How To Make Your Kids Eat Better

As a parent, ensuring that kids eat healthily is something we all want to do, but the reality can often be rather different from our ideas and ideals. Children aren’t always happy to try new things, and sometimes it can be completely frustrating and even upsetting when they are struggling with their food. This can have a knock-on effect and cause tempers to flare. To prevent this, and to make sure that your kids eat as healthily as possible, here are some useful tips.

Information

Simply placing food in front of a child and expecting them to eat it when they don’t know or understand what it is could well be the cause of the problem. By giving children more information about what they are eating, perhaps even taking them to the grocery store with you to see what ingredients are being used, can make a big difference. As with anything in life, the more information you have, the better prepared you are to deal with it. You wouldn’t buy a property through Roofstock, start a savings account, or purchase a car without knowing all the details – it’s the same with your kids’ food. Give them the background and information, and they will be more willing to try it.

Smoothies

Smoothies

Smoothies are a fantastic way to get a lot of goodness into a child in one go – and they will enjoy the taste too. Even if they don’t want to eat the greens that you put on their plate at dinnertime, presenting them with a bright green ‘monster smoothie’ could very well be a great alternative. That’s because it is exciting and interesting, and they will be keen to try this new thing that doesn’t look like the vegetables they have been offered before. You can add dairy, fruit, oats, and more to ensure that they are getting a good range of foods and are feeling full.

Use The Familiar

Finding something that your kids love, such as pizza or spaghetti and meatballs, is a good thing, but they can’t eat that all the time or they won’t be getting a well-balanced diet. However, using the familiar items that they enjoy to introduce new foods can work really well. Take pizza for example; you can switch the standard base for a wholemeal option, to begin with. As time goes on, you can start adding different toppings that are healthier.

DIY Food

If your children help you to prepare their meals, they will have a greater understanding of what has gone into them, to begin with. This will also help them to engage with the food, and encourage them to try it – they will be proud of what they have done and want to taste the results. They will also want everyone else to taste the results, so be prepared to sit with them and all eat the same thing; this is a good habit to get into anyway. Alternatively, you could set up a ‘bar’ of goodies, which are all healthy, and your children can pick their own food. This is ideal for snacks, or perhaps for breakfast.