When to eat? Number of meals and their timing

You should eat 5 times a day and roughly every 3 hours. This way the stomach will not get overworked and the nutrients can be absorbed more efficiently. The child will not be tired after meals and will not get hungry between meals either.

Make sure that your kid does not miss meals during the day. 1 or 2 hours of difference from the schedule is not the end of the world, but missed meals should be made up later on.

It is important that children eat when they are hungry and stop when they are satiated. Do not permit your kids to eat until their stomach cannot take in any more. Also, do not make them eat just because there is still food on their plate. Teach them to recognise the signals of their body to identify when they are full but could still eat more. Explain that this is the time to finish the meal.

If the child is not hungry in 3 hours, wait half an hour, giving the digestion process time.

The day should begin with a glass of water and a light, tasty breakfast. As soon as the child gets out of bed, give him or her a glass of water. This will cleanse the digestive organs and replace water that was consumed during sleep. After a long sleep, energy stores need to be replenished.

Lunchtime is the best time to eat food items that are hard to digest. The digestive tract works optimally at this time.

A Shaolin monk once said, "If you want to have good digestion, walk 100 steps after each meal!"
Walking 100 steps takes only about a minute and a half. Everybody should have that much time after a meal. This is enough to give to boost your digestion and to eliminate the possible satiety-induced fatigue and sleepiness after a meal.