Keeping a food diary is an effective way to monitor your child’s eating habits, here’s why:

Identifies Food Sensitivities: Helps track reactions to specific foods, making it easier to pinpoint potential allergens or intolerances.

Monitors Nutritional Intake: Ensures your child is receiving a balanced diet by highlighting any nutritional gaps.

Manages Symptoms: Allows you to connect certain foods to symptoms like digestive issues, allergies, mood changes or skin reactions.

Improves Eating Habits: Encourages healthier eating patterns by increasing awareness of daily food choices.

Tracks Progress: Helps document improvements or setbacks in your child’s health and behaviours over time.

Supports Medical Guidance: Provides valuable data for healthcare professionals to make informed recommendations if required.

Since each child will have different dietary deficiencies and/or sensitivities, it can be beneficial to work these out with a health professional. Keeping a food journal will help identify any symptoms that occur during or after your child consumes specific foods. From there, an elimination diet may be recommended to conduct a thorough food sensitivity assessment, the subsequent creation of a tailored dietary plan, and/or referral to medical specialist.

Choose a Format: Decide on the format for your child’s food journal. You can use a physical notebook, a mobile app, or a digital spreadsheet to record their daily intake. Choose a format that is most convenient for you. Please contact me for a printable version of the layout below.

Record Everything You Eat and Drink: For the recommended duration of keeping the food diary (no less than 5 days, including one weekend day) please make a habit of recording everything your child eats and drinks throughout the day, including portion sizes.

Note the Time and Location: Record the time of day when your child consumes each food/drink, as well as the location where they eat (home, school etc). This can help identify patterns related to meal timings, hunger cues, and eating environments.

Be Honest and Accurate: Be honest and record your child’s dietary intake accurately, including indulgences or occasional treats. Avoid omitting foods or underestimating portion sizes, as this can affect the accuracy of the food diary.

Track Emotions and Hunger Levels: Consider adding notes about your child’s emotions, mood, and hunger levels before and after eating. This can help recognise emotional eating triggers, patterns of overeating, or times when your child may eat in response to stress or boredom.

Please find below the format I use, and clues for physical and emotional symptoms.

Physical symptoms and sensations:

1. Clues for imbalance: cough, bloated, breathless, dizzy, fatigue, headaches, insomnia, muscle weakness, stomach pains, poor concentration, restless, shaky, weakness

2. Clues for balance: alert, good attention span, good skin colour, good sleep, high energy, hunger, stamina, strength, natural deep breathing, well rested

Emotional symptoms may be a little harder to notice:

1. Clues for imbalance: agitated, anxious, bored, depressed, fearful, hyper, irritable, mad, sad, scared, stressed, restless, tearful, weak 

2. Clues for balance: calm, confident, content, excited, energized, focused, good, happy, focused, patient, relaxed