Help Your Child Eat Good Food Even When You’re Not There

Good nutrition is becoming more and more difficult to do as individuals try to keep up with such a fast paced world. There’s hardly time for anyone to cook a good healthy dinner, let alone sit down and eat it. So imagine what it’s like to be a young child? As they become accustomed to eating fast food, and snacking whenever they can just to keep up with life. Eating habits are learned; and they will only follow in the footsteps of what they see. So how can you help your child eat good food when they are not at home; especially if they aren’t learning to do it at home? Children will only learn how to eat healthy foods if you teach them how to do it now. Here are some helpful ways to get you child to eat good food when they are not a home.

Lead by Example

If you want your children to develop healthy eating habits that will carry with them when they’re not at home you have to teach and show them what healthy eating habits are. It all starts with you and what you have around the house; and what you eat. If your child sees that mom or dad buys potato chips at the store and eats them every day, they think that that’s ok. And vice versa; if your child sees you eating some carrots and dip for a mid day snack, they will follow suit. It is not fair to expect your child to eat healthy snacks and meals while you sit around eating potato chips all day long. Practice what you preach, and show them what good eating is.

Plan Meals Together

You may think this sounds like a nightmare, or it’s just going to be too hard (especially if you have young children), but you’d be surprised at how much input kids can give when it comes to what they want for dinner. By allowing your kids to help you plan the meals you giving them an opportunity to see what a healthy dinner, lunch, or breakfast consists of and you get the opportunity to hear what they really like to eat. If they start throwing things out like, “let’s have pancakes and syrup for dinner” then you know you have some adjustments to make with what they think is healthy and what is not. This is a great time to teach them about the food groups and how much of each food group they should be eating daily. You’re teaching and they’re learning how to plan healthy meals that can help in figuring out what kinds of things to eat when they’re not at home.

Flexibility

For children, having some flexibility with what they eat is important. After all they are kids. Moderation is the key when it comes to food; so if you want to let them have a special treat and give them a donut then go ahead. But don’t give them a donut, followed by some fruit snacks (which by the way are not really “fruit”), and then let them guzzle down a bottle of soda pop. You can teach them a valuable lesson by giving them special treats on special occasions, but not letting them go overboard.

Eat Meals Together

Sadly a dying tradition on our culture is being able to eat meals together as families. With so many other things going on there seems to be no time left for eating meals together. Meal times are a special time for families to sit, eat, and enjoy the food and the company. If you’ve planned meals together, then why not give them a chance to help cook the meal they planned. Give them specific tasks to help with dinner time and make it as routine as you can each night. This teaches them structure and will most likely carry into someone else’s home when they are eating somewhere else.

Cut back on the Television

You’re probably wondering, “What does television have to do with eating healthy when they’re away from home?” Well, actually it has a lot to do with it. Television ads are constantly bombarding us with fast food and unhealthy snacks (not to mention habits) ads. If you see it enough you have a greater desire to eat it right? How many of us have seen a commercial for McDonald’s and thought, “Oooh, I’m hungry.” Foods such as chicken nuggets, and macaroni and cheese don’t have to be part of a child’s diet. The longer you can limit the exposure of unhealthy eating habits while instilling healthy ones, the more likely they are to make better food choices away from home.

It’s definitely not rocket science on how to get your child to eat good food when they are not at home, but it does start with you and your ability to teach them healthy eating habits at home. If they learn it at home, they are more likely to carry it outside of the home.