Although our son is a married adult, I know that many of you have young children. So I want to share some ways that you can be encouraging a love of food in your kids. Do you have some fussy eaters in your family? Maybe your daughter will only eat a certain color, or maybe your son refuses to touch the greens on his plate – either way, getting dinner on the table is difficult!
Encouraging A Love Of Food In Your Kids Photo Credit: Pexels Image
But it doesn’t always have to be this way. You can do a lot to encourage a love of all food when it comes to young minds; all it takes is a bit of careful planning and trickery here and there. And with the points below, we hope to help you get the kids eating whatever is on their plate with a smile on their face!
Try Playing with Food
Now, you might have always been told it’s bad to play with your food. After all, the longer you let it sit, the colder it gets and the less you want to eat it. But when it comes to encouraging a love of food in your kids, playing with food will help mealtimes to become a lot more fun. Your kids will look forward to dinner, and all because you allowed them to have a bit of freedom.
Of course, you can’t just let them have food fights every now and then. But you can get them involved with making ‘fun’ foods they wouldn’t think of as being food, such as edible flowers, edible glitter, and even edible playdough. The more a child can play with a food stuff, the more they’ll like food – that’s really as simple as it is!
Try Out New Ways to Cook
There are loads of ways to rustle up a meal during the evening, and trying out some new ways to cook could be what cracks the code here. For example, if you’ve never (or rarely) used a crock pot before now, why not cook up this crock pot pinto beans recipe? It’s new, it’s tasty, and it’s a great way to make food exciting again.
And that’s really all there is to it – new ways to cook lead to new and exciting meals to put down on the table. So similarly, if you don’t have a slow cooker in the house, it’s time to get one! Throw everything in there in the morning and come back 7 or 8 hours later to find it ready to dish up. Remember, the longer a food needs to cook, the better it makes the house smell, and that can really get a child’s tummy rumbling!
Try Talking About Food Habits
Do you ever talk to your kids about their own eating habits? Have you ever inquired about the reason why your son hates vegetables? If not, this could be the next great step for you. Sitting down and talking to your kids about what they like to eat and what they don’t is always a good way to make more meals that they’ll enjoy.
Even if they don’t usually contain healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, you can sneak them in as long as you’re serving up other foods your kids absolutely love! But more than that, talking about food is a good way to allow you to lay any food fears or worries to rest. Your kids will learn that the dinner table is a safe place, and trying out new foods is totally normal. It’ll surprise you just how many kids seem to be set in their ways over food!
Try Cooking Together
It’s also good to get your kids involved in the cooking process itself. It’ll teach them a lifelong skill from an early age, meaning they’ll pick it up better, but it’ll also help them to see how food gets made. And when they’ve involved in the cooking, they’re twice as likely to get involved with the eating!
Get them washing and chopping vegetables. Get them peeling potatoes and slicing up small bits of salami. Let them knead dough or spread flour over a surface, and then hand them the cookie cutter and see how they fare with it. Cooking can be fun, and eating can be double the fun, and this is where a love of cooking can really start. Passion for putting a meal together isn’t adult exclusive!
If you want your kids to eat more foods, and try out new, healthy, and exciting ingredients, you just need to get them involved. Let them know that food is fun, and that cooking is a communal activity – it’ll help you find out why your kids are fussy eaters!
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