Teaching Children Healthy Eating Habits

It is very important to teach our children healthy eating habits early.  All too often parents fall prey to fast food products and mainly because we are busy or too tired to cook healthy meals or worse yet, they think their children won’t like the foods presented to them.

If all your children eat are fatty foods that they love, how many nutrients are they getting from those foods?  The simple answer is next to nothing.

Believe me, if your children refuse to eat fruits and vegetables, they will give in when they get hungry.  If you stop purchasing processed foods and have fruits and veggies available they will eat them.  The children will eat them especially if everyone else is eating them too.

As parents  we must introduce a variety of foods to create healthy habits.  The child will eventually eat the fruit if there are no other choices available and with time they will enjoy them.  It may not be easy at first, especially if they have been exposed to processed or ‘fast food’ products, but in time this will change.  There is no problem giving these types of foods as treats but not as a staple of their diets. You may have to gradually change their eating styles.

Some ways to introduce healthier alternatives are the following:

• bean soups, such as yummy lentil soup and if that doesn’t work make your lentil soup into a “lentil burger”
• try making fresh bean and/or vegetable soups with some cheese sprinkled on it.  Make sure it is tasty, and not too spicy
• homemade pancakes with wheat and only sweeten it with pure raw honey
• fruit shakes are always well received, try adding in a carrot or romaine lettuce for added vitamins
• tasty salads with homemade dressings….and also make faces out of the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots.
• add fish to the diet, salmon is always a great choice

There are so many possibilities and recipes that you can try.  Do not give up on your child because they have shown a dislike for a vegetable or fruit.  Just eat it around them and watch them ask you for a piece.  Keep offering it to them at dinnertime and ask them to eat a couple of bites.

If children eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables, they are also getting their calcium requirements. You could also include some almond milk or rice milk as an alternative to whole milk if your child is lactose intolerant.

The focus is to keep introducing children to new foods so that they develop a taste for natural foods.  Their taste buds will develop into ones that will love fresh fruits and vegetables and healthier food all around.  Be patient, it won’t all happen in a day but with consistency, you will succeed, in teaching your children healthy eating habits.

Until next time,

Tagged as: Dr. Mommy, Fruits And Vegetables, health tips, Healthy Eating, Healthy Habits, healthy meals, nutrition tips, tips