How to get your toddler to eat more healthy food

The eating habits your children acquire in their early years will profoundly influence their lifelong health. Here are some simple ways to give them a great start!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Have family meals as often as possible. Try for a family dinner every night, or a family breakfast.
2. Remember, the parent's job is to decide what foods to offer your children. The child's job is to decide whether they want to eat, and how much they want to eat.
3. Never force your child to eat in any way. By forcing your child to finish you are teaching them to ignore their hunger and full signals. Resist the temptation to "make them" eat their vegetables. Being forced or pressured to eat something usually backfires -- they'll equate veggies with punishment!
4. Set only healthy foods out on the table. Then let your children choose which foods they would like to take. If all of their options are healthy, they can't go wrong.
5. Limit 100% fruit juice to 4-6 oz per day. Instead offer whole fruits. These provide more nutrients, like fiber from the pulp and phyto-nutrients from the skin.
6. Model healthy eating habits. Your children will learn to enjoy the foods they see you eating on a regular basis. They are much more likely to enjoy eating their vegetables if they see you savoring them, than if you are ordering them to finish "two more bites!"
7. Avoid glamorizing dessert. Never make dessert a reward for finishing their dinner. This puts an unhealthy value on sweets, and may encourage them to override their body's fullness signal.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to serve a variety of fruits & vegetables in a variety of colors.
• To increase your child's whole grains, try baking with whole wheat pastry flour. It works well in most recipes and is a great way to add nutrition to pancakes, muffins, and breads.
• Avoid serving sugary drinks like soda, kool-aid, or fruit drinks. Don't even bring them into your home.
• Avoid Hydrogenated Oils at all cost!