Healthy Eating Guide For Children

Getting your children to eat healthy only requires a good example and some creativity. For your guide to healthy eating for children you simply need to choose foods that they like and that are good for them. Do not just go with the obvious choices that you already know most children are not fond of such as brussell sprouts or spinach as most adults do not even entertain those options either.

A good method could be to sit down with your child and begin to write some suggestions down of any foods that they are willing to eat that are healthy and nutritious. Allow them to shoot out any ideas and go from there. Many children have great ideas and are willing to eat many more selections than what you initially thought of. Next put those choices into meals and allow them to have some control over what things they will like to eat for meals, which foods they want put together. As long it does not make them sick they are fully capable of coming up with meal ideas and then they are twice as likely to eat them after they have created the meals themselves as well. Do not forget to think of healthy alternatives and elect the children to create any dipping sauces or dressings they may want to use on their salads, vegetables or meats during their meals. Many times it is all about what you do to make a meal more flavorful to make it enjoyable. For children this is even more of a necessity and they will need some brainstorming to create these additional aspects of eating healthy. It will take some time getting used to before your child will be totally comfortable with their new eating habits and that is to be expected. They can get in a lot more nutritional foods and snacks in the day than they might be getting currently.

Some parents begin to write a food journal that shows how often their children are eating and what they are eating each week to get the preparations for the weeks to come to change their diets around. For school lunches, your children can always elect to eat the cafeteria options or you can pack their lunches and ensure they are getting enough nutrition each day. Pack foods that are not perishable and give them options. Fruits and vegetables should be included in every meal and their snacks as well. For older children, you will need to leave plenty of healthy choices in the house for them to snack on when you are not home to prepare them something fresh. Always encourage them to drink water, milk and juices versus drink boxes and sodas. They will be more prone to eating better if you also eat healthier selections as well. Children are always modeling what they see and when the parents take the initiative to eat better the children will as well without putting up a struggle.