Simple Ways to Encourage Your Child to Eat More Healthily

Many parents struggle to convince their children to eat as healthily as they would like them to. If you are having trouble finding ways of encouraging your child to reassess their diet, here are some simple tips you can try.

Start the Day the Right Way

It is often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But while many of us are familiar with this advice, few people understand just how true it is. This isn’t just something that people say; there is a growing body of evidence that shows that skipping breakfast can have a number of negative impacts on our performance throughout the day.

For children, it is even more important that they start the day with a good breakfast. Not all children take to breakfast naturally, so some will need to be encouraged. But whether they eat a piece of fruit or a bowl of porridge, all that matters is that they are getting some kind of fuel for the rest of the day. 

There is also good evidence to suggest that eating breakfast reduces the chances of snacking during the day. If you give your child a healthy breakfast in the morning, they are less likely to then want to eat unhealthy junk food throughout the day.

Let Your Kids Help Prep a Meal Every Week

A great way of teaching your children about healthy eating and what constitutes a healthy meal is to get them directly involved in some meal preparation. If you can set aside one meal a week that you will make a habit of preparing with your children, then this can be a valuable source of knowledge and experience for them.

Cooking with your kids is also a great way of identifying what ingredients they respond well to and which they are less keen on. Some children are much fussier about the food that they eat than others, so if your child is generally a fussy eater, then getting them involved in food preparation can help to broaden their horizons.

Try to Eat Together as a Family

Another effective tactic for encouraging your children to eat more healthily is to eat with them as often as you can. Eating with your children will give you the opportunity to see how they react to the food that you prepare and will also enable you to get instant feedback from them on what they like and don’t like.

When you eat with your children, you can make sure that they are eating everything, especially their veg and other healthy food.

Don’t Rush Your Eating

A common reason for overeating in both adults and children is that we simply eat too fast. It takes some time for your brain to signal to your stomach that you are full up, and to relay this feeling to you. If you are eating too quickly, then you will continue to eat long after you are full because of the delay in this signal processing.

Encourage your children to eat their food slowly and take their time. Rushing through your food won’t achieve anything, so slow and steady is a better approach.

Add More Fruit & Veg

It goes without saying that fruit and veg are both an excellent addition to any diet if you’re looking to make things healthier. It isn’t always easy to convince your children to eat fruit and veg, but if you can get them to, then it is well worth it. Not only do fruits and vegetables contain numerous nutrients and minerals that our bodies rely on, but they are also excellent options for snacking on. A fruit, for example, mostly consists of water. Your child can snack on a bag of grapes or similar and fill up without taking on lots of sugar and fat and carbs.

Try to Add Whole Grains

Lots of children much prefer white bread to brown bread. But while both white bread and brown bread are bread, white bread has been made from grains that have been processed. This processing removes a number of the goodies inside whole grains – the things that usually make things like bread much healthier.

Food that is made from whole grain sources will have much better nutritional content than food made from processed grains. Therefore, adding more whole grains into your children’s diet is an easy way of improving their overall nutritional intake.

Consult with Your Pediatrician

Having a good pediatrician will help you to manage your children’s health much more easily. Pediatricians can provide useful dietary advice and will be able to help you devise a healthy diet for your child. It is worth taking the time to find the best pediatrician for you and your child. If you look online, you will be able to find contact information for groups like Katy Memorial Pediatrics who specify in pediatric care to help look at any issues your child may have, where you can then arrange a consultation.

Convincing your children to eat healthily is not always easy, but it is worth the effort. Children who are undernourished, or who have poor diets are more susceptible to bad health outcomes and their academic performance will suffer. With the advice above, you should be able to encourage your child to eat more healthily relatively easily.