How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits in Children

When you have picky eaters in the house, you need to look for ways to pump the right nutrients into their system. Sometimes, the children may be getting this behavior from the parents. Therefore, if the parents do not have healthy eating habits, it might be hard to cultivate these in the children.

The first thing is to check the family routine during meal time. Do the parents allow a lot of snacking before meals or after meals? This has to stop. The children may be using this as a reason to skip meals. Since most of the snacks have high levels of fat, sugar or salt, their stomachs may have a hard time adjusting. Therefore, they develop a bloated feeling and they assume it means the stomach is full. If the children need the snacks, make it clear that all courses of the meals will still be eaten. If the parents have been using snacks as bait to make the children eat, that has to stop before it is too late. Processed foods will never meet the nutritional requirements of a growing body.

Next, the number of times meals are served needs reviewing. Instead of providing three meals daily, it is wise to split that to five smaller portions throughout the day. For instance, serve breakfast, mid snack of fruits, lunch, milk as an afternoon drink with an accompaniment and supper. Adjusting this into manageable portions may be easy for the children.

In addition, healthy eating habits involve getting all the nutrients. Some children hate veggies and they will do anything to prevent this type of food from getting into their plates. The parents can talk to the children about the nutritional importance of vegetables in the body. If this does not persuade the young ones, the other resort is changing the preparation of the vegetables. For instance, if the child loves potatoes but hates spinach, the two can be mashed such that the greens are not easy to take off the plate. However, some intelligent youngsters will avoid the whole meal when it is mashed. The idea is to mix the favorites and hide the dislikes somewhere in. Lentil patties can assist when a child does not like lentils or carrots. Once they are mixed to form cakes, they can be accompanied with tomato sauce, which seems to be a favorite for most children. If the cabbages are being avoided, mayonnaise can be added to make coleslaw as a salad. In most cases, the parent should try sauces, puddings and salads to make the child eat what he or she does not like.

Finally, healthy eating habits can be enforced if the parents do not fall for the cries and yells of the children. Foods should be omitted from the daily intake if they cause allergic reactions or with a physicians advice. The parent needs to be in control whether the child throws tantrums or not. If the healthy eating habits are not enforced in a child, they will not be effective in the teenage years.

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