If you have a fussy eater at home, you are well aware of how difficult it might get mums to encourage healthy eating habits in kids.
Actually, the struggle to raise a healthy eater can be minimized in their early years when you introduce food to toddlers.
Encourage your child to eat healthy from early childhood days to raise them as healthy adults.
Here are the 5 tips that are easy to follow and essential to raising healthy children.
Eat at a table
Now that we are talking about disciplining your child at a very early age, you must take baby steps to make progress with your child. Make it clear that there is a particular time to eat and a particular place for it too. Make it a habit to sit at the dining table for eating any kind of food throughout the day.
Drink plenty of water
Your child may need an explanation for everything, explain how water is important for their brain and body. You can also buy them cool water bottles and offer freshly extracted fruit juice all day long.
Encourage kids to explore new tastes
Help your child to train their taste buds by creating excitement around the food you would bring to the table. Try and create interest around the food before it is served. Praise them when they try for the first time.
Include 5 colours to your platter
It is obvious that most kids don’t like broccolis on their platter. So, you can make it interesting by creating stories around the colours you cook for the day. Take your child shopping and talk about the colours while shopping for fruits and veggies with your child. Let them choose a veggie of their choice as you mention the colour. For example, ask your child to choose a red vegetable. He has the option to grab a red cabbage, capsicum or beetroot. This will encourage them to eat the veggies too when you cook them.
Another great way of encouraging your child to eat healthily is by growing herbs and veggies at home. Trust me, you don’t need a lot of space or even a backyard. If you have a balcony or a planter box, you can do so. However, for growing herbs, you can place the planters in your kitchen itself. Make it more interesting by spending some time decorating the planters with your child.
Bonus tip
Encourage kids to accompany you in the kitchen
Closely envisioning the process of food-making helps kids to eat better. If it is safe, ask your child for a little help in the kitchen. Tell them how we get the grains, the veggies and stuff. As they will learn the hard work and all the efforts of various people from the society to grow and supply these food items to us, they will tend to waste less.
Share your story with us. Tell us how you encourage healthy eating habits in your child and help them to stay healthy always.
1 comment