By Mary Ann Earp, Director of Business Operations at Kidspace Children's Museum
Do you struggle to get your children to eat healthy meals? Here are tips to get picky eaters to try new foods, practical advice in incorporating nutrition into meals and recipes your children will love!
Tips to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthy
• As children develop good eating habits, praise them. Provide occasional non-edible treats as a reward.
• Avoid an eating regimen that is too rigid or rigorous.
• Provide smaller meals and give nutritious nibbles between meals when kids are hungry. That is one way to sneak in fruits and vegetables when the kids are not expecting them and are the most likely to eat them because they are hungry.
• Do not expect immediate results. Changing eating and exercise habits gradually offers a much better chance that your child will make them a way of life.
• Combine different colors and textures at mealtime to make it more interesting and enticing.
• Get your children involved in cooking meals. If they help prepare it, they just may eat it!
The Worst and Best Foods for Kids
Following are ten of the worst childrens' foods, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The Worst:
1. Soda
2. Hamburgers
3. Hot dogs
4. Ice cream
5. Bologna
6. Whole milk
7. American cheese
8. French fries and Tater Tots
9. Pizza
10. Chocolate bars
The Best:
1. Fresh fruits and vegetables (especially carrot sticks, cantaloupe, oranges, watermelon, strawberries)
2. Chicken breast and drumstick without skin or breading
3. Cheerios, Wheaties or other whole-grain, low-sugar cereals
4. Skim or 1-percent milk
5. Extra-lean ground beef or vegetable burgers
6. Low fat hot dogs
7. Non-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt
8. Fat free corn chips or potato chips
9. Seasoned air-popped popcorn
10. Whole wheat crackers or Small World animal crackers
March 2, 2010
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OK, 2 Things:
ReplyDelete1. This is an awesome site and I am so excited that Kidspace is still going strong. I lived in Southern California for quite a while before moving to Texas and you were basically a hop, skip and a jump away from family in Altadena, CA.
2. GREAT POST! Your tips for changing kids' eating habits are actually quite simple if parents would simply put in the effort. It is generally accepted that it takes around 15 introductions before a child begins to like a new vegetable. 15... that's often way more than most parents would admit that they try before giving in.
Nothing in all of your tips works unless we as parents try it. not just once but consistently. A little effort will go a long way towards reversing the trend toward obesity that we are now faced with.
Scott G. Smith aka "Captain Fitness"
www.fitkid.tv