Share your tips for getting your children eating healthily with Little Yeos

[EllieMumsnet]

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Trying to get your children to eat healthily is a battle that many parents will inevitably face; from weaning onto solid foods, to dinner times through to pack lunches and beyond. There is a lot of information and recipes out there on what the best methods/techniques are to get your child to start eating healthily and how to incorporate nutritious food into their meals. With that being said Little Yeos would love to know any recommendations, recipes, techniques or experiences of getting your child to eat healthily.

Here’s what Little Yeos have to say: We’d love to hear your top tips for children’s healthy eating. Here are some examples to get you started:

Weaning:
What are your tips for weaning your child onto healthy food?
Do you find that your child prefers sweeter foods or more varied flavours?

Doing the weekly food shop:
Do you find it easy to find healthy snacks for your child?
Do you find nutrients labels on foods in supermarkets are clear?

Meal times:
Do you have any favourite healthy tips or recipes that work for your family?
What are your favourite healthy swaps?

Whatever your recommendations, thoughts or experiences when it comes to getting your child to eat healthily, share them on the thread below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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Involve children in preparing meals from a young age. Not just making cakes or cookies as an ‘activity’ but doing all the day to day things... chopping veg, stirring soup for ordinary meals. Involve them in the whole process- preparation, eating and clearing away

Agree with everyone saying involve them in cooking and meal preparations at an early age. They can have lots of fun planning and making a picnic when they're really young and by making sure they understand how to make simple staples you're setting them to survive on their own later on in life.

Don’t have junk in the house and none of us can eat it! Parties and Grandparents are the exception.
Sweet foot comes in the form of fresh fruit and natural yogurt. If my boys are offered junk they don’t eat very much of it don’t even manage a whole ice cream - not sure why but I’m happy with it!

Fresh is best! I try always and it works. If we do get caught out we know it's not going to harm the children but I maybe pretend it's more fresh than not!!

We did baby led weaning and right from the start we gave DD our meals. She's never had anything that we wouldn't eat, just healthy well balanced meals. Shes a great eater. She doesn't have pudding after every meal. Often will have a price of fruit after dinner. Has a couple of crackers / oatcakes for supper if she wants before bed. Sweet stuff is a very occasional treat.

We started weaning with veg, and only ever offer water to drink. Even now they prefer water or milk. All of them seem to prefer savoury flavours now, but is that luck or judgement?
I agree with getting them as involved with cooking as possible as they always seem to eat what they make. We are also lucky enough to have an allotment and access to my parents orchard. The children love growing, harvesting and cooking their own fruit and vegetables, it has made them much more willing to try new things.
Also agree with no junk in the house! Two of my children have allergies too which means lots of stuff is off limits so they can't have it anyway!
Love the veggie stick started idea! Stealing that!

A good variety of veg, fruit as snacks as well as for main meals - don't be afraid of experimenting with different foids & EAT HEALTHILY & WELL YOURSELF!

I think try and have balance. I do try and disguise vegetables in sauces, soups etc. but I think that sugary treats are just that, a treat and not to be expected as standard.

I leave out a bowl of vegetables and fruit for the children to snack on. My children also need to eat enough vegetables with their meal before they have pudding.

I offer a range of healthy foods, and don't make yoghurt/fruit conditional on eating the rest first.

With DD1 I think I was stricter about the amount of fruit and veg she ate, and she does eat a wide variety, whereas DD2 is very fussy and has limited likes for fruit and veg. I have always insisted that they both eat the veg on their plates whether they like it or not, to earn their pudding. Easy for DD1 to do, but even DD2 get's there eventually as she hates to miss her pudding!

A wide variety to try, preferably loads of colours, and make it look interesting (a face or something fun).

I tell mine that I didn't like certain things as a child and I love them now, so they do grow out of likes and dislikes. My DC found it quite reassuring and it took the pressure off a bit.

Don't have rubbish in the house. It's good for you and the little ones. If you put rubbish in you get rubbish results. We have no biscuits, crisps, chocolate, cake etc in the house. If it's not there you can't eat it.

Get the kids to plan a meal. Shop with them for the ingredients. Get them to look at the colours of veg and encourage them to touch and feel them. Then get cooking together. They'll be so proud of their meal, they'll forget they are eating healthily. Try a pizza to start with then a funny face salad.

I try to include vegetables with all meals and offer a different variety and type. They are also given fruit as a snack or desert and limit sweet treats to weekends and special occasions. When we go shopping i let them chose a new vegetable or fruit to try and try to find ones weve not had before.

Just don't keep loads of junk food in the house. I'll pop to the shop on a Friday to get the DC a treat (and me wine) for the weekend, but that's about it.

Get the children involved in food prep! My two love helping cook dinner, chopping the veggies -and generally being a pain in the arse- More often than not, they eat more than they chop so raw veggies = win!

We don’t label food as good or bad. If we want chips one night then we have them but that would probably be once a fortnight and would still include veg on the side. I can’t stand the attitude I hear at work all day: “ooh I shouldn’t really” or “does carrot cake count as 1 of your 5 a day?” and that kind of crap. I never once heard my mum say the word “diet” and I’m so grateful she passed on a healthy attitude to food.

Having said that I do need to I still into DS the importance of a healthy, nutrient rich diet as he has food allergies. It takes effort to make sure he’s not missing out on what he needs and one day that will be his responsibility. He is 6 now so he gets involved with baking, and we talk about what nutrients are in ingredients, and how they help different areas of his body.

For us, it’s about cramming nutrients in where we can: ground almonds and cashews in flapjacks and curries, multi seed bread, oats and nuts in muffins, ice cream made with bananas, dates and cocoa powder, sauces made with more than one veg instead of only tomato, etc.

Have lots of variety when weaning, and don't add fruit to everything to make it sweeter. We didn't offer fruit for a few months, just vegetables, and our dcs don't have a very sweet tooth now. At home we have lots of pre-prepped fruit and veg available every day as snacks, and we've taught the dcs to make themselves simple healthy snacks like toast or oatcakes. We tend not to keep sweet treats in the house at all, except ahead of birthdays etc.

We always eat vegetables with every meal and fruit as a snack.

Giving them some fruits and julienning some vegetables with a nice dip, instead of junk food as snacks helps. I give them their snacks in the afternoon when they can become hungry for something.

Not pressuring them to eat any particular food is important.

Also the tip about avoiding them getting a taste for crap, but I think I let that ship sail!

Right from when they are weaning offer them healthy choices and lots of variety and change it up regularly. I tried not to give them anything unhealthy to start off with so that was introduced later. My kids love fruit and veg and I just always keep redirecting back to it, but they like very different things.