How can Parents Inculcate Healthy Eating Habits among Kids?

Parents play a key role in getting their children to eat healthy food. Sorry to add to the burden of already stressed parents but ensuring that your kid eats nutritious food is super-important! Here’s a list of some useful strategies you can try to make your little one develop healthy eating habits-

• Children whose parents have a low vegetable consumption are more likely to have a low vegetable consumption level too. Parents should eat vegetables and make sure that the kids take notice of this.

• Habits are formed from childhood and carried into adulthood. So from childhood offer healthy eating options to your kids.

• Eat a variety of vegetables rather than sticking to familiar favorites. This way the average vegetable consumption tends to be higher. So experiment and have a variety of vegetables at family meals.

• Switch off the TV while eating. Make it practice to eat together.

• Do not be disheartened if children refuse healthy food initially. Repeated exposure will ensure that the kids might want to try out something new. So keep on offering and encouraging them to try new healthy foods, but do not force anything on them.
  
  

• Serve vegetables in a colorful manner which is appealing for the kids, in various shapes and arrangements because rather than nutritional values children attach more importance to taste, texture and appearance of foods.

• Instead of talking about the consequences of not eating vegetables, talk about its benefits such as energy value, immunity and growing faster.

• Children learn a lot from their parent’s behavior. If parents don’t attribute importance to vegetables nor will kids do it. So first parents should inculcate healthy habits and only then expect their kids to do the same!