Healthy Eating for Kids

Chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese seem to be the mainstream diet for many children. Parents often struggle to get their children to eat healthy foods. Our family started on a new diet. We switched our white bread for wheat and started stocking the fridge with fruits and vegetables. The kids rebelled for a while, but now they are used to it. They fight for the last strawberry. Here are some suggestions to help you make the transition to healthy eating in your home.

Monitor how many snacks your children eat in a day. The rule at our house is a snack at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. I dont have whiny kids wanting treats all day, because they know when they can have them. However, if they want something healthy like an apple, a bagel, or some fruit, they can have it without asking.

Add more vegetables to the dinner table. Try a variety of vegetables, and keep trying them even when your kids say they dont like them. Taste buds change over time. Have them try one bite each time you serve something they dont like.

Make food more fun. Serving dinner that your kids can adapt to their own tastes makes dinner more fun, and gets them to eat better. Try taco soup with a base to include tomatoes and pinto beans and let them add their own ingredients: cheese, sour cream, chips, olives, corn, etc. They probably wont notice that there were tomatoes in there.

Healthy eating takes time but is worth it in the end. Your kids will adjust and eventually wont miss the candy and chips that they used to munch on. And everyone will benefit from the change.

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