Tackle Your Child To Eat More Healthy But Less Junk Foods!!

HOW TO TACKLE OUR PRESCHOOLER CHILD TO EAT LESS JUNK FOODS BUT MORE LIKELY HEALTHY FOODS:

Preschoolers are generally picky eaters with different feeding habit consisting of junk foods like- chips, cold drinks, pizzas, burgers, chocolates and other fast food items as they are tasty and attractive, though they lack proper nutrition. So it is very important to feed healthy and balanced foods to our children by making some changes in their lifestyle and preparing foods appealing to eat.

Mother’s Habit:

Nowadays in our busy schedule for working mothers, it is very difficult to feed their children properly the balanced and healthy foods as they don’t have enough time for cooking healthy and different varieties of food. So to adjust their timing they prefer quick readymade foods, junk foods, unhealthy and unbalanced foods to feed their children. They cook monotonous foods which children refuse to take. They forget about their child’s health and nutrition. When sick, they worry and give more time and attention to their children. So, if they regularly monitor their food and prepare healthy food then there is no need to worry about child’s health.

Reasons behind faulty eating of children:

Good food is a basic necessity for proper growth and development of all children. Lack of proper food at home leads to poor eating habits. So they replace their regular meals by junk foods which need no or less cooking time. Television is also a reason behind choosing a faulty eating pattern for preschoolers as they are inspired by attractive advertisements.

Effects of junk foods on children:

• Leads to obesity
• Decays tooth
• Slows growth
• Concentration problems
• Learning Disabilities
• The risk of heart diseases, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis in their early adulthood.

How to mentally convince a child for taking healthy diet:

• Convince them to take healthy foods like fresh fruits instead of choosing junk foods and keep fruits and other homemade healthy snacks in easily accessible places
• Prepare different menus for different days of weeks so that the food won’t become monotonous.
• Include soups as they are good appetizer
• Decorate and garnish the food by making different shapes and make it palatable by adding flavors because appearance of foods also matters a lot for picky eaters.
• Slowly introduce new varieties of foods, if the child refuses a particular food avoid it for few days and again reintroduce it with different cooking pattern and recipes with rewarding method.
• Feed the child when they are hungry so that they don’t make excuses.
• Children adapt very quickly to their parents and siblings eating habits so eat together the same kind of food.

Few Easy Carbohydrate and Protein rich recipe for Preschoolers:

Both protein and carbohydrates are essential for proper growth and development of growing children. So inclusion of both in the child’s diet is must. Honey- Banana Milkshake:

Blend a banana, honey, malt and milk together until it becomes proper condensed liquid and then add some dates without seeds.
Dal soup with spinach and soya chunks:

Pour water into the pressure cooker and add masoor dal, grated spinach, boiled soya chunks, salt and turmeric and whistle it. Then heat some oil into the kadhai and add some cumin seeds, grated onions and tomatoes, salt, turmeric, pepper, ginger, garlic paste and fry till it becomes brown by stirring it well and add it to the prepared dal soup.

Sago khichri with paneer cubes:

Soak sago for at least three hours then drain it. After that boil the potatoes and other vegetables like beans, peas, carrots etc. And then roast groundnut and paneer cubes. Heat the oil and fry cumin seeds, chillies and other spices and fry till it gets browned then add the boiled vegetables, roasted groundnut and paneer cubes to sago and stir it well to make sago khichri.

Oats with fruits dressing:

At first boil the milk and add sugar to it and then add oats to the milk boil it until it becomes thick and after the kheer is ready add some apple slices, almonds, raisins and cherries.

Egg sandwich with Vegetables:

Take a toasted bread slice and then put an egg poach over it and garnish it with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, grated capsicums, cabbages etc. Add some black salt and pepper and cover it with another toasted bread slice.

Fruit Custard:

Boil and cook the milk and then add flavoured (Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate) custard powder to 50 ml of milk and make a paste and then add that paste to rest boiled milk and stop cooking. At last add chopped apples and banana slices, pomegranate, almonds and cherries.