Let\u2019s face it, in this hectic day and time, convenience can often win out over health. But switching to a healthy diet can have a profound effect on children\u2019s physical health AND on their mental and emotional wellbeing. To encourage healthy eating habits, the challenge is to make nutritious choices appealing. Here are a few tips and tricks to do just that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Focus on overall diet rather than specific foods.<\/strong> Kids should be eating more whole, minimally processed food – food that is as close to its natural form as possible – and less packaged and processed food. Disguise the taste of healthier foods.<\/strong> Add vegetables to a beef stew, for example, or mash carrots up with mashed potatoes, or add a sweet dip to slices of apple.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Cook more meals at home.<\/strong> Restaurant and takeout meals have more added sugar and unhealthy fat so cooking at home can have a huge impact on your kids\u2019 health.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Get kids involved in shopping for groceries and preparing meals.<\/strong> You can teach them about different foods and how to read food labels.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Make healthy snacks available.<\/strong> Keep plenty of fruit, vegetables, and healthy beverages (water, milk, pure fruit juice) on hand so kids avoid unhealthy snacks like soda, chips, and cookies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Limit portion sizes.<\/strong> Don\u2019t insist your child cleans the plate, and never use food as a reward or bribe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n #MamaDocPediatrics #MamaDoc #StatesboroPediatrician #MamaDocStatesboro #KidsHealth<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s face it, in this hectic day and time, convenience can often win out over health. But switching to a healthy diet can have a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2345,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions\/2345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamadocpediatrics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Be a role model.<\/strong> The childhood impulse to imitate is strong so don\u2019t ask your child to eat vegetables while you gorge on potato chips.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n