How To Develop Healthy Eating Habits In Kids

Being a parent, developing healthy eating habits for children is the most important and challenging task to do. Children need more energy than adults and when it comes to food preferences, especially school goings kids, they need a balanced diet for their overall growth. Childhood is the best time to nurture healthy eating habits, which can help them to lead a healthy lifestyle when they grow up. Read this blog to learn about some tips to inculcate good eating habits in your children.

Healthy Eating

Eating healthy food helps growth and development, keeps common disease and infections at bay and helps maintain an ideal healthy weight. But the question arises is, how do we incorporate good eating habits in our kids. Whether you have a toddler or a school going child, getting them to eat nutritious food is not easy,  but very important as right and balanced food helps in children’s proper growth and development, boosts their immunity and maintain a healthy weight.

Parent’s Role To Inculcate Good Eating Habits In Children

Good eating habits in kids play an essential role in establishing their future health and habits. learning good eating habits is a gradual process and parents who are committed to their kids good health often look for tips on developing good eating habits in the child. However, this is also true that,”action speaks louder than words” children learn what they see.

Here are tips to develop healthy eating habits in your children, So that they will set up to become a healthy version of the adult.

Inspire Your Child For Healthy Eating Habits

• • Eat Mindfully: Encourage your child just not to eat the food, ask him how was the food, did he liked the aroma of the food, can he recognize the ingredients. etc. These kinds of conversation help them to connect with the food.
  • Chew The Food Properly: Chewing is very important for a good digestion process. Encourage your children to chew the food at least 32 times.
  • Drink Water: Encourage your child to drink at least 6-8 glasses of water every day.
  • Eat Slowly: Tell them to eat slowly as it gives fullness.
  • Avoid Distraction While Eating: no screen time while eating the food.
  • Feel The Food: Ask your kids about the taste, aroma and texture of the food.
  • Encourage Them To Eat Colorful Food: Cook many colourful vegetables, as different colours, fruits and vegetables have different effects.
  • Portion Size: The quantity of food is equally important as the quality of food. Serve them as their capacity, don’t insist them to finish the plate always.

Make A Meal Time Interesting And Adventurous

• •  A regular family meal together
  • Encourage your kids to share their daily lives around
  • Mealtime enables you to watch and correct your child’s eating habits
  • Involve your kids to arrange the food on the table
  • Ask them for their favourite food

Store Healthy Food Options

• • Stock up fresh and organic fruits and vegetables in your fridge.
  • Keep lots of healthy whole grain snacks handy.
  • For munching purposes, keep a jar full of dry fruits on their study table or dining table.
  • Encourage your kids to eat homemade snacks.
  • Always carry some kind of whole grain snacks or fresh fruits while going out with kids.

Get Children Involved In Pantry Shopping

Pantry shopping with children can be fun and good learning for the kids at the same time.

• • • Educate them about spices and their benefits.
    • Read nutrition labels with kids. Tell them processed food have labels, and fresh products do not have any labels.
    • Take them to the vegetable and fruit farm and market, to teach them, where food comes from. Help them to select fresh fruits and veggies.
    • Make a grocery list with the kids and explain to them about the items to.
    • Educate them about the “needs and want”,  For Example:

• • • • We need peas, carrot and cauliflower for dinner tonight.
      • We need eggs and bread for the breakfast tomorrow.

• Involve Your Kids In Meal Preparation

  Children would love to join you in the kitchen, and they will also learn about healthy food and ingredients in a fun way.

  • • Discuss the food menu with the kids.
    • Ask about their choices and allow them to give input in the meal planning.
    • Introduce them to different pulses and lentils and tell them about how healthy they are.
    • Let them do small works like mixing salads, peeling and slicing fruits, mashing potatoes etc.
    • Teach your child about the risk of having unhealthy food.

Healthy Replacement For Junk Food

Although, it is almost impossible to avoid junk food because they are easily available and convenient. We all know, how unhealthy it is they are high in sugar and low in nutrients, there are many on-the-go food alternatives available that are delicious and also healthy. Some include:

• • • Ice-cream can be swapped with frozen Greek yoghurt
    • Gummy fruit jelly, swap with fresh fruit bites
    • Potato chips swap with homemade baked chips
    • Packet fried food swap with homemade grilled food

Cut Down The Sugar And Refined Carb 

• • Encourage your child to eat or drink natural food as much as possible.
  • Do not allow sugary drinks like soda, soft drinks and packet juices as it contains high sugar.
  • Bread, pizza base, burger and canned food have hidden carb, mindfully read the labels.
  • Always prefer homemade food over packet or canned food.

Educate The Kids About Healthy and Unhealthy Fat In Your Child Plate

Growing children need healthy fats in their meals. Healthy fat help kid with bone density, skin, improves mood and help in concentration.

Here are some examples of healthy fats:

• • Monounsaturated Fats- Nuts and seeds, olive oil, organic A2 ghee etc.
  • Polyunsaturated Fats- Omega-3 fatty acids found in flax seeds and walnuts.

Unhealthy Fats

• • Trans Fat- Vegetable Oil, Seed Oil (These oils are used in candies, crackers, cookies, snacks, fried food and other processed food)

Eating Out With Children

• • Try to skip fried food instead, carry a box of fruits such as grapes, bananas, apples etc.
  • Be smart about portion size, To satisfy the kid’s craving, stick to the smallest size available. For example, if you are ordering pizza or ice cream, order a small size of pizza and one scoop of ice cream.
  • Avoid Over-indulging With The Menu Card: Be wise about the menu, while placing an order, side food like fries, dips, noodles, biscuits, cold drinks contain more calories.

Cheat Day

• • It is almost impossible for kids to stick to healthy food all the time.
  • Give them the freedom to have one cheat meal every 15 days.
  • Allow them to eat what they want to eat, after all, they are kids.
  • Cheat meals give them the motivation to follow healthy eating for the next 15 days.
  • It’s a good idea to deal with children’s cravings.

Benefits Of Healthy Eating Habits

Healthy eating shows several benefits, some include:

1.  Help Kids To Maintain Healthy Weight
2.  Childhood habits last forever
3.  Boosts Kid’s immune system
4.  Improve Digestion
5.  Decreases the risk of common health problems and infections
6.  Improves teeth and bone strength
7.  Improves energy level
8.  Improves kids overall growth and development
9.  A healthy child is a confident child
10.  Power of self-control

Conclusion

In today’s hectic schedule where mostly both parents are working, developing good and healthy eating habits in children can be hard, but adopting small strategies to improve nutrition and encourage healthy eating will definitely help them.

When children will know the long term effect of healthy eating since childhood, it would be beneficial for them to live a healthy and active life. As a parent, you can help your kids make a healthy eating routine by encouraging them for making healthy food choices, remember, do not force them, finally, it’s up to the child to decide what to eat and what not to eat. Do your best to patiently help them with their choices for healthy eating.