Are you one of those parents struggling to control and prevent your kids from eating unhealthy food, If yes, then keep reading to get better strategies!
Kids generally like to eat what appeases to their sight or to their taste. Their tongue and eyes can at most times becloud their judgment on what may be considerably beneficial to them.
1. Only Keep the Food You Want Them to Eat
The first strategy to implement in making your kids eat healthy is to only keep the healthy foods in the house. Before you leave the house, ensure that you only stuck in the fridge the food that you want them to eat, remove all the cookies, the ice-creams and the rest of the unhealthy stuff. I know this is a big leap, but once you start it, you are creating a culture of eating healthy.
2. Make Mealtimes Exciting
Make your mealtimes, a time that your children will look up to, give them the option to choose from a verity of meals instead of just imposing one on them, but even at that, let their options fall in the range of healthy food. Let your kids see that you enjoy eating food, let them be able to see that you have a good relationship with food, this will leave a long term impact in their lives.
Also see to it that your mealtimes are a time of relaxation and comfort. Psychologists have observed that the human brain learns and remembers things by association, so condition the mind of your kids to be able to associate healthy food with comfort.
3. Don’t Keep Them in the Blue
Children tend to be highly curious in nature, they want to know what is happening, how it is happening and why it is happening the way it is happening. One of the best ways to inculcate a healthy eating lifestyle in them is to sit them down and patiently explain the possible repercussions of unhealthy food.
Explain to them that they will end up looking like people they don’t really like. Once they understand the harm unhealthy food causes, they will be in a better position to accept and appreciate your efforts.
4. Monitor Their Company of Friends
A lot of kids are inspired by the friends in almost everything they do, starting with what they wear, the way they speak and even the kind of food they’d want to eat. If you want your kids to eat healthy, find out the company they hang-out with and be sure that their company is made up of other kids who have a habit of eating healthy in their families.
5. Get Them to Help in the Cooking
Once in a while, it is nice to get them involved in the cooking process. There is a high tendency for them to be interested in what they have prepared. On weekends, take them to the store and let them help you in buying the food for that day.
6. Be Soft and Hard
The final strategy is to be soft with them at the initial stage, they might not be very receptive the first time, but keep pampering them till they final accept it; and be hard in the sense that, don’t compromise or be too lenient with them when they persistently refuse to eat.
image couresy: realbuzz.com, nutritionnews.abbott.
