Did you know that the human body requires at least 5 portions of fresh fruits and vegetables to meet the daily nutritional needs? When it comes to kids, supplementing their energy and nutrition needs can become quite a challenge. Nevertheless, in these times of fast foods and 2-minute noodles, it is important to ensure that the children eat healthy, and also develop lifelong habits to do the same on their own.

Here are some tips to help your kids eat better:

Schedule

Since most children are bundles of energy, they need to eat every three to four hours. These meals and snacks can be easily supplemented with dry fruits, fresh fruits and vegetables, along with fluids.

Make One Meal

Try to never fall into the habit of making something that the kids would like that is different from what you’d eat. One meal, eaten together as a family, is a better way to make children eat wholesome food since they try to mimic their parents’ behaviour.

Don’t Force It

Try not to constantly comment on what or how much your kids are eating. As long as you serve balanced meals, they will themselves fall into the habit of eating it when hunger strikes.  

Try Dips

Children like to turn their faces away from fresh fruits and vegetables. One way to deal with it is to serve these with a nice yogurt or salsa-like dip. Since the whole dip-and-eat thing seems like a game, most kids will eat what is served   

Fiber in the Morning

One meal where serving fiber makes sense is breakfast. It is bound to get digested through the day and can be easily sneaked into meals in the form of high-fiber cereal, wheat based pancakes and parathas. 

Sprinkle Sugar

More often than not, if it is sweet, the kids will eat it. Sprinkle powdered sugar onto French toasts, bread-and-eggs, boiled vegetables, cereal … anything! Kids eventually grow out of this need for sweetness.

Teach Them Cooking

Have children choose their own fresh vegetables and fruits at the market, allow them to mix up a salad or create a fun ‘fruit cocktail’ in a tall glass. Baking banana bread or apple muffins using healthy ingredients is another great way.

Cut Out Junk

Kids are solely dependent on adults for their food – meaning that any junk they eat has probably gone down through an adult. Keep minimum to no junk food in the house and the kids will have to eat the healthier alternatives whenever hunger strikes.

Allow Treats

Completely banning junk food reads ‘forbidden treats’ to a child’s mind. Occasionally letting them indulge in junk food works better.

Keep A Balanced Approach

What children eat over the course of a month or a year matters more than what they ate on one random day. Popcorn with movies and ice-cream on hot summer days are some of the favourite childhood memories people have, so keep room for these.

With a wide range of packaged foods available in the market, we naturally welcome home anything that makes our life easy. Toddlers get easily moved by the alluring packages and gobble up the contents, without realizing the disturbance they cause in their tiny stomach. You can not always monitor what your child is eating in your absence, but you can develop good-eating habits from a young age.

It is our responsibility to make sure our child is eating healthily and happily!

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