Tips to Get Kids Engaged in Healthy Foods

Kids love to help with adult jobs so it’s always a good opportunity to use this to your advantage when it comes to food. Kids involvement in the daily tasks relating to family meals can assist with their engagement in food and therefore lead to better eating. Here’s some of the ways they can help:

At the supermarket

Give your child some parameters and let them make some decisions for the family meal. e.g. “We need to pick 3 vegetables for tonight’s dinner, you choose!”. Most importantly, be prepared to accept their choices and not sway them in any way.

Growing a veggie patch at home

Having a veggie patch at home to watch veggies grow or magically appearing out of the dirt is exciting for kids and ultimately they will feel invested when they’ve followed that carrot or tomato all the way from garden to their plate and much more likely to eat them.

If you don’t have a green thumb, choose some herbs or veggie plants that don’t require much effort or maintenance. Tomatoes and snow peas are good fun as they are simple to grow and high yielding.

Selecting a meal for dinner

Let your child decide which meal the family has for dinner from available choices that week. This will ultimately make them feel in control and more invested in the meal when it arrives at the table.

Getting hands on in the kitchen

Getting your kids in the kitchen and preparing meals is the perfect way to engage them in meals – whether it’s cutting (you can get kid safe knives at Foost, mixing or counting out the items – there are so many safe and engaging activities where they can help in the kitchen.