Tricks for Healthy Eating

 

Trying to get your child to eat a balanced diet can be challenging, to put it politely. But with a little patience and creativity from you, eating healthy can be a lot of fun.

While calorie amounts vary by child, a meal plan filled with whole grains, fruits and veggies, calcium-rich foods and lean protein sources, is standard issue. So is limiting added sugar and salt. Try these mom-tested tips to help make “good” and “good for you” feel like the same thing to your child:

Things That Go Squish

  • Oatmeal (fibre, carbohydrate)
  • Banana (potassium)
  • Avocado (fibre, potassium, vitamin C)
  • Roasted sweet potato (vitamin A, potassium)
  • Strawberries (vitamin C, potassium, fibre, antioxidants)

Frozen Things

(It's amazing how frozen=fun, no matter what it is. Be sure whatever you freeze is large enough to suck on, to avoid a choking hazard.)

  • Homemade juice pops made from 100% fruit or vegetable juice (try them as ice cubes in a sippy cup!)
  • Low fat frozen yogurt (calcium)
  • Blueberry smoothie made with yogurt and frozen blueberries (calcium, antioxidants, vitamin C)

Things You Can Slurp

  • Whole wheat spaghetti (magnesium, fibre)
  • Soup (room temperature) through a straw
  • Tomato soup (vitamin C, potassium, copper)
  • Chicken noodle soup (selenium, protein)

Things You Can Dip

(This never seems to get old with most children.)

  • Fruit pieces in low fat vanilla yogurt (protein, calcium, riboflavin)
  • Carrot sticks (thinly sliced) in hummus (vitamin A, fibre, calcium, zinc)
  • Cooked broccoli trees in low fat plain yogurt (calcium, potassium, vitamin C)

Things That Roll

  • Peas (chromium, fibre, magnesium)
  • Whole grain "O"-shaped cereal (calcium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate)
  • Cooked chickpeas (folate, fibre, protein)
  • Cooked carrot coins (vitamin A)
  • Meatballs (protein)

Sticks

  • Open-faced toasted cheese on whole wheat bread cut into sticks (protein, calcium, fibre, riboflavin)
  • Cheese sticks (protein, calcium)
  • Carrot sticks (thinly sliced) (vitamin A)
  • Fish sticks – baked, not fried (protein)

Edible Artwork

Veggie faces

  • Spinach hair (vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, magnesium)
  • Carrot nose (thinly sliced) (vitamin A)
  • Cooked black bean eyes (iron, protein)
  • Cooked chick pea teeth (manganese, folate, fibre, protein)
  • Encourage your little one to build his own masterpiece. (Broccoli makes great trees, and brown rice can be molded into mountains!)
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