How You Can Teach Your Children to Eat Healthily and Build a Healthy Relationship With Food

For parents, it can feel like a constant battle with kiddos to get them to eat the right foods. Balancing their nutrition with the foods that they like, all while trying to give them autonomy, can feel like a consistent struggle without a clear answer. If you want to try to boost their independence while ensuring that they have a healthy diet, here are a few tips to help.

Understand the Importance of Supplements

Balancing a child’s diet and nutrition can feel like a precarious balancing act; however, just as adults can struggle with a well-balanced diet, children may not get all of their key nutrients from the food they eat. If they have deficiencies, consider working with their doctor or a licensed dietitian to determine where they are lacking so that you can introduce healthy alternative options. Supplements for adults that can increase your antioxidants and address digestive issues like green superfoods powder can play a big part in your wellness journey and for kids, with the right supplement, they can experience amazing improvements.

Normalize Veggies, Fruits and Unfamiliar Foods

Your child needs to understand that they may not always be familiar with foods and it’s okay to explore. New foods may be scary for them, but unfamiliar foods let them try different options. By having some variety, your child can explore their foods and you can see what foods stick and which ones don’t. If you don’t make a big deal about it, but consistently offer them options, you can give them the chance to learn about the amazing tastes around them without dramatizing every bite. If you want to promote a healthy diet, your child should have a vegetable at every meal and fruit daily.

Be Persistent Without Stressing Out

Knowing what foods your child will like each day is often like taking a shot in the dark. Your kiddos may be worried about the unfamiliar foods, tastes or whole food groups; however, it is your job as their parent to be persistent. If you stress out about food, they will pick up on this and it will make food into a bigger ordeal. Take a deep breath and realize that not every meal will be a win, but the win will come and you just need to keep trying.

Teach Healthy Choices and Independence

If your little one has trouble eating, it is important to teach them about healthy options and not that foods are good or bad. By introducing the purpose of food, offering fuel to energize and power the body, you can teach your child that they have choices. Showing them that they can make decisions about food and that there are a variety of ways to healthily power our bodies, you teach them a sense of independence.

Get Kids Involved

If you can, get your kids involved in the mealtime process. Whether they help by mixing, measuring or even cutting, you can get your child involved in the cooking process and help them become a part of the meal. Giving them another way to feel independent and powerful will help them create a healthy sense of eating and create a more positive relationship with food.

Eat as a Family Over Time

In a busy life, it can be hard to sit down to eat as a family; however, this is crucial for children. By sitting down as a family, you create a space for talking, checking in and to fortify your relationships around food. This also encourages more mindful eating that occurs calmly over time which can help discourage overeating. By increasing your cognizance of the current moment when dining, you and your family can all live happy, healthier lives.

Helping your child learn about food is an important lesson that every parent needs to teach their child. Whether you are thinking about the food they eat, the process of eating or the discussions that are happening around food, all of these play an important part. Make sure that you take some time to devise your plan and be patient, as this can take time.