How To Get Kids To Eat Healthy Snacks

There’s been a big emphasis on kids’ health recently. With childhood obesity on the rise, there’s no wonder people are trying to figure out ways to get kids to be healthier. One easy place to start is diet.

 Ways to get kids to eat healthy snacks

Let them see you eat healthy snacks.
Kids love mimicking their parents. Especially if they are young. If they see you eating chips and cookies all the time, they will want to eat chips and cookies all the time. If they see you eating fruits and veggies, they will think those are normal snacks. Let the kids see you eating healthy snacks and they will be more likely to want to eat them.

Offer non food rewards for eating healthy snacks.
In order to reinforce good behavior, give rewards. Do your kids like playing with Puzzles or LegoDuplo? If you usually only let them play for 30 minutes, extend their play time to an hour. Let them watch a television show that they don’t usually get to watch. The key is to find something that doesn’t involve food to help them remember that healthy snacks are a good thing to eat.

Experiment until you find healthy snacks they like eating.
With all of the fruits and vegetables that exist, there are bound to be a few that your kids will eat. As long as there are no allergies, there is nothing wrong with giving the kids a variety of different fruits and veggies until you determine which ones your kids enjoy eating. Once you find out what fruits and veggies your kids like, be sure to have tons of them on hand so they will have no excuse not to eat healthy snacks. It can be easier during the hot weather as there are lots of fresh fruits and vegetables available such as watermelon, berries. They are great healthy summer snacks

Reduce the availability of unhealthy snacks.
I’m not suggesting that you have to do anything as drastic as getting rid of all of your chips and cookies. However, if there are more healthy options available, your kids will have no choice but to eat healthy. Let the unhealthy treats be reserved for special occasions.

Show them what can happen to their bodies if they don’t eat healthy snacks.
If your kids are older, you can show them examples of what happens to your body if you continue to eat unhealthy snacks. Find websites with pictures of what happens to internal organs after years of not eating the right foods. Seeing what happens over time will give them some insight as to why you are so focused on them eating healthy snacks now.

With commercial upon commercial advertising chips and cookies, it can be quite challenging to get your kids to eat healthy snacks. You can help a lot by modeling healthy eating yourself. It can also help if you always have healthy snacks in the kitchen for your kids to eat. Changes take time to become habits. Give your family time to transition from unhealthy behaviors to healthy ones. It may take weeks or it may take months. You’re not going to undo a lifetime of unhealthy food choices in one day. Be patient with your family as they make the adjustment to eating healthy snacks.

What do you do to help your family eat healthy meals? Leave your tips in the comment section below.

5 thoughts on “How To Get Kids To Eat Healthy Snacks”

  1. In between our main meals I always keep a handful of healthy and easy options available for the kids. I put out a plate of cheese, fruit, and crackers or a bowl of carrots with some humus. That way they don’t even have to ask for the bad snacks because they’re already enjoying the good!

  2. I try to keep the healthy snacks at their eye level in the fridge. They usually grab what they see, it definitely helps, all good tips!

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