It's National Nutrition Month! There's nothing more important to your health, than the choices and habits you make, contributing to your nutrition. For children, it's especially important, because their early eating habits can ultimately influence their future habits and health as they grow. In this blog we provide you with different tips to help promote healthy eating in children.
Start early- One of the best ways to promote healthy eating within your children, is to start as early as possible. Starting at an early age, gives you an opportunity to establish healthy diets and meal routines. Younger children are introduced to a variety of foods. Getting them to love healthy foods, can impact how they respond to those foods as they age. Provide them with healthy options, and even provide positive praise for when they try the food.
Role Model- One way to promote healthy eating within your children, is to model healthy eating behaviors. Children will often look towards parent's behavior and how they respond to different items and situations. It's important to encourage your children to not only eat healthy, but actually show them how they should eat healthy. They will then feel encouraged to model the behavior themselves.
Get them involved- Another great tip to inspire healthy eating, is to get the children involved. This includes making a game out of grocery shopping, and having them become familiar with the foods you are purchasing. Then, they can even get involved during the planning and preparing of each meal. You can give them a choice between two healthy options, and they will feel included in the family meal decisions.
Change their diets- One important aspect of healthy eating, is a child's overall diet. This doesn't mean that they have to eat specific foods, and can't enjoy themselves, but that they're eating healthy overall. Keep in mind that your children are getting the right amounts of nutrients, while creating snacks and meals that they will enjoy; finding a balance with each food.
Get creative with snacks- Snacks can play a big role in any child's diet. In order to continuously encourage healthy eating, you can try to get creative with their snacks. Make it a point to always try new and exciting healthy snacks, while also providing them with different options. This can include turning the snacks into many different cute, colorful and playful designs and characters
Don't give up- Our biggest tip to help promote healthy eating, is to never give up. It can take a child an average of trying a food ten times before they will like it. Just because they reject a certain healthy food once, doesn't mean they won't have another chance to try it again. Be patient, and keep giving them the opportunity to try it. You can even try preparing the food in different ways, seeing which they respond to best.