Healthy Eating for Kids
Healthy Eating for Kids Chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese seem to be the mainstream diet for many children.
Parents often struggle to get their children to eat healthy foods. Our family started on a new diet. We switched our white bread for wheat and started stocking the fridge with fruits and vegetables.
The kids rebelled for a while, but now they are used to it. They fight for the last strawberry. Here are some suggestions to help you make the transition to healthy eating in your home.
Monitor how many snacks your children eat in a day. The rule at our house is a snack at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
I don’t have whiny kids wanting treats all day, because they know when they can have them.
However, if they want something healthy like an apple, a bagel, or some fruit, they can have it without asking.
Add more vegetables to the dinner table. Try a variety of vegetables, and keep trying them even when your kids say they don’t like them. Taste buds change over time. Have them try one bite each time you serve something they don’t like.
Make food more fun. Serving dinner that your kids can adapt to their own tastes makes dinner more fun, and gets them to eat better.
Try taco soup with a base to include tomatoes and pinto beans and let them add their own ingredients: cheese, sour cream, chips, olives, corn, etc.
They probably won’t notice that there were tomatoes in there.
Healthy eating takes time but is worth it in the end.
Your kids will adjust and eventually won’t miss the candy and chips that they used to munch on. And everyone will benefit from the change.
Tips To Getting Kids To Eat Right
Is your kid a picky eater? Do you have any trouble in getting him/her eat a healthy and balanced meal because they simply refuse to eat? Well, you are not alone with that problem.
Almost all parents are so concern in their children regarding not eating enough or eating too much and refusing to eat healthy foods.
These kind of eating problems are behavioral in nature. One thing a parent needs to understand is that they cannot force or bribe the child to eat properly.
Kids have an appetite and they also get hungry! Refusal to eat doesn’t mean that they are not hungry; rather it is the food that you served that are not appealing and doesn’t match the choice of the child.
But how do parentshandle this kind of problem? Diet experts and Pediatricians say that there are seven easy and sure-fire tips in getting your kids eat well at mealtime.
Follow these seven tips that will help you overcome the eating problem of your children:
Avoid introducing high-sugar and fast foods from the time the kid learns to eat solid food.
Keep in mind that these unhealthy foods are designed to be appealing in our taste so we will be coming back for more. In other words, it is addicting.
By not letting them eat junks, most likely children have no choice but to eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grain and dairy products.
Be a good role model to your kid. Children do the same thing what they observed in adults. Eat with them and show to them that you are eating healthy foods. Help them also in the preparation of meals in order for them to be aware of the food that they are going to eat.
Plan your meal ahead of time together with your kids. Allow kids to give suggestions on what they want to eat, but of course you have to set limitations. Consider only foods that contain or provide enough proportion of fruits, vegetables, protein, fats and carbohydrates.
Be patient in introducing new foods. Kids are new-food-phobic in nature, so introduce foods slowly and patiently. Their taste buds have to get used of the taste in order for them to like it.
Eat together as family. Sit down as a family during meal time. Studies shows that when a family eats together, meals served aremore likely nutritious and less fat. Family meal time is a great time also to teach yourkids appropriate eating behavior.
Be creative. The more creative meals you cook, the greater the variety of foods your kids will eat. Experiment dips as a dressingfor your fresh vegetable salad if your kids don’t want to eat vegetables.
Don’t forget to include healthy snacks for your kids. Snacks are very necessary in a child’s diet. Give them a healthy light snacks twice a day in between meals. It must be healthy and consist only of fruits.
Changing the behavior of your picky eater child is not an easy task. Well, nothing about parenting is as easy as A, B, C.
When a kid sees their parents have a good attitude and behaviors towards healthy eating, so expect your child to do the same.
It’s necessary to remember being a picky eater is a learned behavior. It will take time and determination or parents should exert effort to change things around.
Healthy Foods That Your Kids Will Love
Is getting your kids to eat healthy foods is a battle in your home? If so, you’ll love these tips that will make your kids happy and give you the satisfaction of knowing you are feeding them foods that are good for them.
Start the Day Right
You can give your kids a delicious, healthy breakfast by getting rid of the ready to eat cereals and pastries and replacing them with bran pancakes and low-sugar syrup and/or fruit.
Whole-wheat tortillas filled with fruit, scrambled eggs, or cheese and turkey bacon are delicious and your kids will have fun eating them, paying no attention to the fact that it is actually good for them.
Naturally Sweet
Most kids will ask for sweets such as candy and snack cakes. Instead of giving in to the pressure, give your kids applesauce and homemade oatmeal cookies prepared with a sugar substitute or honey rather than white sugar. Fruit snacks and dried fruit roll ups made from 100 percent fruit are great ideas for kids.
Replace fruit drinks and sodas with flavored tonic water and fresh fruit juice. Drink boxes containing pure fruit juice are relatively inexpensive and kids love the individual boxes, complete with straws.
Make it Fun
The secret is in the presentation. Arrange an assortment of healthy foods in a fun way on your child’s plate. You can include smiley faces made from raisins or nuts and choose foods that are colorful. Kids will eat most things if they are presented in a unique design that makes eating fun.
Healthy Dinner
Dinnertime can include homemade pizza topped with cheese and vegetables, or soft tacos made with shredded chicken and cheese.
Chicken strips prepared in the oven are always a hit and you could include an assortment of fresh vegetables and whole-grain breads.
Fish sticks are relatively healthy if you prepare them in the oven rather than fried. Cheese and legumes are healthy choices.
It’s not difficult to get kids to eat healthy foods. It just takes a little extra thought and planning. Start by using our tips and you may be surprised to see what your child will eat.
An Apple A Day Can Help Kids Make The Grade
Getting a child to eat healthy food can be a monumental challenge for any parent. However, studies show that all of the haggling, arguing, and hassle is actually worth the effort as a healthy diet leads to enhanced academic performance in school.
In fact, malnourished children often struggle in school because they are more likely to miss school, score lower on standardized tests, and repeat grades.
Worse, bad eating habits can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes, that not only affect academic performance but a student’s ability to participate in extracurricular activities.
When you follow the chain of negative events, starting with bad nutrition, it is easy to see how a child’s academic career can suffer.
For example, bad nutrition leads to a weakened immune system, which leads to increased doctor visits and missed school days.
Missing school makes it harder for students to maintain their grades or keep up with lessons. Even if a student can keep up, bad nutrition can interfere with their ability to accept and digest information.
Too much sugar, for instance, can cause attention deficit disorder-like symptoms and chronic headaches, making learning nearly impossible.
These particular nutrition problems usually arise when kids are left in charge of preparing their own breakfast and lunch.
If they don’t skip meals all together, they usually are making poor food choices. Out of convenience, kids are drawn to processed foods that are high in sugar, sodium and fat.
This brand of malnutrition is particularly insidious because health, growth and cognitive problems may not be noticed until a serious issue has developed.
The simple act of eating breakfast can make a world of difference in warding off many of these health problems. According to the Dairy Council of California,
“A nutritious breakfast provides approximately one-fourth of the recommended dietary allowances for key nutrients such as protein, vitamin A, vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.
” This explains why schools offering breakfast service have seen such major improvements in their students’ overall health, attitude and performance.
However, breakfast is just one of the many ways parents can ensure their kids get a healthy start. Following are some additional suggestions for teaching your children healthy eating habits.
5 Tips to Better Student Nutrition:
1. Don’t make the mistake of offering a wide variety of packaged snack items; rather offer a few healthy snacks like fresh fruits, trail mix, or cheese.
2. Make sure the school offers healthy options for lunch and snack; otherwise pack your child’s lunch.
3. Bring your kids to the grocery store to help choose their favorite foods.
4. Limit their intake of high-sugar drinks including fruit-flavored drinks such as punch, soda and even 100% fruit juice.
5. Let your kids help prepare a healthy meal; they’ll have a great time learning to eat nutritiously.
Five Tips To Get Kids to Eat Healthier
Dealing with an overweight child can be a very delicate situation. We do not want to damage their self esteem by telling them they are fat or lazy, yet at the same time they must be conscious that they have to be more aware of their weight and eating habits for them to be healthy.
Parents have a significant influence over the situation. Consequently most of the effort will have to come from the parents. Try these tips for getting kids to eat healthier.
#1 Kids listen to what you do not what you say.
Parents must be an example to their children. Children watch you even when you don’t know they are. If you are sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of ice cream and a bag of chips you are sending the wrong message to them.
They don’t know you have PMS or you had a hard day or even you’ve been good on your diet for a month and this isn’t so bad.
They are seeing lounge and eat. Nothing more or less. Make a salad in the middle of the day and offer them some. Have a piece of fruit as you go out the door and give them permission to go grab themselves a piece to take with them.
This changes the message to snack and snack healthy.
#2 Encourage healthier eating habits by cooking healthier meals.
You don’t have to announce “ we are all going to eat healthier so we can loose weight”. Cook a healthier recipe that you think your family will like. When they complain or ask “what’s this”, simply tell them you thought you’d try a new recipe.
Don’t be disappointed or discouraged if they won’t eat it, or don’t like it. Simply offer them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in its place.
Most importantly do not go back a cook again trying to give them what they want. When given a choice they will most likely choose their “regular” less healthy meal.
#3 Implement house rules that require healthy eating.
If you have a child that loves juice tell them they can only have juice if they drink and equivalent amount of water first.
If you have a child that’s use to grabbing a handful of cookies when they get home. Instead of taking the cookies away , which is sure to give you a “health witch” title, Simply state “you can have cookies, after you eat a piece of fresh fruit first”.
This will not only increase the amount of healthy foods and drink they eat, but also fill them with whole foods which leaves less room for junk.
#4) Be like your mother.
Remember when you had to eat all your vegetables? Offer (healthier) desserts after dinner to those that eat their vegetable.
You may be in a situation of one child having dessert and the other not, however that’s great learning experience for everyone, You get what you earn.
Life lesson at the dinner table. And no it’s not unfair. Kids understand immediate reward/punishment better than speeches. Keep the talking to a minimum, state the rule then stick to it.
#5) Be firm and be consistent.
Kids will push to test your limit. When you decide to implement a healthy habit stick to it. No matter how much a kid cries, whines, or sneaks (and they will).
Stay firm that this is the rule. Discuss the rule with you’re your spouse so you can have a united front. If your children are use to free range in the kitchen, and eating whatever they want implementing all these tips at once will be to drastic a change for them.
Try implementing one rule a week or even every two week. Remember health eating is a process and slow and steady wins the race.
Not only will the new “house rules” be a change for your children but it will be a change for you as well, requiring more monitoring and more planning (making healthy snacks and ingredients always available).
Secret Parenting Tips on How to Teach Your Kid to be Healthy
As parents, I think we can agree that when it comes to encouraging kids to make healthy choices, it’s not an easy task. So what’s a parent to do?
It begins by creating healthy choices without being too obvious about it. After all, for many kids if you say the word healthy, they’ll turn up their nose in disgust!
It isn’t uncommon for kids to push aside healthy options for the “fun” food, which is heavily promoted through television.
“If I don’t buy the food they like, they won’t eat anything!” is a common myth among parents. The reality is if they get hungry enough, they will eat. You have never heard of a child starving to death because his mother refused to feed him “junk food”, have you?
Children will choose to eat healthy food. It’s a process that takes time and creativity. There are plenty of healthy foods that your kids can learn to enjoy. It’s simply a matter of making gradual changes and allowing their taste buds to adjust to the changes.
Kids are used to eating foods high sodium and fat, and need to adjust to eating new healthier foods. This process takes awhile. Making small changes to the normal routine is key.
Follow these tips to help your child make healthy choices that will last a lifetime.
1) Have healthy foods ready and easy to grab in the kitchen.
Stock your kitchen with fruits, vegetables, complex starches, yogurt and lean protein. By default you are changing your child’s food choices simply because your are limiting the availability of “junk food” and increasing the availability of “healthy foods”.
Kids need an after school snack. I remember my Mom always having pre-portioned snacks ready for us and as kids my sister and I always looked forward to our after school snack of the day, it was a treat and a way for our family to bond.
Try having these healthy and easy snacks ready for your kids. A smoothie with yogurt and fruit, baked tortilla chips and salsa, sliced apple with peanut butter, string cheese and crackers, yogurt with granola or salt-less pretzels with peanuts.
2) Put your kids in charge of packing their own lunch.
Make a rule that when your kid enters 5th grade they are responsible for making their own lunch and can pack anything they want as long as they pack food from all of the food groups.
This was the strategy that my Mother used. By the time my sister and I were in the 5th grade the anticipation of “being in charge” of our own lunch made us really want to do it. It was a win-win because we felt grown-up and Mom didn’t have to pack lunch!
3) Involve your children in making the grocery-shopping list.
Explain that they are allowed to choose one “treat” and beside that they have to choose their fruit, yogurt, bread, cereal and type of lunchmeat they want. And they can use these foods to pack their own lunch!
On the refrigerator we always had a pad of paper with the grocery list. I remember being able to write down one treat I wanted every week as well as what flavored yogurt, lunchmeat and fruit that I wanted for my school lunch.
I was given the responsibility of making food decisions for myself, which definitely helped me develop into a responsible adult.
4) Make physical activity a part of your family’s routine
Be active yourself and share your activity with your kids. You can play with them, such as football, cycling, skating, and swimming or take family walks and hikes.
Being more active as a family will improve physical and emotional health. Help your kids to find activities that they enjoy by showing them different possibilities.
During the summer it was a tradition for my family to go for a bike ride every Friday night after dinner. We would sing songs and plan games together; sometimes we would be having so much fun that we would be out riding until 11pm.
I also remember my parents using it as a disciplinary tactic, if we didn’t clean our rooms that week we would not be able to ride out bike in the street with them.
5) Have your entire family take part in preparing/planning family meals.
The more your kids can participate in family meals, the better choices they will be willing to make.
Healthy eating is a family project and everyone should get involved. You can begin by choosing one night a week where the entire family can come together and prepare and eat together.
Before our bike rides on Friday we would have a family dinner night. Often the meal of choice was pizza. Together we would make a homemade pizza with pepperoni and vegetables that we would strategically place on the pizza.
Sometimes we would create a model of our house, we each were able to make our bedrooms and come together as a family to the living room and kitchen.
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