By Christie Korth, CHC AADP

Continued from part 1 of this article…..

Here are some kid friendly tips to help with making meal times both fun and informative:

* Become more hands on with foods. Show your child how fun it can be to squish the food, stir, smell it, pour it into different containers, and dump it out again. If your child has trouble having direct contact with foods, you can always cover their hands in latex gloves, plastic wrap, or even use paint brushes to explore the food.

* Paint with pudding, applesauce, baby food, condiments or any other spreadable food.

* Allow the child to sit down and play with the food, squish it, finger paint, poke it, even allows your child to make a huge mess with it! This is the best way to allow your child to see food is fun and is “safe” to touch and eat. Any interaction with food is excellent!

* Play with toy foods. If you have a toy kitchen, have the child mimic what you are cooking. Getting the child involved is an excellent way to help them become excited about food.

* Create a food chart categorizing foods into textures, shapes and colors, such as: crunchy, soft, smooth, slimy, tough, rough, bumpy, tart, squishy, tart and sweet.

* Take different foods and make a picture of a person, like M&M’s for eyes, jelly bean for a nose, pretzel sticks for eye brows, licorice strings for a mouth, etc.

* Allow your child to help you shop at the store! If you really want to get creative, have the child past pictures from the store circular on the grocery list. For example, if you are purchasing broccoli, have them paste a picture of broccoli for their shopping list. Then they can follow along with you in the grocery store.

* Start a garden in your back yard to grow herbs, fruits and vegetables. Have your child get involved. You will find most children are very excited to get involved in this process and become excited about trying new foods.

* Have tea party. Play restaurant or picnic. Any games involving food will be helpful to allow the child to become more comfortable with it.

* Play “store”. Using play foods and a toy cash register, you can play pretend store with your child.

* Bring the child to a farm and inquire if they have tours of the farm to go on. Most times, these tours are excellent and can help the children to learn different food groups, etc.

* Make a video or commercial about your child’s favorite fruits or vegetables and discuss the healthy properties of each food.

* Purchase a food coloring book and have child color in the foods.

* Use cookie cutter to cut food into different shapes.

* Use foods as a coloring modality. For example, make a chart of all of the red fruits and vegetables, orange fruits and veggies and so on.

* Cook with your child. This is such a great milestone to get the children involved in. Most times children are very excited to eat whatever they have cooked for you.

– Christie Korth is a Crohn’s disease survivor, author, certified health coach and holistic nutritionist who found her way to health and wellness after nearly succumbing to a severe case of Crohn’s disease. After harnessing the power of nutrition and gaining her health back, she then went on to be the founder and director of Happy & Healthy Wellness Counseling based just outside of NYC. She studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Columbia University and the Clayton College of Natural Health and is a certified holistic health practitioner with the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Christie is the Corporate Nutritionist for Brain Balance Achievement Centers, where she designs the nutrition protocol for franchises across the country. Christie is a nutrition expert for Dr. Oz’s Sharecare.com and frequently contributes nutrition articles to Long Island Parent Magazine. Christie is he author of The IBD Healing Plan and Recipe Book: A Guide to Releive Crohn’s and Colitis with Whole Foods. Christie lives in New York with her son, her husband, and her cat.