Planting Healthy Habit Seeds

Get your child into the habit of healthy eating now — she’ll thank you later. She’ll be more likely to get the nutrients she needs, more likely to grow up strong and happy, and more likely to continue those healthy eating habits as an adult. It might not be easy to teach your child why it’s important to eat healthy, but with a few simple tips and tricks, you can help her make healthy choices on her own. The tips below will help you make healthy eating fun. After all, if Cookie Monster can learn to love healthy foods as much as cookies, so can your child!

Anytime/Sometime Foods

Try talking about different types of food as being either “anytime” foods or “sometime” foods. An “anytime” food means something we can eat every day, such as fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean meats, lowfat dairy, and water. “Sometime” foods are high in sugar, fat, or salt that we should only eat once in awhile. Keep these points in mind:

• Foods that give you energy to run, jump, play, and learn – like a car, we need fuel to go
• Foods that make you grow strong so you can do big-kid things
• Foods you can eat every day
• Fruits and veggies in all colors of the rainbow
• Whole grains, lean meats (think of specific examples of these foods your child is familiar with and likes to eat)
• Lowfat, low sugar yogurt and milk

• Foods you only eat once in awhile
• Foods high in sugar, fat, or salt
• Cookies, candy, chips, and sodas
• Foods that can make you feel yucky, like when you have too much energy

To bring home the idea of “anytime” foods, talk with your child about other activities he does every day to stay healthy, such as brushing his teeth or washing his hands. Then, show him that “anytime” foods can be fun by making an “anytime” food collage from old magazines around the house.
 
Watch Together: Cookie is a Sometime Food
Talk Together: What kind of anytime foods do you like to eat?

Eat a Rainbow

Keep an eye out for the rainbow! Make it a part of your daily routine to identify the colors of different healthy foods and talk about which colors and foods are your child’s favorites. This will help your child think about what she’s eating, and understand that colorful fruits and vegetables have lots of vitamins and nutrients. Try keeping a rainbow food chart with your child. Make the outlines of the colors in the rainbow, but don’t color the rainbow in. As your child learns about or tries a healthy food, have her draw that food on the rainbow chart inside the matching colored outline. Click here to print out a list of fruits and vegetables by color.

Watch Together: I Eat the Rainbow
Talk Together: What color food is your favorite? What foods are that color?

Shop Smart, Eat Smart

Make the grocery store a playground for choosing healthy foods. When you’re grocery shopping, focus on the outermost aisles of the store. Often, that’s where you’ll find the healthiest foods, such as fresh produce, dairy products, meats and seafood. Give your child a small list of items to look for and check off as he finds them. You can also talk to your child about where healthy foods come from (i.e., a farm, a garden, the sea).

Watch Together:  Big Bird Visits a Farm
Talk Together:  What foods do you eat that grow on a farm?

Colorful Choices

Offer a variety of yummy fruits and vegetables to choose from—the more colorful, the better! Also, presentation is everything — cut the food up and arrange it in creative ways, or find an attractive plate or bowl to serve it on. This way, your child feels like she’s making healthy choices all by herself, and having fun, too.

Here are a few healthy snack ideas that make for great choices:

• Lowfat string cheese and peaches
• Chocolate graham crackers with strawberries or bananas
• Steamed broccoli and cauliflower florets with ketchup
• Melons or grapes with slices of lowfat cheddar or American cheese
• Vegetables with lowfat ranch dressing
• Tomato, mozzarella cheese, and basil

Get your child involved in meal planning by asking her to help you choose what’s for dinner. To plan a balanced meal, ask her to choose one food that is high in protein, one starch or whole grain, and at least two fruits or vegetables. Print out “Building a Balanced Meal” and refer to it as you plan meals together.

Watch Together: The Snack Samba Song
Talk Together: How many different kinds of fruit do you see in the video?

The Incredible Talking Stomach

When children are urged to "clean their plates," it can lead to overeating. Help your child learn when and how much to eat by listening to his body. You provide the healthy choices and your child can decide how much to eat. Start with small portions. When your child finishes eating, ask, “Can I talk to your stomach for a minute? Stomach, are you still hungry?” Encourage everyone at the table to mention how they are feeling: “Hmmm, my stomach is telling me that he’s still a little bit hungry. I’ll have a couple more bites and then I’ll be finished.” Try using the hungry meter (click here to download) to illustrate how you or your child is feeling.

“I think that as Rachel grows older, she will become more adventurous with food. As long as I model good eating habits, try to give Rachel and Tyce nutritious meals and snacks, and let them help in the kitchen, I think they'll develop healthy habits to last a lifetime.”

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