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Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

By Puruvi Sirohi Singh Tara

Meal time is a nightmare for most of the children and often leaves all mother wondering as to why their children don’t enjoy their meals. Often children hate meals not due to the taste of the food, but because of the fact that their play time is over and something serious is happening. Seeing my daughter I know that children hate seriousness. The best way to lighten this entire messed up situation is by teaching healthy eating habits to kids . You can try by making laying the table fun for them. Let them experiment and use a reward. May be a penny a day. You can also let the children help you decorate and serve the food, making it like a game for them.

Develop Eating Habits Of Toddlers

But this is the first part of it when you are trying to love their meal time instead of dreading it. The next step is even more important. This would involve making children develop healthy eating habits along with making it interesting for them, in a way that they eat willingly rather than unwillingly and unhappily. So how to go about it? Well the answer is simple if you try these few steps. Let’s start with simple steps first.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step I – Dont Use Force
Nobody likes to be forced and so does your children. It is every mothers concern how to teach good eating habits to children. Start by treating them like individuals and convincing them to eat.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step II – Start Early
Don’t wait for some appropriate time to make them eat and how to teach about healthy eating. Instead try starting right away from when they are a baby.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step III – Remember Nobody Likes To Be Healthy
Everybody, even children, understand the need to feed themselves. The only issue here that needs to be taken care of unhealthy snacking. Children like to fill their tummies with unhealthy snacks. So how to teach about healthy eating? Store healthy snacks and educate them about the benefits of healthy eating.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step IV – Cook To Pleasure Taste Buds & Eyes
Children love tasty food more than healthy food. So try making healthy food as per their liking and taste.

Step V – When To Eat?
Initially for some time let them decide when to eat and later gradually shifting to a more timed routine of 3+2 meals.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step VI – Family Meals
Eating in company is always more fun than eating alone. Sit as a family on the table and eat together. This way you are also setting a healthy example for the child and every child models his adults.

Step VII – Encourage A Small Helping
Encourage your child to taste everything that is served but at the same take a small quantity that he can finish and in-case s/he likes it can help himself with the second.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step VIII – Don't Bargain For Desserts
Every child has the right to deserts so don’t deny him the pleasure of dessert instead encourage him to eat his share of nutrients before it.

Teach Good Eating Habits to Children

Step IX – Treat Him
Take your child out for a meal or two to treat him at his favourite joint.

Step X – Wash Hands Before & After
The most important habit in the list of how to teach good eating habits to children is clean and healthy eating.

Story first published: Saturday, February 14, 2015, 12:33 [IST]
Read more about: kids pregnancy