Healthy eating habits for children

All of us are well aware of healthy eating habits and their significance. It’s not a secret anymore, but somewhere we forget that we need to implement them for adults and kids. In fact, if we teach them at an early age, it’s bound to stay within them throughout their lifetime, helping them to reap the benefits in their adulthood.

We need to pay attention to small details and their effects on our life. Sometimes thoughts such as “this is ok”, “having this once in a while should not be a problem” overpower us, and we just go with the flow and don’t resist our temptations.

High calorie, rich carbs and excess sugar pose many hidden dangers, and we should be careful when including them in our children’s diet. Accessibility to such food can lead to many risks like obesity, hyperactivity, sleep disturbances, less energy, addiction to fast food in future etc. Overdoing whatsoever has its own repercussions.

I have already emphasized the power of this line in my earlier blog about Gadgets, and here I am bringing it again. “They see, they do”,, i.e. Children do whatever they see around themselves. So to make them learn something, we need to follow the rules by ourselves first. The chances of them asking you some food which they have never seen you eating is pretty low.

Being a parent, I was worried about finding a balance in my child’s diet and how to keep my child ingrained in this Fast food and sugar overdose era. But consistent efforts and faith in my beliefs helped me sailed through.

I sat and talked with my partner regarding this and about things that we should start implementing and following without any deviations. And with my partner’s consistent support, we began our journey…

It’s easy to do this when children are small, like how I avoided buying any cream biscuits/crackers until my child was 4 years old.

Realizing the dangerous effects of carbonated soft drinks on our health, my partner and I stopped buying them completely.

We ensured we don’t purchase a lot of processed snacks as well. And even if we buy, we make sure the consumption is under the limit.

When we go out on weekends, I try to carry homemade snacks for my children. In this way, while wandering in the mall when they feel hungry, I have something wholesome for them to eat. Of course, we will eat out if we stay a bit long in the mall, but eating these homemade snacks will help eliminate unnecessary binging.

When kids grow up, it’s obvious you will face some resentment. But continuous mentoring about clean eating will keep them on the same page as yours.

Birthday parties are a big challenge, as it’s not necessary that your ideas match that of your host. You are worried about endless items your child will be exposed to all at once, like Pizzas, colas, doughnuts, cookies, chocolates, and whatnot. A little deviation is ok, but consuming such high-calorie food in one meal is not wise.

One trick which worked for me during such a scenario was feeding my child a filling and nutritious snack/meal before going to the party. If we take the child with the intent that he will have his complete meal at the party, it’s obvious that the child will try to fill his stomach with unhealthy food alone. But if the child already had his meal before coming to the party, he will not grab a lot of it. Instead of going for 3 pieces of pizza, the child might be ok to have just 1 slice as there’s not much space left in the stomach.

Keeping a stock of homemade snacks is a good idea. Snacks like murmura chivda (Puffed Rice), roasted makhanas (Fox nuts), Besan ladoo (Chickpea flour/Gram flour), and Atta ladoo (whole wheat flour) are quite nutritive as well as tasty.

You can also prepare items like Coconut ladoo, Rose barfi (Made with paneer and mava-both a derived product of milk), Sukha Bhel (Puffed rice), Chola chaat, when they want to eat something yummy, and you want to give them something healthy.

Sweets are loved by children of all age groups. You can make pancakes, cookies, muffins, cakes and bread with a twist. In recipes, you can make changes as per your choice and taste. Below are a few tricks I use in my recipes.

1. Swapping sugar with other alternatives like coconut sugar, date sugar, honey, Jaggery (an unrefined form of sugar), Mishri (Rock Sugar) etc.
2. Using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour or using at least half of both to balance it
3. You can also try coconut flour, oat flour, a small quantity of Amaranth flour, millet flour, along wheat flour.
4. Use Flax seeds, Chia seeds, Pumpkin seeds in mixes
5. Using yoghurt wherever possible
6. Using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil/butter

Involving children when you prepare a meal/ snack for them is another excellent idea. Right from shopping to cooking, you can engage them. You can teach them about reading Ingredients, like if the ingredient list is too long, the product is not good to buy. The ingredient list should be easily readable; if not, it means it’s filled with too many chemicals and artificial flavours.

Show them how to read Nutrition Facts and calories per serving. Also, about the sugar content in each serving. Make them learn about reading Expiry dates on products. Soon you will see they will be more enthusiastic than you to read labels and get you the right products.

Kids are curious, and they like to do something new. When you give them the responsibility, they feel elated and try their best to fulfil it. Simple tasks like mixing, measuring ingredients, pouring the batter into liners will bring joy to them. Encourage them to write recipes and maintain a cookbook. The concept will seem new and appealing to them.

Once they become little trained, try to let them complete the recipes. They feel proud of finishing recipes on their own. Here is the picture of Rose barfi, my daughter, made on her own when she was 6!

Some tips and tricks can be applied for serving kids drinks as well. Every child drinks milk daily, mostly in the morning and in the evening. And most of them need some syrup or other flavour to be added to the milk. If your child is still young and you have not introduced any syrups, its perfect. You have a variety of homemade flavours to try; I have named a few here, for example…

Milk mixed with
1. Cardamom powder
2. Almond and saffron
3. Date milkshake
4. Fig milkshake
5. Pistachio milkshake
6. Cashew milkshake

And if your child is already attached to a particular flavour, you can try introducing your child to some of these flavours. I am sure they will like at least one of them. And if not, don’t give up. Give a gap and try again. Kid’s taste change with age; what they didn’t like a few months back, they might start liking it after some time.

There are some more varieties of drinks you can offer them in intervals. Sometimes when they are looking for something chilling and nice like Oats Apple milkshake, Nimbu Paani (Lemonade), Sweet Lassi, Coconut water, Falooda, Buttermilk, sugarcane juice, Thandai (Prepared with milk, almonds, fennel seeds, saffron, etc.) Aam Panna (Raw mango drink with herbs) etc.

And how we can forget the master of all drinks, the “Turmeric milk”, which has numerous health benefits like it boosts immunity, detoxifies the liver, improves digestion, promotes weight loss, and helps relieve muscle pain.

When we try not to do what everyone is doing, we need more strength. You will always be surrounded by people who break the rules, don’t lead a disciplined life, and don’t follow a healthy lifestyle.

It’s easy to stop doing correct things and start following the mass. But it takes courage to go on with your principles and follow things that matter the most to you. We can help our children to have a disciplined approach towards life and teach them to learn a crucial lesson that being different is ok.