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Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

A healthy diet is important, but families struggle due to busy schedules. There are many options but what is cost effective is usually the healthy items such as fruits and vegetables. Everyone knows this but the benefits are great for preventing being sick and being more mentally alert. Planning the weekly meal schedule can save a great deal of time, so planning a schedule and shopping on the weekend can really make a difference and doing some meal preparation can help. At Close to Home Childcare, we encourage children to explore different vegetables or fruit by sometimes making it fun.

We have done, make your own animal and the kids always come up with some interesting animals as we try to get them not to make the typical dog but some new animal. We love hearing the creative names they come up with. Using the different veggies and fruit of different sizes and colors are just so fun for them. This is easy and fun to do at home and the kids love the fun of making the animals or insects to eating them up! Some common fruit that kids enjoy is grapes cut in half so that they don’t choke on it, apple slices, strawberries cut up, cucumbers, carrot slices and lettuce or spinach can add for some fun. Obviously, exploring new vegetables and fruit is great and let your child be part of the process. Once a month pick a new vegetable or fruit to try and let your child pick it out. Using different colors also allows your child in the process of making different animals learn colors, how items have different lengths and the names of the vegetables and fruit.

Meal Prep suggestions:

  1. Plan your meals for the week
  2. Purchase groceries
  3. Prep the meals by cutting up items ahead of time
  4. Keep fresh fruit and vegetables cut up in the refrigerator for quick and easy snacks
  5. There are a ton of meal prep recipes on the internet from tasty to budget friendly so find the one that matches best for your family. Families find the most success by using your calendar and picking meals that are easy like ground turkey spaghetti with edamame’s. Kids love popping them out from the shell.

Doing meal prep can be a fun experience with your children.