It’s not unusual for children to have bad diets, unfortunately. When they’re little and we can control what they eat, we can ensure they’re eating healthy foods. As they grow up, however, they develop their own tastes as far as food is concerned. They may only like to eat macaroni and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. How do you get them to eat fruits and vegetables, too?

Children learn by example in almost everything. If they see parents, siblings, and friends eating potato chips and drinking soft drinks, they’ll want to eat those as well. The reverse is true; if they see everyone eating fresh fruits and vegetables they’ll be more likely to follow suit. So, if you want your children to become healthy eaters, the adults in the family will want to set the pace.

Offer your child healthy foods for snacks. Rather than giving them cookies or candy for a snack, offer fresh fruit like apples, oranges, or grapes, depending upon your child’s age. If you don’t have junk food in your home, your child won’t learn to eat it.

Experts say to offer your child a new food at least twenty times before they’ll eat it. If you’re introducing a new food, put just a bite on their plate. Ask them to taste it; if they don’t want to try it immediately, don’t push them. Each meal you serve that food, continue to put a bite on their plate and ask them to taste it. Before too long they’ll do at least that.

Be sure you’re not introducing too many new foods at once. In fact, it’s better if you only introduce one new food at a time until your child starts eating it. This means that if you’re trying to get your child to eat peas, wait until you’ve had success with those before you introduce Brussels sprouts.

If the food is on their plate, let them play with the food. They may roll the food around on their plate, make faces in it by putting other food into it, or some other creative idea. If you allow them to play with the food, it won’t seem so intimidating.

Even though you might be tempted, don’t hide vegetables in something you fix. This might backfire on you. Although your intention to get your child to eat vegetables is good, they may decide to stop eating whatever you’ve hidden the vegetables in from now on.

Your own parents probably made you finish everything on your plate “because there are poor, malnourished children all over the world.” You don’t have to follow in your parent’s eating style. If your child doesn’t want to eat anymore, don’t make them finish their plate.

Give them what they like, to a point. If they like eating hot dogs, look for ones that have lower fat content. If they want ice cream buy the single serving sizes so they won’t be tempted to eat more than they need.

It’s not easy having a child who’s a picky eater, but you can survive it. Follow these do’s and don’ts of encouraging children to become healthy eaters. It may not happen overnight, but if you’re persistent it will happen.

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Make it Fun

Children never want to do anything they are told, so you have to make kids fitness and nutrition fun if you have any hope of turning them into healthy individuals. You can make fun faces out of fruits and vegetables on their plate, or invent some fun activities that they can do with their friends in the backyard. The key is that it should be something that they would ask you to do not something that you would ask them to do.

Let Them Help

This technique works especially well when you are trying to get your children to eat healthy, but it can work for fitness just as well. Get your children involved in the kids fitness and nutrition routine. They can help you make healthful meals, or plan a family outing that includes lots of activity. Whatever it is, make sure that you do it together. They will have fun getting your attention and getting to call some of the shots, and you will get a healthier and happier child.

Get Up and Move

Too many families have gotten into the routine of sitting around the house when there is a day off. You canâ??t expect your children to be interested in health and fitness if you aren’t. So, instead of planning a day on the couch with a movie, why not take the weekend to go camping and hiking outdoors. This will be an enjoyable family trip, and will get you and your kids up and moving.

Try Being Sneaky

Sometime you have to pull out all of the stops to ensure that kids fitness and nutrition is a success. If your children absolutely refuse to each vegetables, then sometimes you have to sneak them in. Now there are even products on the market that can help. For example, there is juice that now comes with vegetables in it but it still tastes like fruit juice. If your children are old enough to read the bottle, just pour it into a container before they can see it. Every little bit helps when it comes to keeping your kids healthy.

The key to kids fitness and nutrition is to do it as a family and to make it fun. If you can get your children involved in the process, then half the battle is already won. Take the time to look over the ideas above, and start focusing on healthier and happier kids today.

Written by Dave O’Sullivan Co-Creator of Team NutraFun.