👧👦Children's 🥦Nutrition👨🍳 Tips: How to spread healthy, even to the picky eaters; 🕵️♀️ - it's so hard to want to 💪empower your children's drive for independence when you are trying to "break" them of a poor habit. However, empowering 💪 your child is exactly the key to your success in preventing the mealtime battles and creating the change necessary for long term lasting healthy habits!!!!
TIP 4️: Be patient with new foods:
✅ Have patient - young children often touch or smell new foods, and might even put tiny bits in their mouths and then take them back out again. Your child might need repeated exposure to a new food before he or she takes the first bite. So give this process time. As discussed in tip number 1, routine is key, by having several timed offerings throughout the day, it's OK if the child doesn't eat what you offer this time. Remember it often takes up to 15 exposures before even being open to trying it openly!
✅ Pairing - Remember this topic from previous tips still applies here. Serve new foods along with your child's favorite foods. Keep serving your child healthy choices until they become familiar and preferred. Also only offer ONE new food item at a time when possible, to not overwhelm the child.
✅ Facts not opinions - Encourage your child by talking about a food's color, shape, aroma and texture — not whether it tastes good. Don't give them opinions, let them form their own, you give them the facts and let them form their own opinions. Discuss the positive things about the items and the positive effects it could have on their bodies. Discuss where the item is grown and when it is harvested.
✅ Stick with it - Studies show it takes 21-66 days to work a new habit it so you have to stick with something that's working for at least 21 days, we say a roughly a month, in order for it to become a healthy habit that sticks long term.
✅ Again, set goals and make them clear -Take the tigers advice "Try new things because it might taste good" When adding in a new item, make a chart (with facts about the item & pictures) that the child gets to check off or put a sticker over numbers 1 -15, for each time they tried the item (and remember this can even be just smelling, licking, feeling, etc it doesn't have to be actually eating it). After they have done this 15 times ask them if possible to tell you the facts about the item, have them tell you how they feel when they eat the item (do you feel your eyes getting stronger when you eat carrots?) and then ask them to tell you what they discovered about the item. With elementary school age children make this mystery or an exploration. To keep this fun, whatever the age group, letting them feel in control and that their opinion matters.
Quick review - Tip # 1️: Stick to the routine; Tip # 2️: Respect your child's appetite; Tip # 3️: Be creative; Tip # 4: Be patient with new foods. More Tips To Follow...
Stay tuned for the next health tip # 5️: Don't be a short-order cook. Fight back the desire to please.
In the meantime, remember that your child's eating habits won't likely change overnight — but the small steps you take each day can help promote a lifetime of healthy eating. To truly acknowledge how hard it is to want to 💪empower your children's drive for independence when you are trying to "break" them of a poor habit. However, empowering 💪 your child is exactly the key to your success in preventing the mealtime battles and creating the change necessary for long term lasting healthy habits!!!! Remember these kids will be the leaders of tomorrow. Thank you again for your support!!! #ChildrensNutrition #ParentingTips #HealthyEatingForKids #HealthyWarner