Healthy Food Habits in Children

It is necessary to develop healthy eating habits in kids at a young age so that they follow these habits forever. Read on to find tips for encouraging healthy eating in children.

Habits are best formed when they are developed at a young age and food habits are no different. If you are able to generate healthy food habits in children, these healthy habits will last with them forever. You will help them inculcate some good habits that are sure to benefit them the rest of their lives. Given below are some ideas for encouraging kids to eat healthy.

Check What You Store in Your Refrigerator:

You will often find that kids tend to eat what they find available on the shelves of the refrigerator. So it is vital for you to ensure that all the foods there are healthy ones. Avoid keeping every type of junk snacks in the fridge. For example, keep fruits, oats, honey bars and homemade fruit juices in the fridge. This way the kids will only have healthy options when they open the fridge and desire to snack or nibble on something.

Lead by Example:

Never forget that children learn by example. So always be careful about what sort of role model you are being to your kid. Be conscious of the fact that your activities and behavior is closely observed and will be copied. Your actions and whatever you preach or teach your kids should not be different.

A situation where you are having a family get together or the family members gather during the weekend afternoon or evening, make sure that you serve healthy snacks. And do not even make this condition that the others have some other choices and there is another separate option for the child. And if you have to serve something else that you do not want the kid to have, then ensure, that it is served when the kid is away or asleep.

Never Serve Boring Food:

Food items that come under the healthy food category are often avoided by kids as they find them very boring. It’s always the same old fruits or cereals. So make it a point that the food you serve is healthy and interesting as well. Serve the fruits as a fruit salad, in a colourful bowl. And you can add some lemon juice and some appropriate herbs to give it a flavour.

Be innovative while serving the regular healthy food items to your kids and you will find that when you do some simple things like for instance, serve the daily handmade roti by rolling it with some green veggies and holding the roll together by a tooth pick, your kid might find it very interesting. Say, if your kid is not fond of apples, stop insisting that he must have it, instead, serve it as a smoothie by blending the apple puree with milk and a bit of vanilla essence.

Some Points to Note:

Never use food as a reward. While developing good and healthy food habit make sure that the kid does not get this feel that if he does something good, he will be rewarded with food. This way, there are chances that the kid will over indulge and depending on the food choices and the health of the kid, such a habit might lead to obesity.

Another healthy habit to develop in kids is teaching them to read labels. This will create awareness at a young age and they will learn that what are the desirable elements in the food that is considered to be ‘good’, and what are the ingredients that make a food ‘bad’. So they will make well-informed choices and will not feel the want of junk once they know why they should be avoided.

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