Cholesterol and Children (cont.)

Dietary Guidelines

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends dietary steps to lower cholesterol as follows:

• Children younger than 2 years should not be restricted from foods containing fat or cholesterol. Their rapid growth and development require high-energy intakes from food. 
  
  
• Children aged 2-5 years through 18 years should gradually adopt a diet that contains no less than 20% and no more than 30% of calories from fat. Less than 10% of total calories should come from saturated fat. Children should eat no more than 300 mg per day of cholesterol (when it is present in foods). As children eat fewer calories from fat, they should replace those calories by eating more grain products, fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk and other calcium-rich foods, beans, lean meat, poultry, fish, or other protein-rich foods. Children should be given a wide range of foods to make sure they get all the nutrients they need from a variety of foods.

This Step-One diet should be followed for at least 3 months. If cholesterol testing at that time does not show LDL cholesterol in an acceptable range, your health care provider may recommend a more restrictive Step-Two diet. 

The Step-Two diet requires detailed assessment of current eating patterns. Sometimes counseling with a health care provider or registered dietitian helps the family adjust. This Step-Two diet restricts saturated fats to less than 7% of total calories from fat and no more than 200 mg per day of cholesterol in food. This eating pattern requires careful planning to make sure your child is getting the right balance of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. 

Changes in diet that lower fat, particularly saturated fat, and cholesterol levels, combined with regular exercise and avoidance of smoking, have been shown to improve high cholesterol and LDL levels in children and teens. The good news is that if these changes are carried into adult life, they may reduce your child’s risk for coronary heart disease.

If you help your child reduce total cholesterol levels and LDL, you can greatly lower the risk for coronary heart disease.

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