Fast food is a big part of modern life these days, making it incredibly hard to teach a child how they should eat healthily.The cheapest and easiest foods are those that are normally the least healthy for us. If you give your child the choice between healthy food and junk food, you are more than likely not like the results.
Even though it isn’t possible to get a child to like all healthy foods, there are some ways to get your child/children to try and hopefully like at least a few of them. You can be as creative as you like, getting kids to eat healthy foods can be a little harder than people think.
Here are some great ideas to make eating healthy fun for your child/children.
- Sneak the healthy food in. Even though it would be great if your child to understood the importance of fruits and vegetables, this isn’t always the case. If you can’t get them to eat good food willingly, there are ways to sneak them in, such as making
muffins out of bananas or apples, or pizza with spinach on it, or blending vegetables into mash potato. - Call fruits and vegetables by funny names. You can refer to broccoli as “trees”, making them more fun to eat. There are many different names you can call fruits and vegetables, even making up your own if you prefer. Majority of children prefer to eat foods that sound fun.
- Try to make the foods taste better. Ranch dressing is great for broccoli, while peanut butter is a great topping for celery. There are several combinations for vegetables that can make them taste much better for children. You can let your child pick a topping for a vegetable; even if it’s something you wouldn’t normally like yourself, they will think this is fun and will make them want to taste it as they have chosen what to out onto it.
- Dress the vegetables and fruit up. Just as much as calling them names help children eat healthy foods, making them look funny also helps. You can do this by making funny designs on the plate, or setting them up to look like people.
For example you could draw a funny face onto a banana skin and call the banana ‘Barry the banana’. Although some parents don’t like their children playing with their food, sometimes it helps to get them to eat healthier.
There are several ways to make your kids eat healthier, but in order for them to enjoy it also has to be fun as well, this means the parents interacting with them and making it fun.
Getting children to eat healthily isn’t always an easy task, because children usually don’t like foods that are good for them. It can however, be done with a bit of creativity and fun. Hopefully, doing this will help your child develop a love of healthy foods for the rest of their lives.
Please click here to download our Fun and Healthy recipes to try with your child at home.
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