If you are wondering how to give kids nutritional food that tastes yummy to your kids too. Here we have uncovered the tips & strategies to encourage your kids to eat right and nutritional food.
Benefits of Healthy Food for Kids
A healthy diet can have an immense effect on your child’s sense of mental and emotional wellbeing, which in turn can help in preventing serious health conditions.
Encourage Healthy Eating Habits
The sooner you introduce healthier and nutritious food items into your child’s diet, the easier it will be able to develop a lifelong relationship with healthy foods. Whether they’re toddlers or teens, here are some of the tips to encourage healthy eating habits in your child’s diet:-
- Experiment with the taste of healthier foods- You can play around with the appeal of healthy food by adding some sweet dip to the slices of apples or can add mashed potato into the carrots. Also, the green vegetables and broccoli can be made delicious by adding some masalas or butter to make the dishes healthier and fun to eat for kids.
- Cook More Meals at Home- Restaurants and cafe meals consist of more oil and refined carbs, which can impact your child’s health. So, try to prepare most of the time delicious and healthy meals at home. You can give them a break in their routine on some days and allow them to eat at restaurants for just a change. For instance, create a routine for Mondays to Saturdays and allow your kids to eat at restaurants on Sundays.
- Make healthy Snacks Available- Snacks are the most important aspects that kids binge on. Keep more healthy snacks & beverages at home on hand for the kids such as flavored fox nuts, Rava Upma, etc so they can avoid soda, chips, and cookies, or any other junk food.
- Offer choices
Try to offer a variety of choices to your kids so that they can establish a sense of independence and gain trust. No one likes to force something and it’s hard, especially for toddlers or older kids. For instance, giving the choice between apple slices and celery with peanut butter will give the kids to choose from what they are craving. Instead of running over the healthy foods, try to make your child overall a nutritious & balanced diet. Create a food plan where they get varieties of vegetables, fruits, and nuts in their meals. You can mix up and experiment with their dishes to create their mealtime exciting.
- Decorate their Food – Make it colorful
Experiment with the food presentations to make the overall appeal of the dish exciting and interesting. The appeal of the food is an important criterion that makes mealtime fun. Also, it leaves fond memories of food as they grow up.
- Introduce them to cooking
Kids are more likely to give a new food a try if they have a hand in making it. You can start with basic tasks like stirring a bowl or tossing the salad or measuring the ingredients. As they perform these simple & basic tasks, they’ll see how the dishes and meals are cooked, arouse their interest as well as give a fundamental step for preparing their own healthy meals as they get older.
- Don’t force it
Introduce your kids to a variety of food items with different tastes and seasonings. Never force or push your picky eater’s kids rather, just encourage them to eat a nutritious & healthy diet.
- Stop keeping track
Don’t keep track of your kids’ balanced meals in a day or a week. It’s obvious to strive for balance but don’t worry if it doesn’t happen every time. Kids’ appetites will fluctuate based on their activity, their mood, and their growth. Allow the kids to learn their own satiety signals. If your child is healthy and has an appropriate weight, then don’t worry about how much they eat in a meal.
- Say yes to junk food
You can’t expect your child to be an ideal person who always eats a nutritious & balanced diet. Sometimes allowing them to eat junk food or whatever they are craving, keeps them encouraged to have nutritious meals.
- Make dessert part of the meal
Incorporate dessert to be part of the meal for kids, In this way, you can tempt your child to eat the whole dinner and also act as a “reward” for finishing the entire meal.
Conclusion
In the end, just want to say that prepare your meals the way you normally would and keep the rest up to your kids. If you are looking for the best school in Bangalore, Karnataka that can teach the value of healthy and nutritious food at the time of pre-school & schooling age of your child, Ekya School is the finest among the others. We unleash the potential of the child and try to inculcate good healthy eating habits in the children. Furthermore, guide them to become better citizens while creating a happy & homely environment of learning.
