Lisa's Blog

Get your kids having a party in their tummy!

If you have trouble getting your child to eat vegetables, fruit and healthy food, or even eating healthy food at all, there is no need to have a war in your home, but there are ways you can engage them and entice them to eat more healthfully. Healthy meals for kids don't need to be a myth or an impossibility. Here are 5 tips you can try: 1. My kids won't eat fruit, my child has a poor appetite. Leave enticing healthy snacky treats out and about. Most kids are busy bodies, too busy to eat, but will happily much on the go if there is food available that looks appetising. Cut up fruit and leave it on platters, make fruit skewers, arrange it into faces, use shapes to make it appealing. 2. My kids won't eat that. Research shows repeated exposure works! Regularly dish up a small amount of the different foods you are eating on to your child's plate (the foods you THINK they won't eat) as well as the foods you know they will eat. Don't say anything, don't make a fuss and definitely don't mention it if they do eat it or they will feel tricked. Just be patiently persistent, very often the child will try some of the other stuff on their plate, especially if everyone else is eating it and enjoying it, and if there is no emphasis or no attention either way (for eating it or not eating it!) 3. Make food more interesting, use silly shapes or cooky cutters (make beetroot mash in a cinderella slipper) (Girls will love the pink slipper!). Give food different and outrageous names: Dinosaur eggs (individual grapes set in jelly), Green slime and flies (spinach and sunflower seeds), Crunchy paddling boats (peanut butter in celery sticks, use a couple of raisins as crew).  How to buy fun cool tools that make food more interesting to kids (apple slinky machine, pikelet shapes, cooky cutters, ginger bread house): Contact me for details. 4. Set a good example and take advantage of peer pressure. Eat together as a family and avoid talking negetively about food, kids are little sponges, they model your behaviour and the behaviour of those around them. Have dinner parties and picnics with families or kids that have good eating habits and love good food. 5. Cook together, children love to eat what they cook, it also makes them feel grown up and a part of something if you include them in the food preparation. Get them involved early on, give them easy tasks like making a salad, grating carrots, mashing the potato, use fun exciting shapes and tools to enhance the appeal and bring out their creativity. (Invite us around... we would love to help... Healthy Cooking Parties for Kids.) By looking after your childrens nutrition you set them up with healthy habits and a healthy start to life. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child and one of your greatest responsibilities as a parent. I would love to help in any way, please feel free to Contact me with your questions. If you are looking for more ideas, I quite like this website.