Guest Post: Getting Kids to Eat Healthy Foods

As promised, Jessica of Blogcrumbs is here to share a guest post on child nutrition. Jessica is a holistic nutritionist and has some wonderful information on her blog. There are some awesome ideas here and many great suggestions. Thanks Jessica for sharing! Head over Blogcrumbs to read more!

Research has shown that childhood obesity has become a pandemic in today’s society. It used to be that malnourishment came from not eating enough food, now it’s from eating too much of the wrong thing. The definition of malnutrition is not the amount of food you consume, it’s how nutrient dense the food is. A sedentary life filled with video games and computers is also a huge contributor to this problem.

Feeding our children nutritious foods isn’t always the easiest task to achieve. Of course starting out never having given them sweets or an option as to what they want to eat is always the best way. When that time has passed and they’ve been exposed to chicken nuggets and chips it’s a hard road back to health foods. Most kids give some sort of fight or just flat out refuse to eat their vegetables altogether.

Here are some ways to get them to eat foods that are healthy.

• Start off by discussing with your child exactly why they need to eat good foods. Sometimes just a definition is enough to entice your child to do the right thing. More often then not this just isn’t the case.

• Arrange the healthy foods in a fun way. When making pancakes and give it blueberry eyes, a strawberry nose, and a banana shaped mouth. Even though fruits are sweet, sometimes kids refuse them as well. You can do the same with mashed potatoes. Flatten them out and make a face or another picture with the peas and carrots. Get creative.
  

• Serve the veggies raw. The consistency of certain veggies when cooked can be off putting. Mushy carrots, rubbery green beans, and bitter broccoli may just need to be crunchy and served raw instead with a ranch or honey mustard dip.
  

• If meal time is always a controversy, counteract it by trying to get them to eat healthy throughout the day with nutrient packed snacks. Cut up an apple and serve warm peanut butter drizzled over the top or on the side as a dip. Smooth some peanut butter or goat’s cheese on a celery stick. Laugh at the crunch it makes so they think it’s a game. Rice cakes with juice sweetened jams are also a healthier snack.
  

• It’s all about the packaging. Kids are wowed by brightly colored containers, so play into that. Get some creative packaging and put healthy foods in it. For instance, YOP yogurt drinks come in a plastic bottle with a twist cap and a fancy kid friendly logo. Buy that yogurt once and then refill it with this mixture:
• Fresh plain unsweetened organic goat’s milk or cow’s milk yogurt (prefer goat’s milk)
• Fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.
• Honey

Mix all of the ingredients together and taste it. If it’s sweet and tasty they’ll love it. It’s in the right packaging. You may need to cook the fruit slightly to get it syrupy and soften the fruit. This is easily done on medium heat with the honey and a little water.

Empower yourself to become creative. Think like a kid. If the TV says blue and purple packaged food is good for them, give it to them. Find a way to make real, healthy foods fun. And don’t make it a fight for either one of you. In the end you both lose.

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