Healthy Food Habits For Our Kids: Where Do We Begin?

You definitely know that food plays a vital role in people’s physical and mental health. It may be news to you, but our eating habits begin to form from childhood and parents are in full charge of it. So, if you are a young parent and you want your little one to thrive and become a healthy adult, you need to make sure that you teach a baby to eat healthily and properly.

There are some simple rules that you can stick to in order to develop healthy eating habits in your child. Let’s take a look at them:

1. Start with the right first food from the very beginning

Your child’s diet should be healthy from the first day of living. Babies are usually doing great on breast milk and that’s the best option for little ones as it gives all the necessary nutrients for timely growth and development. If a mother is unable to breastfeed, her main task is to find the best alternative to natural milk. So we recommend taking the organic European formula into account. Most experts claim that they are the most high-quality, safe and beneficial for baby’s organism.

2. Choose organic food

Surely, you don’t want to consume some additives like GMOs, antibiotics, pesticides, preservatives and other chemical elements that may harm you. Baby’s tummy is much more sensitive and reacts to negative ingredients immediately. So, in order to protect your child from different kinds of gastroenterological problems, prefer organic. Organic European formulas are slightly more expensive but definitely worth buying them. The same comes to solids that your little one will try after approximately 6 months of age.

3. Be a role model for your little one

You need to analyze your eating habits and make them better. It’s important not only for you, but also for your child who always takes an example from you. You need to show your little one that eating healthy food like veggies, fruits, cereals, and other foods rich in vitamins is quite enjoyable. Moreover, have your food in appropriate portions and not overeat. Sadly, people are often complaining about their bodies and that can negatively affect babies as well. In this way people show that they are unhappy about what they eat and how their bodies look. So a child can take it wrong and get a negative opinion about nutrition.

4. Give your child freedom of choice

Deciding what to have makes babies more interested in food. You always listen to your tummy and eat what you want, so give this right to choose to your little one. That’s how a baby will really enjoy the food and feel valued.

5. Make a child take part in cooking and preparation

It’s a great idea of activity that you can share with your kid. Use this time to talk about the importance of food, making choices and planning a balanced diet. You can also teach him or her some basic safety rules. Choose some activities that a child can do without getting injured or feeling stressed. You can offer him or her to add some spices to meals, wash the veggies and fruits, serve the table and so on. Apart from the useful information that your little one can achieve, it’s very entertaining and funny. You’ll both have great time together.

6. Eat at least five colors a day

It’s not just about the colors, it’s about the diversity in foods. All the food products are different in their nutritional value and provide different kinds of vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and other healthy elements. You need to make your child’s meals diverse to enrich them with different nutrients. You can make this activity fun for your baby by making an eating diary and noting what colors you have eaten in a day.

7. Encourage family meals

Having meals together is a great opportunity for a family to get together and have a nice conversation after eating. It could be your ritual that will make you stronger as a family unit. In addition, while eating together, you can simultaneously give some tips on diet and life in general. It is more likely to have a good relationship with your children if you constantly spend time together having a meal.

8. Have the right environment to eat

It’s important to sit at the table as a little one should understand it’s the right place not to play, walk or rest, but to eat. Eating at the table makes people more organized and concentrated on food. Moreover, it is great to teach a child table manners using a fork and knife as they are useful for social skills in the long run. Don’t make your little one get used to eating in front of TV or laptop because it distracts from understanding that he or she is actually eating.