Here are proven tips on how to get your child to eat healthy
Researchers say that over the past 30 years, there has been a significant increase in children’s intake of ultra-processed food.
What you need to know:
- Your job as a parent is to deliver balanced healthy fresh food, and also occasionally have some chocolates/sweets
With the kids at home so much because of Covid-19, routines have gone out of the window. Having a healthy child doesn’t just mean they’re at a healthy weight; it’s also about establishing a healthy relationship with food. And so long as your child follows a balanced diet 80 percent of the time, I wouldn’t worry too much about the other 20 percent. Your job as a parent is to deliver balanced healthy fresh food, and also occasionally have some chocolates/sweets around the house for your children to dip into if they wish.
So if your child is getting on chubby side, what can you do?
I realise I do say this a lot, but starting the day with a healthy breakfast really is important. A big bowl of porridge or wholegrain cereal sweetened with some fruit, or even some eggs on wholemeal toast will mean that your child is less likely to go looking for the “wrong” things later in the day.
If you like cooking, get your child to help — this can put back some of the fun into food. Ask your child what they’d like to cook and eat, and make it in a healthy a way, choosing grilling, baking and steaming over frying. You could make sure there’s raw vegetable sticks and fruit around to nibble on, and/or a good healthy soup loaded with vegetables and pulses for them when they come home from school starving (expecting a child not to eat when they’re very hungry will only lead to secret eating).
Obviously, there’s an enormous influence on children to eat junk over healthier alternatives, so a one-day-a-week food treat can work well. Simply allow your child to whatever food they like after their main meal. Alternatively, give them a small plastic box with a packet of crisps, some chocolate biscuits and a packet of sweets to last the week — your child can then choose when and what to eat from it.
Your child shouldn’t just think that it’s mummy being mean; they should see for themselves why it’s good to eat healthily. So allow healthy food to reclaim its place as part of everyday life as opposed to being the exception. The worst thing you can do is to make junk such an issue that the child rebels and eats it in secret.
Children learn from their parents and difficult as it is to get them to eat anything sometimes, if you reach for biscuits rather than an apple, then they will too. It’s not about taking away all of life’s pleasures, rather revisiting your relationship with the very thing that nourishes you.
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