls
- Go on a walk
- Track your child’s development with easy-to-use checklists, visit
Keep Me Safe
and Healthy
Help your child brush their teeth 2 times every day using fluoride toothpaste. Start flossing every day.
Provide simple rules. Set limits on when, where and how often to have screen time. Too much TV, phone or time on other devices can lead to poor sleep, less playing and learning. It's best to limit TV or other devices to 1 hour a day. Choose educational shows that are right for your child’s age. Watch TV with your child. They learn when you talk to them about what they watch.