Have your children made the same or a similar comment to you as the girl in this cartoon when you are encouraging them to eat vegetables and fruits? It seems to be an age-old challenge for parents. An excellent online article from the American Academy of Pediatrics has many good suggestions to help parents build good nutritional habits in their children.
Here are some helpful tips from that article:
Be a role model to your children. If they see you eating more fruits and vegetables, they will too.
Begin with learning what is the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables for children. Visit choosemyplate.gov for more information.
When grocery shopping, limit the amount of purchases of sugary snacks such as cookies and candy as well as sugary drinks.
Keep fruits and vegetables washed and easily accessible as snacks. I often had dips as well to accompany the vegetables as snacks.
Add fruits or vegetables to meals. For example, if your children like to eat cereal, add a banana or blueberries. For school lunches, pack snacks of veggies with dips.
Serve salads often with lunches and dinners.
It is key to remember that your goal is to build life-long, good nutritional habits in your children. When you start them from young eating nutritiously, they will continue as adults.
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