Encouraging Healthy Eating Habits in Children

As a parent, you’re responsible for helping your children establish healthy habits that will affect them the rest of their lives. The following are suggestions to help create an environment that encourages your children to follow a healthy lifestyle.

Support Mindful Eating

Make sure to remove screens from your dining table to help your children remained focused on their food. Talk to your kids about listening to their bodies. Ask what it feels like to be hungry, full, or uncomfortably full, and the discuss the differences between those feelings.

Make Sure Everyone Is Present

Not only is eating at home with the whole family normally healthier and less expensive than eating out, but it also makes a big difference in relationships! Eating at home allows you to better monitor what your children are eating, and creates a special time that children can look forward to.

Encourage Kids to Enjoy Fruits and Vegetables

Doctors recommend that children consume at least two cups of vegetables and one and a half cups of fruit each day. Try to provide fruits and vegetables with every meal, and offer them as healthy alternatives to other snacks. Make eating fruits and vegetables fun! Keep an eye out for new recipes, and encourage your children to help you prepare them.

Limit Soft Drinks

Sodas and other soft drinks are full of added sugars, and are especially unhealthy if children are drinking them instead of drinks with the nutrients they need, such as milk. Even fruit juice often contains added sugars! Encourage your children to drink water before anything else. To create replacements for soft drinks, make homemade iced tea or lemonade with only a small amount of sugar.

Make Sure Your Kids Eat Breakfast

A healthy, balanced breakfast provides an important start to your child’s day. Children who skip breakfast are often unfocused and tired during the school hours. Offer healthy and filling breakfast options such as yogurt with granola and fruit, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal.

Pack Your Child A Lunch

Not only is packing your child a lunch cheaper than purchasing one every day at school, but a homemade lunch is often healthier than the mass-produced school lunches. Sandwiches on nutritious whole-grain bread are a good option. Make sure to include sides of fruits and vegetables rather than chips.

These techniques will help you and your child develop nutritious eating habits. These habits will be the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.

This article was originally published on JamesCrickmore.org.uk.