Your Kids and Eating​

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To enhance your child's interest in healthy eating, consider the following strategies:
Involve children in meal preparation
The sooner kids take an active role in helping make meals, the more readily they accept new foods and the less picky they become. Children can cut up vegetables, shape burger patties or set the table. Involvement helps build a child's self-esteem.
Allow kids to serve themselves at the table
As long as you have provided healthy options, if all they choose to put on their plate is bread, don't worry.  The less of an ordeal made, the better.  How do you like it when someone dishes out what you should eat? 
School-aged children should pack their own lunch
Get kids involved in packing their own lunch, if not the whole thing, then at least part of it.  This way they will be more likely to eat it.  Suggest they include foods from at least three if not all four of the food groups, and perhaps, a treat if desired.  Letting kids pack their own lunch may take more patience, but it's worth it if they actually eat the lunch.
Eat meals at the table with the television turned off
The fewer distractions at mealtime, the better. When your children are finished eating, they can either excuse themselves or help with the clean-up.
Save uneaten meals for a snack later
Everyone will eat just about anything if they are hungry enough.  If your child refuses to eat at mealtimes, but comes back an hour later saying he or she is hungry, offer the dinner leftovers as the only choice.
Limit after-school snacking
Usually kids are famished after school.  Allow them to snack, but set a limit on the amount they eat so they don't displace their appetite for dinner.  After school may be the best time to offer foods they're less likely to get the rest of the day.  Try offering a fruit or vegetable platter with dip.
Limit the junk food stocked in the house
It's often simply a case of out of sight, out of mind.  If kids know there is no junk food to snack on, this encourages healthier options like fruit or vegetables.
Don't run a restaurant
If you have prepared a healthy meal but your child refuses to eat it, don't feel obligated to provide other options.
Don't expect kids to eat what you won't
If Dad hates vegetables it will be hard to get your child to eat them.  If Mom hates milk, chances are so will your child.
Recommended Online Resources
  • BC Health Guide 
  • Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating
  • Canada's Physical Activity Guide  - Get information on being active and suggestions for integrating physical activity into your daily routine.
  • Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute - www.cflri.ca
  • Dial-a-Dietitian - Get nutrition advice on health topics and recommended reading on food and nutrition and find out about nutrition services at the website of B.C.'s nutrition telephone hotline, Dial-a-Dietitian.  Or call 1-800-667-DIET or 604-732-9191 to talk to a dietitian free of charge.
  •  Healthy Eating - HealthLinkBC  
  • Dietitians of Canada - Test your nutrition knowledge, answer questions about healthy eating, compare your food choices to nutrition recommendations and more at the website from Canadian dietitians.  



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