Top 10 tips to make your kids eat more healthily

In today’s modern times parents are finding it harder and harder to ensure that their children are eating healthy and get that balanced diet that they deserve. One of the most important things has to be the 5 a day motto, but trying to get children to eat 5 fruit and vegetables a day is a lot easier said than done. It is also hard to find ways of squeezing these vegetables into their meals without them knowing or being able to taste them. Recent surveys have shown that children in the 21^st century are eating higher levels of salt, saturated fat and sugar than the government recommended guide lines recommend. All these factors need to be thought about deeply to ensure that your children are getting all the nutrients that they need to ensure that they have optimum development.

So, in practical terms, what can parents do to ensure children develop healthy eating habits?

·         Eat with your children

Eating with your children is a great way to ensure that they are eating what you want them to eat, and children also learn by good example, so if you are also eating the things that you want your children to eat, this shows them that’s ok and grown up to eat these certain foods.

A few key factors to remember and to help making tea time a more enjoyable time could be as simple as, setting your dining room tables and bring the family together round the table to talk about everyone’s events of the day. By doing things like this you are encouraging a routine into your children’s life and are also promoting home cooked meals to them which are usually more balanced set meal and this way you know exactly what they eating. All of these factors will influence better eating habits throughout your children’s life.

·         Make the food that you cook as fun as possible

Try and make the meals you cook fun, colorful as possible to encourage your children to want to eat your meals. Dull, bland boring meals don’t look appetizing and therefore encourage people not to want to eat them. Try making your meals full of color and texture and this in turn will make your children more likely to want to eat the meals and most probably finish everything on their plate.

·         How to insure your children are getting as many fruit and vegetables as possible

When cooking you evening meals consider trying to encounter at least two types of vegetables in your meals, and then for desert try to encounter adding fruit to your deserts. By doing this you are insuring that your children are eating at least 3 portions of fruit and vegetables per day meaning that your half way there. You can also try adding a piece of fruit to their lunchbox and if they eat that then that is four pieces per day that your children are having without even realizing it.

·         Hide’ fruit and vegetables if necessary

 Blend it into soups, chop it finely into lasagna and Bolognese, make strawberry ice cream. One of the latest trends of taken over has been smoothies and this is a very efficient way to give your children fruits without them knowing, which will cause less conduct between you and your children. I would recommend making your own as then you know exactly what is in it.

·         Encourage children to drink water or diluting juice between meals

 This will help prevent dehydration, which can lead to constipation and poor concentration; this will also help keep them off those vicious fizzy drinks that contain lots of sugar. The more your kids eat healthily then the better the brains will function and in theory the more that they will learn and the more they will pick up in school.

·         If you have a fussy eater in the household, don’t give up hope

 Children’s tastes often change as they grow older, so as long as you are persistent you should be successful. Keep trying, but don’t focus too much on the issue. Try serving the same foods in different forms – for example, people who dislike the texture of broccoli often find it more palatable in a sauce or soup, try and find ways to hide things in food, hat is the key.

·         Include a portion of lean meat or another type of protein in every meal possible.

This will help keep children fuller for longer and will stop them from wanting snacks or other meals throughout the day. Red meat is very good for providing iron which is very important in a diet, especially young girls. It is a known fact that young girls will eat very little red meat off their own accord so try and do as much as possible to encourage this.

·         Serve oily fish twice a week (but no more).

Omega oils are very important for keeping the mind and heart healthy, these oils can be found in various types of fish like salmon, fresh tuna and grilled sardines. If your children find the taste too overwhelming, add seeds to their breakfast cereals for plant versions of these oils.

·         Pack a healthy lunchbox.

When making packed lunches try your best and disguise fruit and vegetables in sandwich fillings, and provide a piece of fruit you know your child likes. You need to be careful as children can be very particular about fruit; the rule usually is if it’s too messy and difficult to prepare then they just won’t eat it. Try and keep the fruit in small proportions and easy to handle by little hands. Remember the more appetizing you make the food the more likely you are to get them to eat it.

·         Make sure your children eat breakfast.

This is probably the most important tip out of all them to remember as breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you don’t start your day with a nice balanced breakfast, you are more likely to have concentration lapses and be unfocused for the rest of the day.

It’s important to influence this as early as possible as then hopefully you will employ the routine which will also spill over into your children’s adult years. Research has also shown that adults who eat breakfast in the morning are less likely to be over weight than adults who skip breakfast.

Tip:

Making mealtime’s fun

Try and keep meal times as fun as possible to try and keep your children interested in the food that you are feeding them. Get them used to listening to what you say and show good parental guidance so that they know what you say goes. If they figure out that they are able to twist your arm, this will cause great difficulties later on in life, so it is important to lay the groundwork as early as possible.

Insuring that your children are eating correctly at daycare

If your children attend nursery school then I would advise you that when you are choosing your nursery, or have already chosen your nursery I would advise you to ask the staff for a copy of the weekly menu to ensure your children are getting the correct nutrients when they are outside of your control. Most nurseries will be happy to provide you with this information and may also be found on their websites as well.

Once you know what your children have already eaten during the day you can then plan your evening meals around this information to ensure that they are getting all the correct vitamins and nutrients throughout their childhood. If you are currently searching for a new nursery for your child I would recommend Gruntys Nursery school as they provide wonderful activities and also a great nutritional menu.