All parents know that it is a big task to make the children eat healthy food. Children like to indulge more in chocolates, candies, chips and junk foods and avoid healthy food. An occasional binge is no problem like on a birthday party or on a family outing but it is necessary that they do not make a habit of eating unhealthy food items like cola, canned and processed food items. Growing children need proper nutrition for overall development. Though healthy eating habits must be developed from the beginning, yet some children tend to be picky eaters as they grow up. Child nutrition need not be frustrating to parents, but parents should adopt some simple strategies to address fussy eaters. Here is a list of some easy to make food items that are also loaded with nutrition for your fussy eater:
1. Fruits and Dairy – Children are often picky when it comes to eating fruits. So instead of making them eat plain fruits, you can mix them with other ingredients. For example, Fruit milk shakes are a great way to ensure that your child gets the proper amount of nutrition from both milk and fruits. Similarly, all children love ice cream so instead of buying a tub from the market, all you have to do is make some at home. Add fruits to the ice cream mix and blend it well. This is a good way to incorporate fruits into a child’s diet. Other recipes include mix fruit cream and fruit cake. Children tend to be fussy when it comes to drinking milk, so instead of giving plain milk to them, you can make them eat other forms like cheese, paneer, yoghurt, etc. Yoghurt ice creams are also a tasty and healthy alternative.
2. Vegetables – It is even harder to make a child eat the proper amount of vegetables to ensure proper nutrition. What you can do is make vegetables appealing to the children by adding a little twist to them. For example, you make Chapatti rolls for the kids which are rolls made out of chapattis which have a vegetable filling inside. It is easy to make and full of nutrition. Chapattis are full of carbohydrates and the vegetable filling provides vitamins, minerals and fibre. You can also make burgers where instead of putting a plain potato patty, you can use a mix vegetable patty. It will appear like junk food but will be way more nutritious. Another good thing is crispy rice balls which are simply fried balls of rice and veggies.
3. Eggs and Protein – Children often do not like eating eggs. Apart from omelette and simple fried eggs, what you can do is scramble an egg, mix it with some veggies and put the mix on a small taco-like chapatti to make it look appealing and interesting. You can also sprinkle some cheese and ketchup on it to make it look fancy. Another way of doing this can be to buy some fancy shaped moulds that are easily available in the market and fry your eggs in them to make them look more appealing than just plain fried eggs. Pulses are another rich source of protein. If your kid does not like the regular dal rice, then what you can is make parathas or puris with a dal filling. Paneer patties and rolls are another source of protein.
One thing that you should remember always is that your child will follow you all the time. He/she will observe you and eat what you eat so, if you want your child to eat healthy then you will have to do the same. Children will make fuss about food, no matter what, all you have to do is be patient with them and try to keep meal times interesting so that they themselves start looking forward to them.