They say ‘A healthy mind lives in a healthy body.’ This is true for everyone – regardless of the age group. to maintain a healthy lifestyle you have to start eating healthy from an early age. However, today our kids are hooked on munching junk food. Junk food is the leading cause of obesity – a health issue that leads to other health problems.
Being a parent you already know that your kids need to eat healthily. But the problem is how to make them eat healthily? Well, if you are a parent who is fighting meal-time with your children – then you have landed on the right blog post today. In this article, we are going to share some tips and tricks that would encourage your kid to eat healthy without making a fuss! Furthermore, we are also going to share a list of healthy food for kids as well!
5 Tips To Make Your Kid Eat Healthy Food!
If you have a picky eater or your child only eats junk food – then use these ten tips & tricks to get them to eat healthily. We are not promising that your kid will leave junk food completely, but we guarantee that these strategies will make them eat healthy food as well.
1. Give Them The Choice:
Be it’s an adult or a child – no one likes to being told what to eat! If you tell your kid to eat a specific dish – they will surely reject it. So how to tempt your kid to eat healthy food? Simply just offer them choices. No, we are not saying that you make them choose between junk food or healthy food to eat. For example, make them choose between the celery with peanut butter or apple slices. This way you are providing your child autonomy without giving them the full control of their nutrition.
2. Combine Different Foods:
Kids are curious more than a grown-up. And so hence they love to explore new thing – including different and unique foods. Parents who want their children to start eating healthy food for kids should make two or three food combinations and let their younger munch on it. You can easily find ideas on the internet – on how you can make a mouth-watering, healthy food by combing two or more foods.
3. Give Them The Logic:
If you want your kid to choose healthy food to eat, then explain to them why they should eat it. Tell them the health benefits of a specific fruit or vegetable. Or you can also take them to the farmer’s market or a farm and let them try the taste of the fruit or vegetable. This way they would have some control over choosing the food for themselves.
4. Keep The Snacks In Line:
No matter how hard you try, you can’t totally prevent your child to eat unhealthy food. However, what you can do is to limit the consumption of junk food. You can either fix a day for such food type or select a quantity and pick a time to give snacks to your kid. Another option is to replace unhealthy snacks with healthy ones such as carrots, nuts, fruits, salted/unsalted pop-corns, etc.
5. Don’t Force Them:
Do you force your child to eat a specific food? Well, if that’s the case then you have to stop doing it! You might feel that you would make them eat healthy by force, but it would make them not to eat it more. Instead, just make them choose. Make healthy food and lead them to eat by eating it yourself. Children especially toddlers imitate their parents. Be it’s their behaviour, way of talking, or what they prefer to eat – the little ones follows their parents a lot. So stop forcing them to eat healthily, and start eating healthy food yourself!
6. Prepare A Meal Plan!
One common mistake that most parents made is to give the same meal over and over again. This is not the right way. If you want to encourage your kid to eat healthily, you should make a meal plan for them. Include breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. Then alternate the days with the foods that you want them to eat and food that likes to eat. Moreover, don’t forget to add a cheat day for them as well in that meal plan. On a cheat day, let them have one of their favourite junk food types.
Healthy Food To Eat For Kids!
While there are many food options that are healthy for your kid to eat, not all food types are loved by your child. But you need not worry about this. We understand the struggle of choosing the best food type for your kids. So hence, we have searched for some of the healthy food options that you can give to your child.
- Barbequed Corn On The Cob – for this you would need boiled corn, red onions, red, green and yellow capsicums and tomatoes. Skew all the vegetables on a bbq stick, Brush with butter or vegetable oil, seasoned with salt & black pepper, and grill or bake for 1-2 minutes.
- Multi-Grain Pizza – Use a healthy, multi-grain base, add fresh pesto sauce, add your kids’ favourite toppings along with cheese and bake.
- Cake Without Eggs – For this, you need cinnamon, yoghurt, whole wheat flour, and some nuts.
- Melon and Kiwi Smoothies – Freeze the melon, kiwi, grapes and papaya. Blend the frozen fruits with some honey, milk and oats to prepare the delicious and healthy smoothie.
- Chicken and Spinach Soup – Take some crumbled chicken, spring onions, mushrooms, garlic, bean sprouts and spinach leaves and make a delicious, wholesome and healthy meal for your kid.
