With the growing pediatric obesity epidemic, it is important that children learn about healthy eating and nutrition at an early age. Children need to eat well to support their normal growth and development. Preschoolers are eager to learn and are at a great age to discover healthy eating habits.
Set A Good Example
Children learn by example, and the best way for your preschooler to learn healthy eating habits is to model them after you. Keep a variety of healthy food options in the house and offer them at mealtimes and snacks and be sure to eat them yourself. If eating healthy is a struggle for you too, then keep it simple. Offer salads and healthy kid-friendly vegetables such as carrots and potatoes at mealtimes, and instead of going for the ice cream after dinner, suggest sharing an orange or some grapes.
It also helps if you eat together as a family. Preschoolers may feel more relaxed and willing to try new foods when they know dinner will be served at approximately the same time every night, says Helpguide.
Kitchen Helper
Children at the preschool age learn by tasting, smelling and testing. If you want your preschooler to try a new healthy food, have him help you prepare it. You can have him tear lettuce and put it into a bowl or wash cherry tomatoes. He can also help you by mixing your morning whole-wheat pancake batter. He can also create his own healthy snacks; just provide the celery sticks, peanut butter and raisins, and he can put it together to create "ants on a log."
You can teach your preschooler healthy eating habits at the grocery store as well. Get him into new foods by allowing him to select a different fruit or vegetable to try each week.
Make Food Fun
Promote healthy eating habits in your preschooler by making fun shapes out of healthy foods such as cutting cucumbers into flowers by peeling away only some of the skin or using cookie cutters to create different shaped sandwiches. The Preschool Education website suggests you try creating smiley faces with rice cakes and cheese. Replace your ice pops with banana pops, which are frozen bananas on sticks.
Frequent Presentations
If your preschooler is a picky eater, don't get frustrated. Sometimes it takes eight to ten presentations before a child will try a new food, says Helpguide. Offer new foods with familiar foods so your preschooler won't become upset about being presented with something she has never seen before. It also helps if you offer the new food when she is hungry. If she still is not sure about the new food, teach her by example and eat some yourself.
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