It's so important to ensure our children grow up eating foods that help them learn, play, and grow their best. Nutrition and physical activity are huge proponents to your child living a healthy life.
How can you start your kids off with WANTING to eat healthy foods?
🥦 Put the emphasis of new foods on health - not taste.
Taste is subjective. Health is not.
Think of enticing your child to eat broccoli because 'it's yummy' and your child thinking you're crazy because, to them, it doesn't.
Your child can argue on taste, but they cannot argue if something is good for them.
Try: 'This broccoli is good for your belly and muscles. It helps you grow strong like the Hulk!'
🍪 Minimize processed foods from daily diets.
Processed foods are rarely nutritious, as they're stripped of everything that would benefit a growing little body.
Instead of putting Goldfish and fruit snacks in your child's lunchbox, pack cheese cubes and berries. They accomplish the same flavor profiles (salty and sweet), which encourages a mixed and diverse palate, and provides WAY more nutrients that the former.
👨🍳 Involve them in cooking meals.
A love for cooking nutritious meals can start at a young age - and reinforces the principles that encourage strong and healthy eating habits throughout your child's life.
Let your child cook with you, giving them small tasks to keep them engaged, and create conversations to reinforce WHY you are choosing to add healthy ingredients to your meal.
One of my favorite things to do is cook with my daughter. We started as soon as she was able to sit up on her own - her little bottom on the counter next to me, watching me chop, cook, and serve what we ate for dinner that night.
I hope as she grows, she continues to love cooking with Mama as much as she does now, but even if she outgrows me, I know I'm setting her up for success as a healthy, thriving adult 💛
For more ideas on helping your child form foundational health, reach out!
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