"Secrets Of Healthy Eating For Kids"

Healthy Eating Exercise For Fussy Eaters

7 Ways to increase your child's appetite

1. Talk about the meal beforehand, giving your child plenty of warning and a 5 minute warning, so that they are ready to leave what they were doing and do not feel that the meal has been pushed upon them at the last minute. Work at creating a peaceful atmosphere leading up to the mealtime.
2. Don't allow your child to snack right before the meal. Your child needs to be hungry at the mealtime, so only allow fruit or non-sugary drinks up to an hour before.
3. Let the aroma of cooking food wet their appetite. Food that is microwaved does not have the same effect as the welcoming smell of healthy food that has been cooked, stimulating their brain to get into the hungry, eating mode.
4. Reward the good eating of fussy eaters with a suitable appendage to their meal or use a reward chart that they can take pride in filling up by completing their meal. This gives them something extra to look forward to. However, consistency here is the key and rewards only given when they meet the required criteria, that is agreed beforehand.
5. When possible, allow your child to help in the preparation of the food, including shopping, cooking and setting the table. Everyone likes to sample what they themselves have helped to create! Presentation is also important.
6. Talk enthusiastically about food with your child, looking in books where they can understand what certain foods do for their bodies. Invest in a good cookbook with colourful pictures. You could even get your child to write out the family menu for the week and display each dish with colourful pictures from magazines.
7. When introducing new food to a child, give them small portions to begin with, gradually increasing it as they get used to it. Another way is to disguise a food they don't like by mixing it with something that they do, gradually decreasing the latter and increasing the former food.