Here are some tips to help your children develop health eating habits :
1.First and foremost lead by example. Your children are watching and learning from you everyday. If your kids see you eating healthy whole foods, they are more likely to do the same.
2. Keep Healthy foods on hand, Your small children will only eat what you have own hand, so if you have a bowl of fruit or veggies cut up, that are easily accessible, they will eat those.
3. Take your kids to the grocery store and introduce them to different fruits and vegetables-for example show them what a beet, or rutabaga is. Play guessing games with your kids in the produce aisle. This way shopping in the produce isle is fun and they learn more about fresh foods.
3.Talk to them about why it is important to eat healthy for their body. Try to link it to something they aspire to be. For example my boys want to be professional athletes- and we teach them that athletes have to eat healthy to be able to play so well during their games. Don’t underestimate them, kids are pretty smart! Talk to your kids about why some foods are healthy and why some food is not.
4. When you can – have the kids help prepare meals. For example have the kids help make vegetable and fruit smoothies and encourage them to add the fruits and vegetables they like. Or preparing school lunches you can have the kids bake healthy snacks with you.
5. Try to have at least one a serving of vegetables at every meal, if possible. Change up the vegetables as much as you can.
6. Try not to reward good behaviour with food. Try to reward them with fun experiences instead like going to the park. This way the kids will not associate any food as a reason to do something good.
7.Talk about food labels with your kids when buying any processed foods- get them into the habit of picking up processed foods and reading ingredient labels. Show them the amount of processed sugars and chemicals that are in unhealthy foods.
8. Have dinner as a family not in front of the television. Research shows that children who eat dinners at the table with their parents have better nutrition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387875/
9.Encourage your children try new fruits and vegetables on their dinner plate, without having to eat it if they do not like it.
10. Remember you are the parent in the household, and you are the one that is literally in charge of buying all the food. You as a parent enforce rules like washing your hands after the using the bathroom, or going to bed at bedtime .So eating healthy can also be in your control, if you only buy healthy options for your kids and save the snack for once in a while.
Here is a natural sugar free recipe great for school lunches that I often make with the kids:
Oatmeal Banana bites:
2 very ripe bananas- mashed up
2-2.5 cups of gluten free oats- this depends on the size of your bananas
1 table spoon fo round golden flax seeds/ or ground white chia seeds
Optional – tablespoon- of hemp hearts, or mini dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix all of the above.
Scoop mixture with 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop onto parchment paper-
Bake – 10-15 minutes until they are set.
Cool on drying rack and enjoy!
Use within 3 days and store in fridge.
Here is the nutritional value with mini dark chocolate chips- I usually only include one homemade baked snack with fruit and vegetable in my boys’ lunches on a normal school day.
