Over the last two decades, obesity in children in the United States has continued to increase.
With the emergence of COVID-19, concerns about obesity have tripled as well, as at one point 61% of teenagers that were admitted to the hospital with COVID symptoms were fighting obesity. That’s why it’s more important than ever to encourage your young children to eat healthy, not only to fight obesity but to lessen their chances of contracting the virus.
There are many ways to encourage your child to eat healthy to avoid gaining weight and becoming obese. You can find a few tips to help you get started in this article.
Use Their Love of Reading
If your child loves to read or be read to, then you can encourage their love of reading and encourage healthy eating habits at the same time. There are many books that tell children what it’s best to eat in a simple language they can understand on this topic.
Whether you curl up on the couch to read the book together or your child reads these books on their own, you’ll be surprised at how much healthier they’ll want to eat after the last chapter is done.
Practice What You Preach
If you want your children to eat healthy, then you need to eat healthy as well. For example, if you’re fixing healthy vegetarian recipes for weight loss for yourself, why not fix them for your children as well. You also need to stick to your diet if you’re trying to lose weight because you can’t expect your kids to want to eat healthy if you’re not doing it yourself.
Create Food Bridges
Creating a food bridge is about building on the foods that your child already eats. For example, if your kid loves cheese, try grating some of it on top of an apple and see if they like it. If they love blueberries, try putting them in yogurt. Building a bridge helps you introduce new foods to your kids while still letting them have the foods they’re already familiar with.
Cook Together
Most parents know it’s important to teach their kids to cook, but did you know cooking together can encourage them to eat healthier as well? Not only does cooking your food together teach them healthy habits, but it can also be turned into a bonding moment for the family as well.
Avoid Becoming the Food Police
While it may be tempting to just force your child to eat healthy food, it’s not a good idea and it will backfire on you. Just like adults, children do have foods they just don’t like. Forcing your little one to eat that food will cause rebellion and resentment in your child and disappointment for both of you.
Instead, try stocking your fridge and pantry with wholesome, tasty foods you think your child will love and eliminate the junk and processed foods. If you can’t do that all at once, then slowly remove the junk food from your child’s diet until it’s replaced with healthy dishes they love.
It’s not a bad thing to let your child have chips, candy, and other junk foods on occasion, just not every day, all of the time. As with anything else in the world, moderation is better.
If you’ve been struggling to come up with ways to encourage your children to eat healthy, then the tips above might be just what you’re looking for. It’s important to remember, however, that your kids are going to have their own individual likes and dislikes when it comes to food, so try to remember that and respect their choices.
Photo by Tara Winstead from Pexels
p.s. Related posts:
How To Model Healthy Lifestyle Habits To Your Children
Healthy Snacks for On The Go Kids
Using Books to Encourage Your Children to Eat Healthy
How To Get Kids to Eat Healthy Food
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Thanks for the helpful article!