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Help your kids form
healthy snack habits. Share your enjoyment of food with them
and whenever appropriate, let them help you in the kitchen.
Let them try washing, stirring, rolling, mashing, even baking
and cooking as the opportunities come up. When your kids experience
meals and the preparation beforehand as a happy time shared
with you, they'll learn to associate healthy habits with meals
and food. Want to know
an excellent recipe for teaching kids good snack habits? Get
your kids involved in preparing them. The trick to making this
strategy work like magic is to get them in the kitchen when
they're not terribly hungry. You want to show them how to prepare
their own snacks for the following day or week. Preparing snacks
ahead of time teaches your kids that they don't have to be hungry
to prepare food-- they can prepare it now, and eat it later
when they do get hungry. The practice of preparing healthy snacks
together teaches your kids to associate a fun activity with
eating well.
When children are
old enough to handle a knife responsibly, show them how to slice
and chop fresh celery into edible-sized sticks. They can spread
peanut butter into the sticks and then have fun counting how
many sticks they created. Try the same with apple slices. Place
sticks and slices in plastic wrap and stow them in the fridge
for a yummy snack later.
Kids, and hey, let's
face it, adults too, can often get so hungry that when they
reach for a snack it's a fast pick, something yummy for instant
gratification. These quick, available snacks are all the more
tempting to kids because they often come packaged with hidden
toys and feature familiar television characters on their colorful
wrappings. Commercial snack food manufacturers spend lots of
money on marketing campaigns. Their goal is to make their snack
food appear to be more fun than 'homemade.'
You want to make
it just as fun for kids to grab an apple slice or a celery stick
smeared with peanut butter, as it is to snap up a bag of potato
chips or handful of candy. Empty calories early in life can
lead to extra pounds that your kids may have a tough time shedding
off as they mature. Replace sugary or fatty snacks with fruits
and vegetables whenever possible, by making them more appealing
for children.
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