Raising Healthy Eaters: 5 Things You Should Never Do

When it comes to raising healthy eaters, there are lots of little strategies you can employ to steer your kids in the right direction—from taking them grocery shopping to making vegetables as present as possible at every meal. RELATED: 3 Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas for Kids But there are also things you really shouldn’t do. The “don’ts” are common behaviors you may not even think twice about, but they can have a real impact on your kids. Things like forcing them to finish their meals instead of teaching them how to understand their unique hunger cues. Or using food as the centerpiece of a reward system to encourage good behavior. (The last one is so prevalent it’s embedded in our culture. Give a crying kid a lollipop, right? Or promise them a cookie if they’ll just stop screaming in line at the bank?) RELATED: 3 Easy, Healthy Snacks Your Kids Will Actually Eat In this video, Keri shares her top 5 “don’ts” for raising healthy eaters, why each is important, and how to avoid them. Watch her explain, below. Raising Healthy Eaters: The Don’ts

5 Smart Tips to Get Kids to Eat Healthy

Your little ones might be overeaters, undereaters, picky eaters, or sugar obsessed. Whatever their hang ups, they’re likely not begging for kale salad—and most parents have a hard time teaching kids healthy eating habits. (You’re not alone!) While you may not be able to get them to believe roasted sweet potatoes are just as delicious as french fries by tomorrow, there are plenty of things you can do to steer them in the right direction now. RELATED: 3 Easy, Healthy Snacks Your Kids Will Actually Eat In this video, Keri shares five “dos” for getting picky kids to eat better. All of her tips are easy to incorporate into your normal routine right away, from taking them with you to the farmers’ market or grocery store (bonus: quality time together!) to getting them used to seeing vegetables at every. single. meal. They may not know you’re even pushing them in a healthier direction, but over the long-term, behaviors that align with eating well will be embedded in their lives. How to teach kids healthy eating habits: The Dos

3 Healthy (Simple!) Dairy Snacks Your Kids Will Love

It’s not hard to get kids to eat dairy. Mac ‘n cheese. Ice cream. Grilled cheese. (Can’t you just see their excited smiles?) But while all of those foods do technically provide protein and calcium, they do it while also delivering excess calories, carbs, sugar, or even chemical ingredients (yuck). Good news: There are other, healthier ways to provide the nutritional benefits of dairy regularly without the bad stuff. (Of course we’re not saying you should deprive them of summer ice cream cones…we’re just talking on a daily basis!) Try these three healthy dairy snacks, all of which are super simple and convenient. Your kids will actually be happy to eat them. 3 Healthy Dairy Snacks 1. Chocolate Smoothie This post-workout smoothie for adults is also perfect for kids, for a sippable afternoon snack (or healthy breakfast). It’s made with two kid-fave ingredients—chocolate milk and peanut butter. Just skip or reduce the amount of protein powder to fit pint-sized nutritional needs. 2. GoGo SqueeZ YogurtZ GoGo SqueeZ YogurtZ are made with real yogurt and fruit (with nothing artificial added) and provide protein, vitamin D, and calcium. The best part? Kids love the squeezable pouches, which are great for snacking on the go (on the way to baseball practice, for instance). Bonus: they come in four scrumptious flavors—strawberry, berry, blueberry, and banana—and they don’t even need to be refrigerated, so you can keep them in your bag or in the car to prevent hangry meltdowns. 3. Antipasto for Kids Antipasto may sound like food for Italian grandparents, but kids love snackable spreads. They also love salty foods, so if you put out squares of parmesan cheese with veggies, olives, and healthy crackers after school, they’ll nosh on the cheese while also reaching for tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers. This blog was created in partnership with GoGo squeeZ.

How to Handle Fussy Eaters

Fussy eaters tend to sound something like, “I’m not eating that!!” “Y-U-C-K!” Or, “I only want butter and pasta mom!” Kids and their food can be tricky to navigate. What to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, what’s acceptable junk, how much junk is too much, how few veggies are not life threatening… all these thoughts dominate many parents’ days as they try to feed their fussy eaters and navigate their likes and dislikes like a full time job. Whether you’re a parent or not, most likely you’ve seen or been exposed to the spectrum of issues that arise when it comes to kids and their food. Everything from overeating, to under-eating, to picky-eating, to straight up sugar fiends, to wondering what’s lurking in the store bought version of your homemade faves, it’s hard not to worry about whether your child is eating properly. I’ve had many clients come to me with issues involving their fussy eaters liking “nothing” and refusing to eat, only to come back to me 5 years down the line concerned that their child is overweight, or is a junk food junkie, or is sneaking food. So figuring out how to avoid this tug of war in the first place is key, and if you think you’ve lost the battle already I want to encourage you to keep at the good food fight. There’s a whole spectrum of concerns and solutions and by no means is there one easy answer but the 5 tips I talk about in the below video are what I’ve found to be most helpful in getting your kids to eat healthy and most importantly develop a healthy relationship with food. How to Handle Fussy Eaters