With child obesity becoming more of a serious problem than it has ever been, it is more than crucial to teach your kids how to eat properly. Eating habits are to be learned from the youngest age. And once they are learned, they stay. So, the sooner you try to teach your kids to eat healthy, the better. If they do it at home, they will do it at school and anywhere else, too.
Basically, the problems connected with kids’ ill eating habits are rooted in their household. When you, as a parent, prepare less and less homemade food and rather order your dinner from fast food franchises, it is only natural for the child to develop bad eating habits. It is true that kids are constantly exposed to all sorts of ‘bad foods’, but as a parent, it is your sole duty to keep them off of them. A few easy tricks, combined with balance, moderation and variety, in terms of meals, is the right way to do so.
1. Be a role model
Most parents complain that their kids would not eat this and that. However, what they do not realize is that they are the ones to blame for this problem. Rather than setting a good example, parents give a bad one, by not consuming healthy foods themselves. If there are cans of soda and packets of chips and various other snacks all around the house, you can’t expect your child to eat only fruits and veggies. Change your eating habits first, and then proceed with altering your kid’s.
2. Take the kids shopping
This way you will make them not feel like prisoners who only eat what they are served. Give them the freedom to choose from couple of different types of foods. Needless to say, you will still need to stay away from the junk food shelves. Plus, this way they will see where food actually comes from (if they are still too young to explain them where it ACTUALLY comes from), see how it looks in its raw state, before being cooked. Explore different aisles with unprocessed foods – meat, fish, fruits, vegetables. If your child gets interested in a certain product, let him/her try it. He/she might like it.
3. Eating in moderation is OK
This also has to do with not making the kids feel as if they are captives, constantly being fed fruits and veggies. A cookie or two a day is perfectly fine. However, they must not accept the eating habit of “cookies in moderation, followed by chips in moderation and donuts in moderation”. This leads to nowhere.
4. Make each meal special
In order to change your child’s eating habits, you need to do your best. This includes preparing every dish in a special way. After all, if your kids don’t like green peppers (for example), you can’t expect them to start eating them by just serving the veggie sliced in a plate. Try harder. Make it a part of a special meal that includes red peppers. Boil, grill or stir fry. By altering the taste of the certain product at least a little bit, you will prove the child that it is not that icky after all.
Children are basically crazy about candy and various sugary products.
Everybody knows almost every kid has a sweet tooth. Children are basically crazy about candy and various sugary products. So, if they refuse to eat fruit, simply sprinkle some sugar (preferably brown) on top. Or prepare a fruit salad with whipped cream
6. Have patience
Don’t expect your children to subdue right away. Give it some time, be patient and most importantly – don’t force them.
About the author – The mission of Grace is to help you create healthy and secure home for you and your beloved people. She enjoys sharing ideas of organizing and wholesome lifestyle.