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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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