Healthy Eating Tips for Kids

 

All throughout the year, kids need to be reminded to make healthy food choices.  Have healthy foods on hand for kids to enjoy!

At School
School starts soon!  Encourage your children to pick fruits and veggies each day from the school lunches.  Remind them to drink milk with every meal, too.  If you pack their lunch, send sandwiches on whole wheat bread and give them sliced fruit and crunchy vegetables.  Limit chips, crackers, desserts, and candy.  Most kids eat too many of the high-calorie foods!

Snacks at Home
When kids go looking for snacks, they often take whatever is easiest to grab. Make sure to keep a bowl of fresh fruit on hand and cut up veggies in the refrigerator.  When kids are looking for snacks that are crunchy, think of celery and carrot sticks.  Salsa and hummus make great low-fat dips!

When kids want something sweet, encourage them to choose fruit (canned, dried, or fresh).  Having a variety of easy-to-eat fruits available will remind your children that "sweet" doesn't need to be candy or baked goods.

Best Drinks
Always remind your child that water is the healthiest choice for them to drink between meals.  Consider not bringing sodas in the house.  Growing bodies need water to keep them hydrated and milk to make strong bones.  Water and milk should be the go-to drinks in your house.

"Sometimes" Foods
Introduce the idea of "sometimes" foods to your kids.  These are foods that don't give many, if any, of the benefits that healthy foods have, like vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  "Sometimes" foods are chips, crackers, candy, sweets, baked goods, and soda.  Having those foods "sometimes" still lets your child enjoy them without having them become a daily part of what they eat.

Let Your Child Be the Chef

Does your child like to help you in the kitchen?  When young children get to help prepare foods in the kitchen they learn to try new foods.  Getting your children involved in the kitchen can be rewarding for you too.  It is a great way to make meals and memories together.

 Why cook with young children?

• Kids love to eat foods that they have helped to make.  It is a great way to encourage your child to eat fruits and vegetables.
• Kids feel good about doing something so "grown up".  Keep the tasks small and praise them for helping. 
• Kids love helping in the kitchen.  Take the time to teach them how to follow instructions, count, measure and stir.
• Cooking together means more time together with your children. this is great on busy days.

What can young children do?

• Tear lettuce for a salad.
• Scrub and clean vegetables such as potatoes and carrots.
• Set the tablet with napkins, place mats, dishes and utensils.
• Stir together ingredients.
• Help make sandwiches.
• Pick which vegetables to go into a salad and soup.

Safety reminders

• Remember to wash hands before you start cooking.
• Use back burners on the stove when possible.
• Turn pan handles toward the back of the stove and counter so children cannot grab them.
• Never leave a child alone in the kitchen when the stove and oven are on.
• Teach young children that they should not touch the oven or stove. Never ask a young child to put anything in the oven or remove anything from the oven.

Check out the video below from Nutrition.gov  for more ways that kids can help in the kitchen. 

Practice Makes Perfect -- Gardening Series

This is the last post in our gardening series.

Once your garden has had time to grow, it's time to harvest some of those veggies.  Children love to help in the garden and really enjoy trying the foods that they help to grow.  Have a healthy snack with the foods that you harvested by making a garden on a plate.  Below is a recipe for some veggies and dip that you can arrange on a plate like a garden and can be a "practice run" for your planting.

Garden on a Plate

Ingredients
4 celery or carrots or baby carrots, washed
4 tablespoons refried beans or hummus
2 tablespoons canned corn kernels, drained
2 tablespoons shredded reduce fat cheddar cheese
6 broccoli florets, washed
1 jar salsa (optional)

Directions

1. Place carrots sticks on the plate in the shape of a rectangle.  This represents your garden bed.
2. Fill the rectangle with beans or hummus.  This represents the soil.
3. Place corn kernels evenly spaced over the surface of the soil.  This represents the seeds that are planted in a garden.
4. Cover the surface of the beans (or hummus) with cheese.  This represents mulch that will keep the plants moist and prevent weeds.
5. Place broccoli florets upright in the soil.  This represents the plants that grew from the seeds.
6. You can "water" your garden with salsa, if you like.
7. Eat your garden by dipping the broccoli and carrots into the beans.