How you can develop good eating habits in your kid easily

There are many different dimensions of child development. One of them is physical development. And physical development depends upon food a child eats. 

So its very important to develop good eating  habits in kids. But nowadays I come across many parents who share with me that they find it really difficult to feed their toddles and preschooler.

Since feeding them is necessary they use some ways which harms more than helping kids. In this post I will share with you how you can easily to develop good food habits in kids.

Developing good eating habits in kids- parent's mindset

Children are not aware of good or bad things or even useful and harmful habits. They are driven by their most basic motivation which is pleasure, joy. They do those things from which they get joy and avoid anything they don't enjoy.

Parents must be able to understand this fact clearly. This will help them feel at ease to handle their child in every aspect.

Now link this with eating habits. Pleasure of eating depends on two things

1. What they eat

2. How they eat

Now the first and foremost intention of parents is to make kids eat, so that child does not remain hungry. He/she does not feel lack of energy or they do not fall ill.

And if child does not enjoy eating or not willing to eat parents often compromise in several ways. One example being they let the child eat by watching mobile. another way of compromising is letting child eat their favorite junk food.

As soon as they compromise the process of building bad habits while eating begins. So parents should be clear about 3 things

1) Their are better ways but you need to put some effort

2) Child will ask for food by themselves whenever hunger gets over them

3) So there is no need compromise even if child does not eat, as long as their energy level remains good of they are not ill.

So from now onwards please don't over do for feeding your kid. If needed talk to good pediatrician that if there is any harm if child does not eat for some longer period of time. Or the effect of eating junk food from an early age.

How to build good eating habits in kids

There are few key things to build this and if you can follow these you will be able to reduce your load to zero about feeding your child. So do you want to set yourself free from this load? If yes keep following.

Key points

1) Start at an early age

2) Be a role model

3) Make eating an act of joy and fulfillment

4) Add taste to healthy food

5) Set rules for eating junk food and be strict to follow them

6) Always remember what is not good for kids

Before you start to follow my points please remember, initially you may have put effort for doing all these but with time kids will get used to it and your effort will minimize. After all parenting is not about one day, its an ongoing process.

1) Start at an early age

The early you start working on it the better. The brain of child starts making new connection after birth and it rapidly grows with new experiences till age 3. 

So its good to start from age 2 or before. As the more good connections about food habit you can make the better and easier it will be in future. 

Also at an early age kids won't know much about junk foods so this is a good time to build the habit of eating healthy food.

2) Be a role model

Children learn things in 2 different ways

1) Be exploring and interacting with environment

2) By watching people around them, that means whatever we do and talk by that child learns

So as a parent you need to be a role model while building good food habits. And how will you do this? Its not that difficult. 

Eat healthy food in front of your kid. Also talk to them about the benefits of eating healthy food casually. Don't do in a manner which gives them an impression of lecturing.

You can also tell good stories about the benefits of eating healthy foods. If you don't know any then you can create your own.

And never eat any unhealthy food in front of your kid. Also never follow any habit in front of your child that you don't want your child to follow. You need to break or resist your habit. 

It is very important that your child does not carry wrong impression about you. Also child follows more what we do rather than what we tell them to do. 

3) Make eating an act of joy and fulfillment

As I have already mentioned that children are driven by joy and pleasure. So your aim should be to make eating act of joy and fulfillment in the initial stage.

Later when the habit will be formed child will br driven by the habit and the feeling of hunger.

So what can you do to make eating an experience of joy? This varies with temperament of child, means what child likes and what he/she don't like. Your action should be according to it. 

As a parent you are in the best position to know this. I can share with you some general things that all children likes.

All kids are fond of their mothers, so you can take turns to eat with them and just make the eating like play.

Kids like to listen to stories so you can tell stories to them while make them eat. 

You can also talk to them how they are going to grow strong after eating the food. Talk in encouraging manner and make them feel that they are doing a very good thing.

You can also sing their favorite rhymes and songs while feeding them

You can follow these initially if you find it difficult to feed your child. Later on the habits will be built.

But you must not do 2 things 

1) Let them watch mobile or tv while eating

2) Don't run around them to feed them

4) Add taste to healthy food

The two most important motivation to eat are hunger and taste. So when the food is tasty then everyone wants to eat it. So as kids. If you can make your regular food to taste good then kids will love eating them.

Normally the staple foods of any region is tasty enough. But out of these there are some which are very healthy but may not taste as tasty. So if you learn how to make those food more tasty then there is a win win situation. Kids will love eat without any effort being made from your side.

Evening snack can be an area of concern as this is the time kids eat most junks. The hunger in this time is not that strong that they can eat a proper meal. So you need to give them snack  which are healthy and tasty and not let them get attracted to junk foods.

In India traditionally we loved to eat food made by mother as they used to be naturally tasty. So if you can create that mother's magic then your job will be automatically done.

5) Set rules for eating junk food and be strict to follow them

There are lots of junk food available in the market, and every one know what are these. On top of it there are lots of tv commercials & other advertisements which keep on provoking kids towards them. Also within the peer group they see other kids eating junk food.

So no matter how well you develop the food habits there will still be attraction to eat junk foods.

And it is not good idea to completely restrict them. 

Rather than completely restrict them you need to allow them to an extent so that it does not do bad to children and they stay satisfied and not get attracted towards junk food often.

But you need to set rules for eating them like eating noodles once in 10 days or 15 days. Eating chocolate  (if the teeth is good enough) once in 10 days etc. 

These rules need to be set by way of discussion with kids and letting them know harmful effects of junk foods. And stay strict when applying the rules and never compromise on them. 

Remember at an early age you hold more command over kids and it is much easier to make them follow rules. But still it is a better option to discuss and decide rather than imposing it. You should satisfy the query of kids if there is any. But never compromise on the rules.

There is a very good way to this and I personally love this. Give them limited choices to decide from. They will perceive that they are selecting deciding it for themselves and feel empowered. 

But the reality is that control remain in your hand as you are only giving them choices you want to implement. So its a win win situation again. So try it out.

6) Always remember what is not good for kids

In raising kids the parents need to be tough sometimes. Please remember by being tough on kids sometimes you are helping them. If you become soft when kids cry of throw tantrum then you are not helping them. 

Its the beginning of bad habit development. Once you become soft it will become a trend soon.

So as a parent it is very important to remember always what is not good for your child and be tough on them if needed. After all there are no other person have better intention than parents for their kids. 

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