Parents of both toddlers and tweens can relate to dealing with children who refuse to eat anything remotely healthy, wholesome or nutritious. While picky eaters can be tough to deal with, there are ways to encourage them to eat healthy and develop a taste for wholesome, nourishing food.
Here are some strategies and tips on healthy eating for kids and how to make meals for children interesting, fun and healthy.
Shop with Picky Eaters for Healthy Foods and Snacks
Getting kids involved in the process of making healthy meals is a good way of instilling good eating habits. Take your picky eaters grocery shopping and have them pick the healthiest food that they like. It could be yogurt, fruits, even a potato. As long as it is healthy, they can get it. In fact, taking children to the farmer’s market or an actual farm will make for a fun day trip and educate them about the benefits of healthy food without being boring.
Another good healthy eating idea is to teach kids to read food labels so that they know what they’re looking for. At home, read up with them on healthy food choices. Buy a few interesting books that discuss healthy eating habits for kids in a fun way. Cookie by Lisa Woomer is one such fun children’s book on healthy food choices.
Start a Ritual of Home-Cooked and Family Meals to Develop Healthy Eating Habits
Eating together as a family encourages children to eat healthy. According to KidsHealth.org, “…kids who eat regularly with their families are less likely to snack on unhealthy foods and more likely to eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.” If a busy lifestyle and odd timings prevent you from having three meals together, try and plan at least one major meal with the entire family. Besides being a way to eat healthy, eating together as a family helps parents and children to talk, laugh and come closer. In fact, you can even use them to teach toddlers and preschoolers table manners.
Plan and prepare for the meals and use simple meal planning techniques to ensure healthy meals for the entire family. According to W. Allan Walker in Eat, Play and Be Healthy, “Preparing the majority of your own meals is the best way to make sure the quality and quantity of foods your family eats are what they should be.” Cooking healthy meals needn’t be a tiring and time-consuming affair. Steps such as meal planning, finding recipes for healthy meals and freezing portions will help make eating healthy easier and simpler.
Encourage Healthy Eating Habits by Eating Healthy Yourself
Being a good role model is the easiest way to encourage healthy eating habits in children. If kids see parents snack on fruits instead of chips and drink plain water rather than soda, chances are they will follow suit. Parents and caregivers tend to have the greatest influence on children and if healthy eating is not a choice but a must for every one in the family, there is little scope for poor nutrition and food habits.
Make Meals Fun, Interesting and Interactive
Toddlers, especially, tend to become extremely picky and fussy about their food, often wanting to eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, since this is the time for them to eat a variety of foods and get good nutrition, parents will need to be patient, creative and imaginative with food. Walker writes that it often takes up to ten exposures to a new food before a child will get used to it. Here are some easy ideas on making meals for toddlers fun and interesting.
In addition to making meals creative, it is important that mealtimes are happy and peaceful affairs. According to KidsHealth.org, mealtimes should not be a battlefield where parents either bribe or force children to eat healthy. Let children decide how much they want to eat and when they want to eat as long as you decide what they eat.
Picky and fussy eaters may be difficult to feed. But using a few simple strategies such as shopping for healthy foods, eating wholesome foods at home and reading up on good nutrition can encourage healthy eating habits in the fussiest child.
Resources:
Walker, Allan W. Eat, Play and be Healthy: the Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating for Kids. Mc-Graw-Hill Professional, 2005.
