Reducing your child's anxiety with food
Is your child anxious? Has their mental health been impacted by the pandemic? Assessing and optimising their diet and nutrient intake can be the first step in reducing their anxiety and improving their mental wellbeing.
The pandemic has unsettled us, especially children. Routines were disrupted, schools closed, team sports stopped and birthday celebrations were cancelled. In a small person's world, these disruptions can result in big feels.
Now that we return to a new normal, other stressors can occur. The stress of environment changes, friendships, new activities...can cause anxiety, fear and emotional discomfort.
Anxiety in kids presents itself in a variety of ways
It's not often a young child will come out and say that they feel anxious. It also may be hard for parents and caregivers to identify a child's behaviour to anxiety.
That's because anxiety presents itself in a variety of ways, especially in children. These may include:
Aggression or frustration
A lack of focus
Defiant or controlling behaviour
Negative attitude
Avoidance
Trouble getting to sleep or poor sleep quality
Difficulty managing emotions
Digestive upset like tummy pain or changes to bowel motions
Low appetite
Fatigue or withdrawal
Concerned about your child’s anxiety?
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Food and your child’s anxiety
We know that diet can impact our children’s health. There is a significant association between diet and mental health problems in children and adolescents with a nutrient-poor, energy-dense and irregular food intake leading to negative outcomes.
Ultra-processed food consumption alone is also linked to an increased risk for depression and associated symptoms. Unfortunately, it's estimated 70% of foods in supermarket trolleys of families today are ultra-processed.
On the flip side, there is a positive association between a well balanced, nutrient-dense diet and mental wellbeing, especially in reducing anxiety.
A Mediterranean eating style has been the most well researched in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety as it contains a wide variety of nourishing nutrients we need for optimal mental health.
Factors that affect that compromise the immune system
There are various factors that can negatively affect the immune system. Some of these you have control over and some we don’t. Some of the key factors that will affect the development of your child’s immune system include:
Diet
To build a robust immune system, your child’s diet needs to be nutrient-rich. A diet of processed foods, sugar and overall lacking nutritional value can lead to suppression of the immune system and a weakened defence against infections.
Environment
The environment your child grows up indirectly relates to the number and types of different microbes they are exposed to.
Gut health
70-80% of our immune function happens in your child’s gut so it’s no wonder that the diversity of your child’s gut microbiome is critical to immunity. Diet, environment, maternal health, birth method, sickness, antibiotic use are just a few of the many factors that can compromise or alter the gut microbiome.
Lifestyle
Your child’s sleep, physical activity, time in the sunshine, exposure to nature will all impact the ability the performance of their immune system.
Hygiene
The high use of anti-everything cleaning and personal care products has led to what’s referred to as the “hygiene hypothesis”. The constant need to be clean and remove any trace of microbes does affect our child’s exposure to germs and in turn, our gut health and immunity.
Toxic exposure
Frequent exposure to toxic chemicals can compromise and potentially weaken the immune system. Toxins are everywhere in our home and external environment. While we can’t avoid all of them, we can reduce our exposure by making considered choices.
Stress
Stress is a big factor in the cases of many illnesses and ongoing, stress can lead to the over-stimulation or suppression of the immune system. Children experience all sorts of stressors from big life changes, excessive noises, social/social pressure, overactivity and triggers like news events (yep, the current pandemic is contributing to a lot of mental health issues among little ones).
Specific Nutrients for your child's mental health
Our brain uses about 25% of our body's energy to fuel it. The nutrients help with your child's brain development and enhance their cognitive function.
We rely on specific nutrients to produce neurotransmitters that influence our mental health and the ability to fight oxidative stress, of which higher levels are in depression and anxiety.
Ensuring your child's diet has enough specific nutrients can support their brain development and reduce their anxiety.
Zinc
Zinc is vital for neurotransmitter production and reducing inflammation. This helps to balance your child's hormone levels and mood.
Zinc-rich foods such as oysters, liver, beef, eggs, pumpkin seeds and cashews are linked with lowered levels of anxiety. This is because the nutrient interacts with GABA. GABA is considered an anti-anxiety brain chemical helping us feel relaxed and calm.
Food tip: add grated liver to spaghetti bolognese, cook eggs for breakfast, make energy balls with extra nuts and seeds.
B vitamins
B vitamins are an important nutrient to help support your child's stress response.
B vitamins, particularly B6, help make GABA and serotonin, our feel-good brain chemicals. Together these keep our children feeling focused, calm and happy.
You'll find b vitamins in grass-fed meat, poultry, eggs, fish, chickpeas, whole grains and leafy green veggies.
Food tip: swap white flour foods such as bread, pasta and crackers for whole-grain products. Add kale or spinach to smoothies or serve veggie sticks with hummus.
Vitamin D
Sun safety, while important, has led to an increase in vitamin D deficient children. Vitamin D is vital for mood regulation through its function of stimulating the production of dopamine and serotonin. It also helps the absorption of omega-3 fatty acids, another key nutrient for mental health.
The best source of vitamin D is sunshine although a quality vitamin D supplement may be required if your child is deficient.
Omega-3 fatty acids
Omega-3 fatty acids have been seen to be beneficial in improving depression, but more recently the reduction of anxiety.
Omega-3 fatty acids support the stress response and help to reduce inflammation.
Dry skin or hair, rough bumpy patches on the skin or thirst can be a sign your child isn't consuming enough omega-3's in their diet. You'll find omega-3is in fatty fish, eggs, flax seeds, chia seeds and walnuts.
Food tip: make fish patties, add nuts and seeds to their cereal, drizzle flaxseed oil on steamed vegetables.
Magnesium
Magnesium is a nutrient we burn through quickly when stressed or anxious.
A diet low in magnesium can result in anxiety-related behaviours and lead to issues such as poor sleep.
Increasing your child's magnesium intake through foods such as pumpkin and sunflower seeds, almonds, dark leafy greens, oily fish and bananas can be helpful. Supplementation may be beneficial if your child is very stressed or anxious.
Tip: Magnesium is absorbed well through the skin. Try Epsom salt baths or a quality magnesium spray.
Iron
Iron deficiency in children, especially fussy eaters, is very prevalent and has been associated with increased anxiety as well as social problems.
Fatigue, pale complexion, recurrent infections, fussy eating and behavioural issues are just some of the symptoms associated with iron deficiency.
Red meat, seafood, beans, lentils, kale and broccoli are all great sources of iron.
Food tip: add lentils into pasta sauces, blitz broccoli into rice, make legume and meat burgers.
Probiotics
We all now are familiar with the link between our gut and brain, but did you know that low consumption of probiotic-rich foods has been linked with social anxiety? Wow!
So time to introduce fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kefir and kimchi into your child's diet. Quality yoghurt is an easy one to start with.
If anxiety has been a long term issue with your child, looking at their diet in more detail and potential deficiencies could be beneficial. And before you race out to get a bottle of magnesium or a probiotic, remember supplements vary in nutrient form and quality.
Save your money and get advice specific for your child. Anxiety can be a complex condition with many factors involved, but we know nutrition plays a powerful role in good mental health.
AT NUTRITION FOR KIDS, WE’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT PROVIDING YOU AND YOUR CHILD WITH THE BEST LEVEL OF HOLISTIC HEALTH CARE.
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