So you are thinking of adapting a healthier lifestyle? Convincing the kids can be a daunting task. I get it. I have toddlers. I know they can be a tough crowd when it comes to healthy eating. However, they can be taught. Here are a few things that helped our family with my 3 year old. Even now I am not saying it is always easy, but we have made progress.
1. Start them young. If they are not introduced to junk food early on, they will probably be more likely to make healthy choices. My 3 year old happily eats whole grain bread because she was never given a choice of white bread. I was not raised on soda and I have never liked it. We also reserve juice for only special occasions like birthday parties.
2. Have them help in the shopping and with the preparation of food. When we are at the store, I let my daughter pick out the fruits and veggies that she wants. Also, she helps me prep the food and very often, she will be munching on veggies the whole time.
3. Hide “healthy” choices in their food. Such as brown rice or quinoa pasta in place of white. Or in baked goods I always bake with whole grains instead of white flours. She usually can’t tell the difference. You also can sneak veggies into a smoothie or in homemade pasta sauce.
4 Make some of their favorite foods healthier. You can do baked chicken fingers, baked sweet potato fries and homemade mac and cheese with whole grain pasta.
5. Offer the same healthy food more than once. We had always offered my daughter organic tofu and she never ate it. Today she finally tried it and liked it! Every time she ends up liking a food she was afraid to try, I make a HUGE deal out of it and show her that sometimes you have to try new things before you realize what you like.
Love Love Love the blog!
Thank you! That means the world to me.
I am glad you are enjoying it.
Love this post! I totally agree about offering things repeatedly. When my kids heard that there would be no more meat in our spaghetti, they made a fuss over it. But once they actually tasted it, they liked it. Black beans replaced the meat, and I used those along with refried beans in tacos too. They were actually both happy with just the black beans in the spaghetti, and sometimes I would add a little cheese into the mix too. Now we have a rule that they have to try everything I make at least once. If they don’t like it, then they can have something else – but they DO have to try it. I have seen them make a huge fuss over many foods I’ve made, but then once they actually try it, there are “YUM MOM!”s all of the way around. Silly little kiddlies! I’d also encourage moms & dads to try different versions of a certain product you might introduce to your kiddlies too. My son HATED rice milk, coconut milk & soy milk, but likes almond milk just fine. And there is only 1 brand in 1 flavor that he likes. So I’d encourage everyone to try and try again.
Love this advice too! My daughter hates regular milk, but loves all the nut, oat, coconut and rice milks. Lately, we have been buying hemp milk, but most of it contains sugar, so I am going to try to start making my own. We have a similar rule in our house about taking at least one bite. There are still some foods that are tough to get her to like. Like avocado. That is, until I hide it in a pudding. Sometimes you gotta just throw it in a kid friendly package and they buy it hook line and sinker. LOL. Why do you think I have so many donuts on my blog? She has no idea they are loaded with healthy stuff.
Oh! I forgot to mention that when we went meatless (we eat some now, but are trying to get our consumption back down again), I needed to find an alternative to tuna that my kids would like. I just so happened to get it right on the first try. Chickpeas all mashed up, then mixed in with mayo, just like you would regular tuna fish. THEY LOVE IT! We affectionately call it “tuney” and it’s a great substitute for tuna (which I believe many are no longer wild caught – they come from factory farms where they are fed a diet of GMO corn to help them grow bigger faster). And the wild caught ones are probably all nasty now from the radiation that is STILL leaking from Fukashima. Just something to think about.
OMG what a fabulous idea!! I am so going to try that. My daughter has always been kind of leery about tuna, but she may like the chickpea version. Even if she doesn’t, I am going to try it.
I’m addicted to your blog now. I love this post too even though I don’t have kids. I re-post a lot of your blogs. So happy to have found it! Keep up the awesome work!!
Thank you for reading and for the compliments! Comments like this are why I do what I do. I love that I may be helping others live a healthier life.
Thank you so much for all of your wonderful advice! I really enjoy your blog and website! I am totally new to all of this, but I have young toddlers, and I really want to start making changes in our eating. Your site is helping me tremendously to start making the changes. Although its slow and steady, its better than not at all!
That is fantastic! Thanks for reading. I always say, “It doesn’t matter how slow you go, you are still lapping those on the couch.” Baby steps are just fine. We didn’t change as a family overnight either. It can take some time to adjust.
Hi — I’m new to your blog and am loving it so far! I’ve always tried to “eat healthy” but have started to learn, through your site and others, how much crap is in the food that I thought was good for me, and I’m horrified.
I don’t have kids but would love to read a “convincing the spouse/partner” post. Mine is…. reluctant, to say the least, and his response last night when I explained to him the reasons behind some changes I’d like to make, he responded, “what does it matter, EVERYTHING causes cancer.” And when I said I’d like us to get off sugar, you’d have thought I’d suggested we just stop eating entirely!
It can be rough to make changes, especially if your spouse is reluctant. Thankfully, my husband was on board. He changed because he wanted to see as much of our daughter’s lives that he could. His cholesterol was high and has since dropped 76 points! I would suggest you stand your ground and maybe just make baby steps towards changing. Maybe first, you can start making one thing you would normally buy processed. Or switch our white flour for white whole wheat flour. Technically, that is a whole grain and it could be an easy stepping stone. Does he read? Suggest reading Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food.” That was an eye opener for us. Or, if he doesn’t read, maybe you could watch Food Inc. It is not pro vegan at all. It just is a great documentary for how our food industry works. That movie was a game changer for a lot of folks. Thanks for reading the blog and I hope you can use some of these suggestions.