We are more than a catering company, we work with you to make a positive difference in child care food sector! From parental advice, child development, health concerns and nutritional guidance KiddiChef.com continues to share relevant information with you, helping you engage with your children better.
Catering for children is notoriously tricky, however, KiddiChef is dedicated to work with our nursreies to ensure they receive the support and knowledge to create a healthy eating regime.
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Looking for ways to instill healthy lifelong eating habits in your toddler? Look no further. These 7 golden rules will help you lay the groundwork.
1. Make Time
It is understandable, everyone has routines, deadlines and planned activites, so running over dinner time seems like a no, no.
However, ensuring children are given the time to enjoy their meal and to explore ingredients - without time contraints is essential.
It will help them identify new ingredients and they will begin to enjoy their food, taking a few extra minutes to really appreciate the texture and taste of the food.
2. Sensory Elements
A fun way to encourage children to become more familiar with a variety of fruits and vegetables is to play games.
Purchase a variety of ingredients and let the children touch, smell, taste and play with them.
Relating healthy food to fun things is a great way to get a few bites of greens.
3. Postitive Attitude
Let's get straight to the point - there is no quick fix! You'll need to patience and persitance to start teaching your children about healthy eating habits.
That’s because the patterns they'll develop now will likely be the ones they’ll carry into adulthood.
4. The Power of Table Talk
If your toddler is anything like most, they may have become very selective (make that suspicious) about the foods they'll eat.
So it is important to get children involved to help them understand why and what they are eating.
Simple points of discussion:
"Did you know superman eats carrots so he can see better and sweetcorn to make him big and strong". This is a great method to encourage children to eat their meals.
5. Presentation
Children develop a natural preference for the foods they enjoy the most. So the challenge is to make healthy food appealing.
It has been researched that it takes 8-10 presentation of a new food for a child to openly accept it.
So make it fun!
6. Be Persistence
Don’t be discouraged if your little one doesn’t immediately say, “Yum!” It may help to remember that “no” doesn’t really mean “no.” It often means “not now.”
Research shows that it can take 10 or 15 tries before a toddler will accept a new food. So there’s no need to force the issue each time. If at first you don’t succeed, simply try, try, try again.
7. Reward Good Behaviour
Creating positive food experiences can decrease picky eating tendencies.
Research has shown that rewarding a child for trying one bite of a rejected food with things like stickers makes it easier for them to try the food.
Help us Spread the Love for Healthy Eating
