Having just had what I’m sure was a delicious, chocolate filled easter, now is a great time to revisit how we feed our family. When it comes to children, it can be tricky knowing just how much we need to focus on their nutrition! While it is always a good idea to teach them balance when it comes to eating, it is also important that we take responsibility in feeding them nutritious, healthy meals.
Some essentials for optimizing our children’s health:
- Prioritize adding various fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, fish, high-quality meat and dairy products in meals and snacks
- Cook with fresh ingredients as much as possible! This can be easier said than done, but avoiding any artificial additives and preservatives when you can, will be beneficial
- Make their meals colourful and fun (with those fresh ingredients of course!)
- Encourage three meals a day, with small snacks in between. This hopefully prevents the habit of grazing all day. Bonus tip: snacks only really need to be size of your child’s hand!
- Speaking of snacks, some great options include apples, carrots or cucumber slices! These are great as they can easily be taken to pre-school or kindergarten
- Have healthy drinks readily available for your children – for example, keep water chilled in the fridge ready to go. It’s also important to encourage them to enjoy plain water as soon as possible! Try to avoid high sugar cordials or flavourings.
- Read labels carefully on processed foods and snacks advertised for children! There can often be many hidden nasties. Often, the less ingredients, the better.
- Create a sense of balance around eating! Teach them that it is okay to have ‘sometimes foods’ like chocolate or sweets, sometimes. Allow them the space to explore different kinds of foods, and always bring them back to nutritious meals when you can.
Now I know, focusing on a healthy diet can be extra difficult when all of life’s responsibilities creep up on us, and we can’t always control what our children eat, especially once they’re at day-care or school, but these are a just few things we can focus on to make sure our little ones are getting the best nutrition possible.
For more tips on healthy eating for the whole family, have a read of the previous blog post here!
Recent Comments