Getting kids to eat healthily who are picky eaters or love junk is a difficult but important task. Statistics show that 1 out of 10 children are obese when they start primary education. Teenager Georgia Davis was recently lifted out of part of her demolished house with a crane, after suffering a seizure. No one wants their children to suffer with food issues, so it is extremely important they learn to eat healthily and why it is important for their overall health and well being. Here’s how to get your kids eating healthy food:
Make A Plan
It’s important that children eat every 3-4 hours. If they don’t they’ll become so hungry they’ll likely kick up a fuss, which could then result in them eating harmful fast food if there isn’t another option.
Prepare Breakfast, lunch and dinner for your kids. Make sure you have all the necessary ingredients for the week and pre prepare as much as you can before cooking, to avoid any last minute chocolate bars when dinner isn’t ready on time. They should also have two, healthy, balanced snacks and lot’s of fluid.
If you’re going to be out with the kids most of the day, you could have a cooler in the boot of the car stocked with lots of healthy options to keep them happy.
If planning meals for the whole week leaves you in a cold sweat, then just go two or three days at a time. You really don’t need any complicated or expensive ingredients to feed your kids healthy meals. Rice or pasta, some fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and beans are all fine to add to your kids meal.
With some meals you can even cook them in advance and freeze them ready to heat up at a later date.
Also, don’t cook a separate meal for yourself/partner and your kids. Make something everyone will like and serve it all on the table so the children can put what they like on their plate.
Don’t Become The Food Police
Making a big deal about how much or what your kids eat at meal times will only encourage them to continue. It’s a child’s nature to attempt to resist what you tell them and get as much attention as possible, so if you make a big deal about your child not eating all of his or her dinner, they’re likely to do it at every meal. There’s even things online like healthy eating games which could maybe encourage them to eat healthy in a fun (non-serious) way…
You’ve done your bit by serving nutritious meals to the kids, it’s their job to eat them.
Slowly Introduce Them To New Food
Kid’s are likely to say they don’t like a food even if they’ve never tried it. To help combat this, tell them their favourite celebrity eats that particular food all the time, to help them play football for example.
If your kids are vegetable phobics, experiment with different dips. Dips make veggies a lot more tasty and fun.
If it’s fruit they won’t try, sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top. They’ll grow out of the habit in time and be able to eat fruit raw, but at least they’re eating fruit!
image source: freshhealthyvending.com