About food

I think food is such an important part of our life. I want to teach my child how to be a food lover, savor and devour her meals, know about the sources of food, have a love for gardening and more. I asked my child what her thoughts were on food while I was writing this post she said:"Healthy food is colorful".
I grew up eating healthy and wholesome food. My grandparents grew almost everything. I never knew there was an opposite to the way I ate. Now it's all about multiple choice selection-healthy, unhealthy, fast, junk...


15 Tips About Food And Eating

1. Never force kids to eat their food or try new foods. Keep adding new things and you will sees one day they will try.
2. Be a good role model. Let kids hear you speak about food, meal preparations, sharing recipes, express your opinion about meals. They always want to copy us, remember that. When you eat something at someone's house, make a comment or let your kid hear you praise the cook, or say "Wow, what great way of using zucchini in this recipe!. May I have the recipe?" Also, bring your child's attention to it. "Sweetie, what do you taste in this pasta dish? Be passionate about healthy food.
3. Offer healthy choices at all times
4. Never punish for not eating. By punishing I also mean threats. Threats like "If you don't eat your veggies, no dessert for you". We want them to eat their meals regardless of rewards.
5. Don't criticize your child on how she is sitting, eating, chewing etc. Teach them good manners and be patient for them to kick in.
6. Let them be active participants in the kitchen with you. They can wash the fruits and veggies, sort things, stir, pour, measure. Meanwhile you can teach them some useful math skills such as sorting, grouping and categorizing, counting and measuring. Plus, they will learn to be helpful and more importantly how the food is made. Ask them to smell each ingredient and talk about their senses. Play a quick guessing game, let them smell various veggies and fruits and guess their names and colors. You can also make food rainbows. I would suggest doing it with fruits one day and try that same idea for veggies as well. I used to play this game I created with my 3 year old last year all the time. I would ask her to name 3 green vegetables, or 4 red fruits etc. It also teaches younger kids what is a fruit and what is a vegetable. You can create games about shapes as well, compare and contrast various fruits and veggies so on. Possibilities are endless.
7. Take them to grocery shopping. Dictate your kid to write the grocery list (good spelling opportunity).
8.Give them small portions and let them ask for more. Portion size is so important. Never make them "to clean"their plates. Let them be in tune with their bodies. They know when they are full.
9. Grow a garden. It is such an amazing experience to see things grow, to take care of them and pick the fruits of your labor one day. My daughter picked this up one day from our container garden for a salad.

10. Never mask or hide ingredients unless you want your children never recognize them. I know there are "picky eaters" nevertheless it should be avoided. Children should be able to see, taste, and know how everything is, the texture, the size, the smells...I also don't like the sneakiness of it. I know mothers do that with all good intentions but let's face it that enables their picky eating habits.
11. Mindless eating in front of the TV should be discouraged. Their attention should be only on their plate when eating.
12.When you go out to eat, please don't ask them what they want from the enormous menu. They are kids. Know what they like, give them 2 to 3 choices and order. I have witnessed so many times parents ask their kids what they want to eat and then it escalates to a yelling degree, threats...Kids get confused, younger ones don't know how read, most likely they are hungry and cranky so make it easy for everyone.
13. One fun way of engaging kids in the kitchen is making smoothies and popsicles. They love that.
14. Display fresh fruits and vegetables in your kitchen. If you want your child to munch on a fresh bell pepper for a snack let her see the pepper. Buy a variety of colors and have a tasting. Share your thoughts. Offer her favorite dip in a fresh pepper cup with some chips and afterwards eat the "container". Food can be fun.
15. Don't make a big deal. Sometimes kids eat very little, sometimes they eat more and request seconds.  Avoid making a big deal out of it. If you want them to eat their veggies don't emphasize multiple times, do it effortlessly, as a second nature otherwise they will grow to resist veggies even more. Have you noticed when everybody in the family gets ready to eat dinner and your child refuses to come to the table or to eat? Well, that's their way of controlling you. It should indicate that your child is having power struggle issues and the only way he can gain control is by refusing eating. Also, it could be that he or she had too many snacks and is simply not hungry for a main meal. Therefore, excessive snacking should be cut to minimum as well. Kids have tiny stomachs, they can only eat so much.

Make mealtimes fun and offer healthy choices at all times. I hope the tips listed in this article were helpful and I will be back with an interview with one of my Mom-friends whose child has food allergies. Stay tuned. Until next time.