I had an email the other day from a mum who was struggling to get her kids to eat healthy food…
“I am desperate to get try to get my son to eat vegetables, but he just sticks to his chicken nuggets and baked beans, what can I do? If I don’t give in, he won’t eat!”
Getting your kids to eat healthy healthy food can be really frustrating and lead to miserable mealtimes and unhealthy over or underweight children who the harder you try the more they resist.
The first step is to give yourself a break, aim to win the war and accept that you are likely to lose a few of the battles along the way.
The best way to ensure that our children stay healthy, slim and don’t spend the rest of their lives worrying about their weight or health is by educating them now and leading by example.
What you are working towards is having them make the right choices as they become teenagers and young adults – you don’t have to be super strict you just need to ensure that 80% of the time they are eating healthy, nutritious REAL food!!
One thing to know is that processed and sugary foods are highly addictive and therefore removing them from the diet completely will literally give your child withdrawal symptoms such as mood swings, lethargy & headaches.
This can last a few days so be prepared.
So how do you take a veggie hater into a veggie lover? Here are a few of my tried and tested methods to get your kids to eat healthy foodL
Take it slow
Suddenly serving up plates of spinach and Brussel sprouts whilst eliminating all goodies from the house will probably cause an uproar, mutiny and most likely fail unless you really do have an iron will!
Instead, to get your kids to eat healthy food, try introducing new foods in small portions before taking away others and don’t give up.
The chances are the first time you offer a new food it will be ignored or meet with disgust.
Don’t react.
The less you say the better, maybe something like “really you don’t like it? I’m surprised, it’s one of my favorites”
Invite them to try it, don’t insist but make sure you put a small portion on the plate again next time you are having it. Expect that it may take several attempts before they try the food so be patient.
Lead by example
Remember children learn from what you do, not what you say, so lead by example and eat healthily yourself if you want to get your kids to eat healthy food.
Eat together
If it can’t be every day then have set nights each week when you do. Even on the days you can’t try and get your children to eat at a table without the TV/PlayStation/Ipad/laptop, and sit with them if you can.
Mealtimes are an ideal time to discuss your children’s favorite foods, which ones they like and why. Which new ones they are open to trying and if they are choices that will make them healthier.
Also discussing the advantages of being healthy, increased sporting ability, more energy, better concentration, etc.
(If your child is overweight avoid putting them down or embarrassing them. If you want them to lose a few pounds your best bet is to help them feel comfortable in their body and confident in themselves, then helping them decide to make the right choices).
Don’t make big announcements
Family meetings or big sweeping statements are likely to get you ignored! Instead, to get your kids to eat healthy food, start conversations with your children, play games where they have to guess if a food is healthy. Relating it to their interests is better than just saying if it is good or bad.
“Do you think eating an apple will make you run better?”
“What do you think Superman has for his breakfast?”
“Do you think eating too many biscuits will make you stronger or weaker”
Shop wisely
As the parent you are in control of what is bought in your weekly shop, the buck stops with you.
Now is the time for action! To get your kids to eat healthy food, limit the number of sweets, chocolate, fizzy drinks and processed foods you buy.
Have healthy snacks available
Offer before you’re asked. Cut up apple spread with cashew nut butter is a tasty after school snack for example, or spread some oatcakes with butter and marmite or feta cheese with olives and olive oil, or cherry tomatoes and avocado kebabs.
Try to avoid too much dried fruit as it is high in sugar and will stick to their teeth, having said that they are still a better choice than a bag of Haribo!
Let them play with their food!
One of my favorite memories is my children making fruit kebabs! Some of the kebabs were rather sparse, they ate as much as they made, it was a sticky, messy state of affairs!
But they loved it and its so much more fun to eat something you have made.
Having them help in the kitchen can be a daunting thought but set aside time and let them get involved in making REAL food, even if it is just cakes to start with, a homemade cake will be far better than a shop-bought one full of trans fats, preservatives and additives.
Pick your own farms are a great day out and brilliant for teaching the children what’s what, as well as letting them see where foods come from (not in plastic bags or tins on the supermarket shelves) then when you get home get them to help clean and prepare them.
Take them shopping with you
…And let them choose some of the family meals.
When I once gave my 16-year-old a £20 budget to spend as part of my weekly shop, it wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t too bad either.
If your children are younger, they can choose fruits and vegetables that they would like to try, getting them to help you pick out items during the shop, so they get to know the names of all the good foods.
Treat food as food
…without attaching too much emotion to it. Always be aware of using food to bribe, reward or punish. Food is there to feed and nourish you rather than to be given in times of stress or celebration or taken away as a punishment.
It is these anchors from childhood that are so often the route of over or under eating in our adult lives.
Play the tasting game
This was another favorite in our house. Blindfold your child and offer a variety of foods, including some you know they love, then let them guess what they are eating.
My children used to love this, and I give it full credit for the fact that olives are still favorites in our house.
Finally, don’t deny them (or you) life’s pleasures – ice cream on a summer’s day, a biscuit after swimming or hot chocolate after a winters walk are one of life’s many joys. Just try and get the same enthusiasm for a bowl of strawberries or a juicy satsuma.
Remember 80/20 and you’ll be fine!
Bon appetite!!!
Treating food as food is a great piece of advice. I can understand the temptation to negotiate good behaviour with treats and punishments for not eating your greens, but it can lead to bad habits.
get them involved in food preparation, cooking the food can make them want to try more vegetables
It’s not been too bad, I think it’s important that you practice what you preach and they see you eating healthily
Be a role model and get kids involved in food shopping and preparing meals.
Do not turn food into a punishment either, or meal times a battle, it will send negative messages to your child, and affect their relationship with food for their whole life!
I think cooking together helps, they are more likely to eat what they have cooked
Good blog. We enjoy spending time with loved ones. Eating together can be an enjoyable sociable event / occasion. It seems that possibly it is worth baby / child being introduced to the family dining experience with a Responsible Adult. As we do learn by experience, and the baby / child can learn by observation from the opportunity given and experienced.
When my kids were young I fed them the same food that I was having. As I’m vegetarian that automatically excluded chicken nuggets, hot dogs and burgers.
Our two ate the same food as us from a year old and we all ate together, our daughter had issues once she started school and would not eat at school so we made sure she ate properly and plenty at home.
It’s quite difficult to get my son to eat healthy because hes very fussy but luckily he loves various fruit , my daughter eats everything she needs a push to eat vegetables with her meal or salad
I was lucky; neither of my kids were fussy eaters. I’ll remember these tips though as my first grandchild has just been born.
Hidden veg pasta sauce is the failsafe way I used to get the veggies in! That and cucumber dips with houmous!
I used to get them to help with the cooking, They were much keener to eat something they had had a hand in making.
Looking through recipes together and choosing and cooking together always helps
I find getting them to help is the best way
So many great ideas on this post and the comments, we do a lot of hidden veg in our house also blended into gravy and soup
Just be real with kids, if you let them know that it will be beneficial to their health, then they will eat it. It helped me alot.
it’s a big struggle at home for us especially for 1 of my kids who loves to snack. Having plenty of fresh fruit available – especially things they like like berries and persimmon helps
Try to get children interested in food by cooking and preparing together and having taste tests.
l think if you eat heathily from when they are young they think its the norm rather than something they must do
There’s some really good tips above. I find that if i ask my children to try things they will but there’s still a lot of healthy foods they wont eat. I tend to give them plenty of the healthy things they do like with most meals like babycorn and peas