How to Make Child Start Eating Healthy Food?

As a mother, it is really tough to ensure that your child is eating healthy with so many distractions and advertisements about junk food on the TV. So how do you ensure that your child eats healthy most of the time? I am sharing my experience as a mommy and how I ensured that my child was eating healthy most of the time. And in that regard, the first question that comes to our minds is – how to shift your child's preference from junk to healthy food, so and so forth. [Read This: Way to Develop Healthy Food Habits in Your Child]

How To Shift The Preference From Junk to Healthy Food?

These days children prefer junk food more than homemade food. Any food that is beautifully decorated or crispy or attractive makes them fall for it! One can make easier and healthier food at home so that eventually kids get used to home cooked foods. A child wants different tastes and prefers a different colour and presentation each time they sit to eat. Although this is a challenge to all the mothers; we need to be patient and accept this challenge willingly.

How Can I Ensure That My Child Is Eating Healthy?

Your child will eat whatever you want him or her to eat. And believe me, there is no concept of a fussy eater, picky eater yes, but no fussy eater. A picky eater is a child who prefers certain foods over the other foods. So learn by trial and error and give your child the food he or she loves to eat in numerous varieties so that he doesn't get bored and you are ensured that your child is eating healthy too.

How & When To Give What to Your Child?

Meals should be divided into 6 parts – with three main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner and two or three snacks in between – Early morning, mid-morning, and early evening snack. [Read More: Healthy Eating Habits Role For Child's Overall Growth]

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1. Early morning snack: This can be either a glass of milk or a small bowl of cereal like a sooji kheer, or daliya. If your child loves to drink milk then you can give a cup of milk flavoured with some cardamom (eliachi), almond (badam), or any health drink for your child
2. Breakfast: When it comes to breakfast mommies need to put in their best! A good start will give positive results. One can go for colourful idlis like red, green, yellow (using various home-made chutneys), uttapam sprinkled with fresh grated veggies like beet, carrot, etc. Oats upma with veggies and other ingredients like cumin powder, coriander powder is also a good idea. You can also put some of these items in his or her tiffin as school lunch
3. Mid-morning Snack: This should consist of fruits and a cup of milk
4. Lunch: Curd rice with pomegranate toppings, tangy rasam rice, daal rice. Ensure that your child eats whatever has been cooked that day either with rice or chappati or parantha
5. Early evening snack: A home-made sweet or snacks. No biscuits and chips! You can also give another cup of milk at that time
6. Dinner: Khichdi with or without veggies. In case the child has eaten rice in the morning then try to give roti in the dinner and vice-versa

Parentune Tip: Remember your child will get used to eating out, which in reality is not a crime but you as a mother need to ensure that most of the time your child is eating healthy so that whenever he or she eats out you don't feel guilty for not doing enough.