What’s a Kid-Size Portion? This Nutrition Calculator Tells You!

Parenting doesn’t come with a manual. And sometimes you wonder if you’re doing it all wrong. I especially think this when it comes to feeding my daughter. Is she getting enough variety? Enough calcium? Protein? You can drive yourself crazy trying to be perfect—which is why I love this nutrition label conversion tool from CLIF Kid.

Nutrition labels are portioned to meet the needs of adults—the standard 2,000-calorie diet. So how do you know what a child needs? You use this handy-dandy tool, that’s how! This nutrition calculator converts nutrition information into age-appropriate Daily Values based on recommended daily allowance for kids. You simply grab a nutrition label, choose your child’s age, and pick a nutrient to convert and enter the amount. You’ll see the grams converted into the daily percentage this nutrient takes up in their diet for the day.

While you obviously don’t need to get obsessed with this tool and plug in every item your kid ingests (especially if you’re offering a well-rounded diet!), it is really cool and a reminder about how different kids’ needs are compared to adults’ dietary requirements. The calculator starts at age 4 because it’s based on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ guidelines for kids, which are broken down into two growth periods, ages 4 to 8 and 9 to 12.

And if you’re thinking that this tool won’t help you out because nutrition labels baffle you completely, check this out on how to read nutrition labels. You’re welcome!

Do you think about child-sized portions when feeding your kids? —Erin