Teaching Kids to Eat Healthy: Get Advice From a Mommy Who Cooks Yummy!
Teaching kids to eat healthy is a basic step to help them develop a strong body and an alert mind. As mentioned before, eating fruit and vegetables can also foster your kids’ concentration skills. So, there’s no denying that a healthy diet has infinite benefits for a child. However, some times parents find it almost impossible to persuade their kids to eat healthy. If you are one of them, don’t worry! We asked Lou Girba, a mom who has already succeeded in doing so, and she agreed to reveal her secret methods!
Lou Girba is sharing her experience
Hi! I’m Lou Girba and I am the proud mom of a 2,5-year-old boy. We are waiting for his little sister too in a few days. My story with healthy cooking goes like this: I started reading about healthy eating habits when I gave birth to my son. I was generally looking for ways to introduce solids properly. At the same time, I was searching for recipes to make healthy snacks and desserts, so that my son wouldn’t be deprived of anything, but wouldn’t also consume much sugar and preservatives. After a lot of research, I managed to gather a lot of easy and useful recipes to help my kids develop healthy eating habits. Realizing how difficult it is to prepare healthy snacks every day, I decided to share every successful recipe with other parents who have the same concerns. As a result, I made an Instagram profile (babyfoods_by_lou), where I upload all these recipes.
So, I am not an expert. I am just sharing my experience as a mom and I would like to provide you with some advice that I think will prove useful, based on the messages I receive by parents every day. I hope that my tips will be helpful to you too. If you need any more ideas for yummy recipes, have a look at my profile.You’ll definitely find something that suits your needs!
Teaching kids to eat healthy may be easier than you think!
Teaching kids to eat healthy might not be as difficult as you think, especially if you like cooking. Contrary to what you may believe, you don’t need to spend the day in the kitchen, since there are many easy and tasty recipes you can make in good time. There’s more to it than just cooking, though:
1. Going out doesn’t mean eating out
Before going out for a walk or to play in the park, get some fruit or vegetables that are easy to prepare with you. That way, if your kids get hungry, you will not have to buy them unhealthy snacks. What is more, they will not get used to eating snacks full of preservatives, sugar or salt when they are not at home.
2. If you can bake it, then you’d better make it
Kids will ask for snacks. They see them on TV, they watch their friends eating them, they taste them at parties. Luckily, there are now a lot of online recipes to make popular snacks at home. So, avoid buying snacks you can prepare at home. With a little research you can find easy recipes that guide you to make delicious snacks with ingredients you have at home. Even when talking about snacks, homemade is always better!
3. Engage kids in cooking
Cooking with your kids can be really amusing for you and your kids! Apart from teaching kids to eat healthy, cooking with them fortifies your relationship and creates memories that will accompany them for years. So, invite them in the kitchen and include them in the process. Have fun making cookies in different shapes and watch your kids waiting impatiently to taste the cookie they made themselves!
4. Be patient and steady
Persuading your kid to eat a specific food will not always be easy and that is ok. Kids go through refusal phases and the only thing you can do is waiting. If your kids are going through a phase like this, do not push them to eat something they do not want to. Pressing them will probably get you the opposite results. But, you shouldn’t take their preference for granted too. If they don’t want to eat something today, this doesn’t mean that they will never eat it again in the future. So, keep making such foods available to them. Lay the table, sit with your family, enjoy your meal and let your kids decide on their own what they are going to taste. You will be surprised to see that they will eventually try some of the foods they kept refusing to taste in the past.
5. Even frozen food is better when it’s homemade
Many mothers are worried that they do not have enough time to always provide their kids with homemade food. There is a solution to that and it’s called… freezer! Take advantage of the days you have some free time and make as much food as you can. Make meatballs, chicken fingers, etc and just put them in the freezer. This way, you will have nice, homemade food ready in 10 minutes for those difficult days that catching the time seems impossible. If you feel guilty about giving kids frozen food, remember: homemade frozen food is still healthier than fast food or frozen food sold in the market.
6. It is not always up to you and that’s ok
As kids grow older and get out more, you will partially lose control of what they eat when not at home. They may have a bite at a friend’s house. They may try a snack at a party. Maybe they will have a meal at a fast food restaurant. Accept the fact that they will eat something you would approve of sooner or later. Having an unhealthy snack once in a while won’t kill them. If you establish a healthy diet from a young age, your kids will follow it voluntarily when they grow up.
