Healthy Children
Sometimes I wonder if I should start an entire site about how to help children eat healthier! Unlike all those “health-nut” kids out there who willingly snack on kale, my kids are not like that. They love sugar and junk foods. Slowly I’ve gotten my children to transition to a more plant-based diet (there is still room for improvement though). This post will be about how I have eased them into a healthier, healing diet and some of the tricks/tips I have to offer.
On a side note, I am always wary of anyone who claims to have “all the answers” when it comes to children because the reality is that every child is different and what has worked with my children, might not work for yours. Being a teacher has taught me this. At the same time, we all need to stick together and support each other, so here are some lessons I’ve learned. If you have tips you’ve learned, please share!
Tip #1: Don’t force it
This seems obvious but we all need reminders. Nothing feels worse sometimes than reading about amazing ways to heal our children and then completely nose-diving when it comes to implementation. Young children are specifically resistant to change. Also tricky, is that if your child has a negative emotion or experience about eating an apple, they will hate all apples and anything associated with apples for a long time.
So Tip #1 is, “Don’t force it.” Children are how they are (resistant to change) and the reality is, we want them to love eating healthy for the rest of their lives. So as long as you have a goal in mind, be okay with getting there sloooowly. So the following tips are ways to gently introduce fruits and vegetables for life long appreciation (or at least, tolerance!) of healing foods. By the way, being too enthusiastic about a change is also “forcing it” in a kid’s mind. They’ll be instantly skeptical. So act like whatever you’re doing is no big deal.
Tip #2: Reduce the “no foods” while increasing healing foods
Now this seems straight forward, but if you have children like mine who love plain pasta with salt, then some clever marketing needs to happen! Here are some of the ways I am able to add better foods to each meal.
For breakfasts, my older son loves plain oatmeal so I add frozen blueberries to his oatmeal in the morning (the one fruit he will tolerate with oatmeal). Slowly, the blueberries and honey are increasing, and the oatmeal is decreasing. The other son used to only eat bacon and eggs and didn’t like anything out of routine. Slowly I got him eating GF toast with bacon and eggs, then just toast with eggs, then toast with sugar-free jam and an apple (with bacon, eggs, and toast on Saturdays), then slooowly, apples with some nuts and raisins, or bananas with cinnamon. This took awhile, but I worked with him to slowly lower the fat addiction and insert more fruits. Now, about two years later, he eats apples with a few almonds, shredded coconut, and dates for breakfast, oatmeal with cinnamon, or sometimes he likes sliced bananas with cinnamon.
Comments like the following come in handy, “You know what, I’m running out of groceries so breakfast will look a little different today. I still have a bit of (insert name of food the child loves), but I have some (insert healthier option here) for you too in case you’re still hungry, okay?”
Lunches remain tricky as most schools are nut-free. Again, go slowly, if your child is eating high-fat and tons of crackers, granola bars, and bread.
Here are some tricks I’ve learned for kids lunches although I’m always looking for more tips! First of all, pasta isn’t all pasta. My kids love pasta but there are amazing noodles now made with lentils and brown rice, or millet and brown rice! If your child is still eating white flour pasta, try transitioning to something that looks the “right” colour first. Buying a gluten-free pasta that has cool shapes might also go over better. Over time, pack less and less of the pastas and grains, and more and more cut-up fruits! Find out what fruits and veggies your child will eat and if they eat that, give it to them every day. My youngest used to only eat apples, so I would let him eat about 10 apples a day. So it’s a little bit of GF bread or pasta now, and lots of apples, carrots, and frozen mango chunks (new faves). An appreciation for variety will come as they grow older. It’s okay. My oldest son already loves more savoury foods so he often gets brown rice tortillas with refried beans and fresh salsa on the side. Perfect!
For dinner, I try to make food my children like because I want them to eat well before sleeping. However, I DO let them get hungry before dinner and when they want a snack, guess what?! Fruits and veggies! The scenario looks like this:
Child laying on the floor whining: Mom, I’m soooo hungry!
Mom doing twenty things at once: Just making dinner honey! It’s (insert the food the child likes)! It’ll be ready in about twenty minutes. Do you want some cut up peppers?”
Child looking at mom with disgust: Ew! I hate peppers! YOU KNOW THAT! (Child may start crying…)
Mom sympathetically and lovingly: Hmm, (thinking) how about some cut-up apples then or bananas with cinnamon?
Child looks sceptical: bananas with cinnamon.
Child eats cut up bananas with cinnamon and Mom gets a WIN! Now the child fills up with some food that is healing their body, instead of just another plate of grains.
Will dinner be a little later because you had to spend time cutting up some bananas? That’s okay, the bananas are dinner too! While you’re at it, ask the other child if they want some apples or bananas or whatever fruit your child likes. Fruit smoothies are also, quite often a hit.
Tip #3: Make it look good!
I’m not talking about advanced food styling here, but a few lonely shrivelled veggies on a plate will never fly for our little folk. So a few ways I like to encourage healthier snacks are:
1. Making a smiley face on the plate
2. Presenting the food in an interesting way (i.e. cucumber noodles, hurricane potatoes, cucumber coins, stacks of different veggies together)
3. Picking the food from the garden together. Everybody says it: gardening with your littles and pulling it out of the earth is often enticing! It’s the only time my children eat kale or chives. It’s fun to pick it! Try growing something!
Tip #4: Cover your bases
I am comfortable taking risks with my own diet and health, but I’m not so comfortable doing that with my children. I’ve made too many mistakes along the way to risk hurting my children. If my children want meat, I definitely give them meat (organic, pastured healthy meats) and if they want grains, I give them grains (Gluten-Free and Corn-Free). The idea is to encourage variety, increase the fruits and veggies, and increase hydration.
I’ve also started giving my kids a multi-vitamin. I think even with lots of fruits and veggies, the multi-vitamin keeps me a little calmer on days when they will only eat one kind of food. (Try to find a multi-vitamin without natural flavourings and/or citric acid.)
Tip #5: Celery Juice
Through hell and high waters, I have tried to get my boys to drink celery juice by they refuse. Thankfully, I’ve just gotten them drinking one cup of celery apple juice. First I juice the apple, then juice celery until I have enough to fill two cups. I give it to my boys when they first wake up and then by the time we sit for breakfast, it’s been about 15 – 20 minutes. This has been one of the most remarkable steps forward for both of my children. Not only are their symptoms healing but they are starting to be more open to trying new foods and actually ask to eat certain veggies now. (I literally did a double-take when son #2 asked me for cut up carrots out of the blue.) This has made Tip #2 (increasing fruits and veggies) much more easy than in the past as they increase in their own awareness of how food affects them and what foods make them feel their best. If you’re going to start somewhere, start with celery apple juice if you can.
[Update] My goal has always been to get my kids drinking celery juice but they gag and cry every morning. Celery Apple juice helped a lot but as soon as I started minimizing the apple, they complained. I realized, if I was going to have to fight about something, I might as well take a stand about straight-up celery juice. I now make my kids drink it every morning. They complain but I just keep telling them Why I give it to them and Why I think it’s important that they drink it. I’ve been pretty firm about it because I realized that’s it’s important for their health and wellness.