How To Nurture Healthy Eating Habits In Toddlers?

In most instances it has been found that the habits we inculcate during childhood  are carried to adulthood, so, it becomes all the more  important in parenting to nurture good eating habits and expose toddlers to healthy foods. Being a parent we can inculcate healthy eating habits in our children. For this you can try these:

• Check the refrigrator: Try your best to keep only healthy snacks/foods so that even if the child  opens the fridge his choice is healthy .Avoid keeping excess cold drinks, chocolates etc.
• Be a role model: Always set a good eating example for your child to copy ,share the meal time and eat the same healthy food. Try to avoid foods in front of children that you don’t intend to give them.
• Make boring food interesting: Try to make daily routine food interesting for the toddlers ,for example one can make a cute smiley on the vegetable sandwich you intend to serve to your child.
• Awareness: Parents must be aware about the food available in market. You must be in habit to read labels before buying. Take your child to grocery shopping and inculcate habit of reading labels in them also, make them aware of importance of these labels.
• Involvement of child: Involve your child in preparing meals as they may be more willing to eat or try foods that they help to prepare.
• Food as reward or punishment: Try not to use food as reward or punishment for your child. Like sending your child to bed without dinner as a punishment may make them to eat whenever they get a chance, similarly sweets or dessert should not be used as reward for finishing vegetables as child may assume that these foods are more valuable and this will unknowingly sent wrong message .
• Eat meals together often: Make meal times pleasant with conversation and sharing, not a time for scolding or arguing.
• Encourage: Encourage your child to eat slowly this will give brain time to register fullness.
• Free your child: Sometimes or on occasions,festivities as you are restricting them on a daily basis, you only worry about daily routine and not holidays.