How to get your child to eat healthy foods ... and win!
Easier said than done
Helping kids learn to like healthy foods is a challenge for almost every food. Our kids are not rabbits and vegetables and healthy foods are not always the things that they like best. If you have ever attempted to coerce, threaten, or beg a small child to try a carrot, you know exactly what I am talking about. There are many kids out there who can roll a few green peas around on a plate for 4 hours without ever putting one in their mouth.
One of the things that should be kept in mind is that kids have much sharper senses of smell than do adults and their taste buds are very acute. This is one of the reasons that they like sweeties. Just imagine all of those senses 1000 times sharper than ours, those little taste buds must be doing back flips when a chocolate bar comes around! Sweet things simply taste much sweeter to younger children and plain or bitter things are magnified as well.
This is why it is very important to begin teaching good, healthy eating habits at very young ages. You are encouraging healthy dietary habits, providing nutrition and expanding their tastes and palates.
Make it fun!
Try to find fresh veggies that have natural sweetness and crunchiness to tempt your little picky eater when he next sits at the table. Crunchy foods appeal to children much more than bland, mushy cooked veggies. Offer crisp carrots, green sweet peas, and bits of broccoli. If you purchase fresh veggies at the grocery, you are actually going to have more chance of success at getting Junior and Little Miss to try them.
You can make a game of it by crunching on the carrots yourself and make sure that they know that you are enjoying them. Make a rabbit face by trying to wiggle your nose. Have fun with the food and let your child join in. Try to munch the carrot as you have seen a rabbit do it and let your child try his hand at it. Have a contest to see who can munch it more like a rabbit. This will thrill many children and they will gleefully join in and eat carrots with you. This is particularly good when your child is of the age where they are feeding in their baby high chair.
Let your children explore new tastes, even though it may not be to your liking. Some kids will turn up their noses at plain unadorned celery and carrots, but let them use peanut butter or a bit of honey to dip it in and they will eat several pieces.
Make sure that your child knows that mealtime can be a fun time. Encourage them to try one bit of a new food, especially vegetables and other healthy foods.
Do not take away all fast foods and treats. This makes these foods seem all the more tantalizing.
Never underestimate the power of the role model. If your kids are seeing you eat veggies and enjoy them, chances are they will do the same.
Always try to provide fresh vegetables at every meal.
Look for new and fun recipes.
Celery sticks with peanut butter in the crevice and raisins perched on top become “Rockets Ready for Blast Off”. Washed and ready to eat baby carrots can be “Hyperspace Fuel”.
Make up a name for the food
The more creative and outrageous the name you give the vegetable the better. Pieces of crunchy broccoli can become “Tree Bites for Dinosaurs”. Kids love having fun and this includes the naming and renaming of foods.
Don’t forget that veggies come in all sorts of fun colours. Your kids will love them because they are fun and different and you will love them because your kids will eat them.
This is an original news article © The Kids Window
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