How To Teach The Importance Of Not Wasting Food To Your Child?

Is your child often creating a fuss during meal times? Do you often have to use strict means to ensure that your child finishes his or her food in the plate? Then maybe it is time you change the tactics and learn few easy tricks to ensure that your child learns the importance of not wasting his or her food.

Little ones have a tough time in focusing their energies in food wastage and care very little about the same. At times you end up eating your child's portion of the particular food or toss in the dustbin with no option at your disposal.

But a little effort from your end will help your child learn the value of food and will teach him/her the importance of not wasting food. Here are a few tips that will help you do your job fine.

How To Teach Your Child Not To Waste Food?

Here are few tips that you can follow to ensure that your child is not wasting his or her food.

1. Family food waste challenge: You can plan a family food waste challenge that can go for a few weeks wherein you can have your little ones involved to measure the amount of food going in waste every week. The less your family wastes food, you can have a reward planned at the end of the particular time period, such as going to an amusement park or spending some quality time with your child. This will encourage your child to eat his portions and not dump in the waste
2. Plan the week's meals in advance: On the weekends you can plan the entire upcoming week's meals. This will allow you to shop for the grocery in required quantities, which eliminates the chances of wastage. In addition, your child will look forward to weekend meal with eagerness and thus will learn to finish his or her meals
3. Limit pre-meal snacking: If your child has the tendency to engage in snacking before his/her meals, avoid the habit or give him/her limited snacks for the day. This will increase his/her hunger by the meal time, which will help him/her in consuming his/her meal thoroughly, thus, limiting the amount of wastage
4. Cook easy to eat food: At times little ones get fed up eating a meal which they find it hard to eat and decide to leave it half eaten. In order to avoid such wastage, you need to cook meals in a way that will be simpler for your child to eat. Instead of whole fruits and vegetables, cut them in to small pieces which will enable your child to have it without any discomfort
5. Get the portions right: Giving your child too big portions of the meal will only discourage him/her to eat it entirely. Your child might get irritated and leave the food half eaten, which is why it is better to give your child suitable size of morsels that he/she can eat without any discomfort. You can encourage older children to take portions as much they can eat in order to avoid wastage and if they need more, second serving can be taken
6. Save what your child doesn't eat: If your child declares that he/she is full before completing the entire meal, save the same right away. When your child demands for a snack in a few hours or so, you can give him/her the leftover from his/her meal
7. Teach about food: You can teach your child about food by taking him/her with you to the grocery store and enlighten him/her about the prices, taking him/her to the farm or growing a few vegetables in your backyard will also do the job
8. Set an example: Little ones do what they see which is why you need to set an example before your child concerning about food wastage. You can eat your meals in small servings and take a second serving if required and eat your food entirely without having to toss it in the garbage bin. Your child will learn what he/she sees so be a good role model for your little one starting from today
9. Giving away the leftovers to homeless: While teaching your child about not wasting food, you can also teach him/her about caring for the people by teaching him/her to give away the leftovers to the homeless. While your child will become aware about not wasting food, he/she will also be doing a selfless deed

With these tips to be used in your daily life, you can make your child aware about food wastage. Your child is a smart one and hence he/she will learn this quickly. Apart from these tips, you can introduce your own ideas in teaching your little one about not wasting food anymore.