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5 Ways to Encourage Your Kids’ Healthy Eating Habits

Cherrywood Dental • Mar 05, 2018
Kids are naturally drawn to foods that are high in sugars or starches, because they taste delicious to their tiny taste buds, and kids don’t view foods the same way as an adult would. For moms and dads, it’s vital to feed your children nutritious foods that will promote healthy growing and learning.

Convert your picky eater into a fruit and veggie lover with these 5 ways to encourage healthy eating habits for your kids.

Getting Your Kids Involved

Start at the source and teach your kids where their food comes from. A Saturday morning outing to the local farmer’s market allows your kids to see foods in a different setting than in the traditional supermarket. Introduce them to the working hands that grew the produce, and let them pick out the foods your family will eat for the next week together.

Have a green thumb? Planting things like tomatoes, lettuce, and berries in pots is a great way to show your kids the process of how foods grow and encourages a child to try the fruits of their own labor.

Keep Healthy Snacks An Arm’s Length Away

Keeping your kitchen and pantry stocked with exclusively healthy treats in convenient grab-and-go bags is the best way to get your kids reaching for the healthy alternatives. Keep the snacks in convenient places so kids can help themselves.

Mom Hack: Invest in a few plastic containers and label them with the days of the week for snacks. Taking a few extra minutes on grocery day and planning snacks out ahead of time will help to eliminate the “mom, I’m hungry” complaints and make your kids more self sufficient.

Let Them Decide

Kids love to get their way – don’t we all? But no parent wants to be a short order cook for their little ones, especially if you are cooking for multiple people in your family. Instead of fully assembling meals and plating everything for your kids, try the fixings bar approach, like this example for taco Tuesday:
  1. As you prepare ingredients and components, place items like rice, beans, whole wheat tortillas, and taco meat like chicken or beef on plates.
  2. Let your kids dress up their own tacos with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, salsa and sour cream
  3. Your kids eat exactly what they like and choose for themselves without being forced to eat
The fixings bar approach works well for family meals like taco bars, pasta bars, veggie bars and snack time with veggies and dips. Get your kids involved and give them the responsibility to make their own choices.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

A recent study found that young children’s food tastes are significantly related to foods that their parents like and dislike. Having your child watch you order fresh and healthy options at restaurants rather than a burger and fries through the drive-thru encourages them to cultivate healthy eating habits both at home and out.

Keep Offering Foods In Different Ways

Studies show that most children require multiple exposures to new foods before they willingly eat them on their own. Offering broccoli between 5-10 times, prepared different ways, will help the new food become familiar to your child – then they’ll be more willing to eat it when it’s put on their plate.

Establish Healthy Eating Habits Early On

Getting your kids to eat healthy foods starts when they’re babies, and the process continues as they develop into their toddler years. If you need help in coming up with some tips and strategies for getting your little ones on board with healthy changes, ask us for some recommendations at your child’s next dental checkup. Just like healthy eating, your child’s oral health begins at a young age too!
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