School-age nutrition: what to eat from 6 to 12

How should you plan a 6–12-year-old’s daily plate?

So you do not have to weigh or count anything, we use the plate method with families in our consultations. At lunch and dinner, divide the plate like this:

• Half vegetables, raw or cooked, in a salad, soup, as a side dish or as part of the main meal.
• A quarter carbohydrates, such as wholemeal rice, pasta or bread, potatoes, sweet potatoes or pulses. They provide energy for learning and play.
• A quarter protein, such as fish, eggs, chicken, turkey, pulses or tofu. This provides the protein and iron needed for growth.

Whole fruit is the everyday dessert, and extra virgin olive oil is the fat to use for cooking and dressing food. The day is organised around three main meals and one or two snacks: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner [1].

Respect their appetite. The quality of what they eat matters more than the quantity, and a large meal is often followed by a smaller one [1]. Children regulate how much they eat when they are offered a varied diet [1].

Count the weekly portions of pulses, fish and dairy across school meals and meals at home.

What can they have for breakfast and take to school?

Breakfast, together with a mid-morning snack, provides around a quarter of the day’s energy [1]. For this first meal, Spanish paediatric guidance suggests combining milk and bread [1]. Add a piece of fruit to make it complete. Here are three ideas you can prepare in five minutes:

• Wholemeal toast with olive oil and tomato, a glass of milk and a mandarin.
• Natural yoghurt with rolled oats, pieces of ripe banana and chopped walnuts.
• Wholemeal bread with a plain omelette, a glass of milk and a sliced apple.

If your family follows a vegan diet, plan your child’s diet with their paediatrician and a registered dietitian. You can replace milk with a calcium-fortified soya drink, or another plant-based drink containing at least 3 g of protein per 100 ml. Bear in mind that soya is an allergen. We can help you plan a child’s vegetarian diet at our vegetarian and vegan dietitian consultation.

If they wake up without an appetite, do not make them rush their breakfast before leaving. A glass of milk is enough, and they can have a more substantial mid-morning snack.

For break time and an afternoon snack, seasonal fruit, a handful of plain nuts or a small wholemeal sandwich with cheese, tuna or egg are easy options.

How to plan dinner around the school menu

Since 2025, a royal decree has set out what a school lunch menu must include [3]. Fresh fruit for dessert four or five days a week and pulses once or twice. Fried food at most once a week, and ready meals once a month. Water is the only drink [3].

The school must also give you each month’s menu, with ideas for making dinner complement it [3]. Use that menu to plan an evening meal that rounds out what your child had at lunchtime without repeating it.

• If they had meat at school, serve fish, eggs or pulses at dinner.
• If they had pasta or rice at lunch, try vegetable soup with potato or a substantial salad with pulses.
• If the menu included pulses in a stew, serve a vegetable omelette with wholemeal bread.

If possible, avoid serving dinner just before bedtime.

If they refuse vegetables or unfamiliar foods

Being wary of new flavours, known as food neophobia, is normal in childhood. It peaks between the ages of two and six and can ease with repeated exposure [1]. By contrast, anxious pressure at the table can make children associate food with something negative [1].

• Repeated exposure, without pressure. They may need to see a food on the table many times before trying it. Put a small amount on their plate without expecting them to finish it.
• Set an example at home. Children learn by imitation. If adults eat vegetables and fruit naturally, children are more likely to do so too.
• Try different textures and shapes. If they reject boiled vegetables, try roasting them, tossing them with pasta, blending them into soup or making homemade pulse burgers.
• Get them involved in cooking. Washing tomatoes, shelling peas or stirring a mixture can help them feel that the dish is their own.

If they also eat very few different foods and reject whole food groups, do not wait for them to grow out of it. This is one of the signs that it is time to see the paediatrician.

Can you put a child on a diet to help them lose weight?

Do not do this on your own or use a restrictive diet. Children are still growing, and if their weight needs attention, their paediatrician should assess them first using their growth charts. At Alimmenta, we do not prescribe weight-loss diets for children.

When treatment is needed, the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline recommends working on the whole family’s habits, without singling out the child and while watching for disordered eating behaviours [4]. In practice, that means serving the same food to everyone at home, encouraging more active play and keeping fewer ultra-processed foods in the cupboard. We help families establish these habits in our paediatric dietitian consultation.

Diets that children follow on their own, or that are imposed at home, can harm their relationship with food and their body. If you notice that they are skipping meals, counting calories or hiding food, do not try to monitor this at home: book an appointment with their paediatrician this week.

How much salt, sugar and water does a school-age child need?

For salt, the World Health Organization sets a maximum of 2 g of sodium a day for adults, equivalent to around 5 g of salt [5]. For children, it recommends reducing this in proportion to how much they eat, since they eat less than adults [5]. At home, this means cooking with little salt and keeping ready meals for occasional use.

Excess free sugars—added sugars and those in juice and honey—are associated with tooth decay, excess weight and a higher cardiovascular risk [1]. Free sugars should account for less than 10% of daily energy intake; 5% is a desirable target [6]. For a school-age child, 5% is equivalent to 20–30 g a day, depending on their age. A can of fizzy drink already exceeds that amount.

Water should be their everyday drink, with meals and between them. There is no need to count glasses. Simply keep water within reach and offer it regularly.

What mistakes do we see in consultations?

• Counting juice as fruit. Even homemade juice contains free sugars [6] and is less filling than whole fruit.
• Serving a very small dinner because they have already eaten at school. Dinner provides around a quarter of the day’s energy [1].
• Cooking a separate meal for a child who will not eat vegetables. It is better to serve one shared meal with something you know they enjoy.
• Talking about their weight at the table. Even with good intentions, this can teach them to view food with fear.