Of course, all children are different. Every child’s character is unique, but temperament is inherent in nature, this is what guides the formation of his personality and allows you to make contact with the world. Even the ancient scholar Hippocrates suggested four types of temperament, which are still operated psychologists.
Modern science relates temperament and human behaviour to the dynamics of the processes occurring in the nervous system, primarily – with the speed with which, after excitation of nerve cells begins the process of inhibition. In pure form choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic are very rare, but recognize in a child the dominant type of temperament is possible. If you try to choose foods that can influence your child’s emotional behaviour when preparing a daily menu, it will not only help to correct their behaviour, but also help to avoid health problems and overweight.
On how to pave the way to the harmonious development of a child’s personality through the stomach, Larissa Zakhodchenko, nutritionist, child nutritionist, member of the expert council of the National Association of Dietitians and Nutritionists (NADN) told us.
Choleric
Choleric child is active, full of energy, his mood changes rapidly. The choleric nervous system lives at high speed, so overflowing emotions are often poured in anger, tears, and sometimes aggression, which he then often regrets. At the same time, these children are easily adapted to a new environment, they like noisy movement games, often become ringleaders and leaders. They have excellent working memory – they quickly absorb information, acquire new hobbies and interests, but at the first difficulties just as quickly lose interest in them.
A little fidgety child has a meal that resembles a quick snack – and there can be many such snacks. Choleric people are not very picky about food – and the danger of getting hooked on unhealthy fast food in their case is particularly great. The task of parents – a little cool temperament restless, to develop a habit of his eating on a schedule. The best helpers in this – slow carbohydrates, which long saturate the child’s body with the energy he needs. Kashi, cottage cheese, low-fat cheese, cereal buns – the preferred diet for the choleric. His cereals – oats and rice – contribute to a proper metabolism and have a beneficial effect on the intestines, which are the weak point in cholerics. Don’t forget the ‘sunny’ fruit – oranges, peaches and apricots – an extra portion of natural fruit sugars is sure to help an active child.
Sanguine
A child with an active outlook on life, but unlike a choleric, tends to think through his decision before doing something. Lively, sociable and open sanguine people are able to change habits and adjust to circumstances. The soul of any company, they are not always able to calculate the forces and take on too difficult for themselves. However, easily experiencing setbacks and stress. Sanguine – a lifelong optimists, but the task of parents ensure that this quality has not turned into inconstancy and a chronic inability to finish the job.
Sanguine children are usually not afraid to experiment with food, they like to try new things, not like many of their peers who are ready to eat only pasta and sausages. And this is a quality that parents should definitely make use of! Accustom the child to boiled fish, seafood – they are the main suppliers of useful polyunsaturated fatty acids that stimulate brain activity. Useful to sanguine and boiled meat and vegetables, all kinds of steamed meatballs and casseroles. Especially because their Achilles heel is the liver, which can not always cope with the strain of growth. For these children it is important that the food is varied, beautifully served and with a little secret, for example, nuts can be added to cheese cakes, olives to unsweetened casseroles and berries to the porridges. This helps to keep the little gourmets entertained.
Phlegmatic
These children often seem ‘convenient’ to their parents – quiet, they don’t play around and can occupy themselves for hours. But phlegmatic children have no desire to learn new things, to move forward. They are inert, stick to old habits, afraid of change. Approach everything thoroughly, do not like to show emotion – so it seems that such a child does not care whether he won or lost. Phlegmatic long get used to the new environment, a class or kindergarten group, not easy to learn, but skillfully use the baggage accumulated skills.
Delayed reaction is often expressed, among other things in a lower metabolism, phlegmatic more often c hotter temperament peers overweight. Phlegmatic suitable vegetables that stimulate metabolism: cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, green salads. Of cereals in the first position out of rice and buckwheat. Although they have a calming effect, these cereals also tone up and help remove excess fluid from the body. Even if the child is prone to fullness, do not completely deprive him of sweet things: it is still an important task for parents to teach the phlegmatic child to enjoy life. But let the sweets be healthy: baked apples, fruit souffles – that’s joy without the extra calories.
Melancholic
Shy, insecure, melancholic children tend to be anxious about anything. In company – withdrawn, uncommunicative, prefer contemplation to active games. These children often prefer the company of adults to their peers. The melancholic child is very fragile and resentful, so the command tone or strict compulsion is more likely to cause tears than produce results. However, modern psychologists, unlike Hippocrates, tend to believe that the melancholic is not weak creatures, but the intellectual potential of the future, people of logic and realists.
These children tend to be reluctant when it comes to food – they have to be persuaded to eat every bite. They find it difficult to change their habits and may choose the same food week after week. In order to feed a melancholic child, you have to learn their tastes well. He likes mashed potatoes – add healthy greens to them. Fish can be masked by his favorite cutlets, and caramels slowly change to healthy bars of dried fruit. It’s important to wake up the baby’s receptors: all kinds of aromatic ingredients can help: basil, parsley, onion, anise or nutmeg. Honey, nuts, fresh vegetables with bright flavours such as celery or carrots and crunchy croutons, which can be added to soup or used as breadcrumbs for chops, can also be natural stimulants. Melancholics are often prone to colds, so their cereals include barley which contains silicon and buckwheat which is rich in iron and stimulates the immune system.
