Help me feed my 4 yr old healthy food please!
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| I grew up eating junk food and still do. I jog everyday and I drink a lot of water so I've remained at the same weight. I now feed my child some junk food and I have no clue what healthy food to give him. Please give me snack ideas as well as dinner ideas. Thank you. |
Anonymous
| What kind of "junk" food? Make your foods as much fromscratch as possible and dont serve "kid" food. Add veggies. Fruits as snacks, or things with protein like string cheese, hummos, yogurt, etc. |
Anonymous
| Also, make one healthy meal for the whole family, dont make separate meals. Lead by example! |
Anonymous
| If you give examples of what he eats, people can suggest healthy substitutions to make. |
Anonymous
|
He eats cheese sticks, yougart, grapes, oranges, bananas, Mac and cheese (I make from scratch) steak, frozen fish sticks, broccoli and asparagus.
The junk food... He only eats lunchables for lunch, Pringles and a small chocolate bar. For breakfast he eats sugary cereal and eggs waffles or pancakes. He also eats ice cream everyday. I would like to substitute sugary cereal with something else but he will eat just those 3 items plus bagels. The junk food is usually to snack on so I'm looking for other healthy snack suggestions besides chocolate and chips. I see so many kids eating raw veggies and I feel awful that my kid is sitting with Oreos and a bag of chips. |
Anonymous
|
Why not give him some of the healthy food that he likes for lunch? Like the grapes and cheese? If he likes it, I don't know why you wouldn't build his lunches around it? Introduce more fruit if you can (cantaloupe, berries, etc. I try to buy one fun fruit a week for DD) if you think the veggies at lunch will be a tough sell, try putting a little tub of "dipping sauce" (seasoned hummus) with it. You can try sliced peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers with the "dipping sauce" too. A pb&j sandwich (if allowed)?
Breakfast we do whole grain waffle and organic syrup or cottage cheese and fruit, whole grain toast & peanut butter or butter and jam and fruit or "cheesey veggie eggs" (one egg with cheese in a microwave with diced tomato/spinach for one minute in a bowl). I try to highlight the good/cool part of the food - cheesey, dipping sauce, etc. hope this helps! |
Anonymous
|
We sound similar to 18:52. My three year old typically takes blueberries, cucumber slices, cheese, crackers, a small amount of nitrate free turkey, and a boxed milk the two days she goes to preschool. As far as fruit/veggies go, she also likes apple slices, baby carrots (we slice them in half), cut up grapes, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, cut up peppers (especially the red ones because that is her favorite color), peas, bananas, corn, pears, and probably some other things I can't remember. Any of those can easily be snacks!
Breakfast ideas: whole grain waffles, yogurt, cheerios, boiled eggs/scrambled eggs Dinner: She eats whatever we are having...typically a grilled meat or fish and vegetable. She really likes balsamic chicken (a Wegmans recipe), steak, and salmon. We also do pasta sometimes and try to stick to the kind that include extra protein or veggies. She really likes to dip that in pasta sauce. Ideas to help different types of cheese and fruit more appealing -- cut it up with small cookie cutters into fun shapes, make a rainbow plate with different choices, have him help you pick out things at the store and then prepare them. |
Anonymous
Honestly, to start with, he won't "only eat" if it's not available for eating. Buy one of those bento boxes and make your own lunchables. Organic, nitrate-free lunchmeat, fruit he likes, whole grain crackers or mini bagel or similar, organic cheese. Send water or milk, no juice. Once a week, let him have the treat of a mini chocolate bar or pringles, but not every day, and not if he's having ice cream every night. Don't have sugary cereal in the house. Either make waffles/pancakes from scratch using whole wheat flour or only buy the whole grain kinds in the frozen food aisle. My daughter is three and I try to make most of her snacks be fresh foods, but I do let some processed foods in. WHen I do, though, I try to make them somewhat healthy for the most part (other than goldfish, which she and I both love but eat in moderation - one of those small bags will last for a month in our house). Snack might be a handful of carrots or sugar snap peas and some goldfish or whole wheat crackers. Or a few slices of pear and a piece of cheese. When we're out and about, my go-to packaged snacks are the Plum Organics veggie shredz or the Earth's Best yogurt smoothies. Both are portable and she realizes they are a treat, but they aren't as awful as cheezits or something like that. Check out weelicious.com or her new cookbook. There are tons of ways to introduce new foods into your child's diet. Also, it's almost spring. I don't know where you live but farmer's markets are getting ready to kick into gear. Grow your own garden or at least a pot or two of carrots or strawberries or tomatoes. |
Anonymous
| Thank you, thank you all. I get it. I will give him the fruits and veggies he loves and add more of the same to it along with the organic, nitrate free meat. The other thing I caught on here is to not have the lunchable etc around. Thank you! |
Anonymous
|
I put a scoop of canned pumpkin, a little cinnamon, and a little ground cloves in homemade pancake and waffle mix (which is half whole wheat flour, half regular flour). Taste so yummy there is no need for syrup. Extra fiber and Vitamin A that way.
No lunchables. My son did go through a phase but I limited it to every Friday. I don't think they taste as good as other fresher, healthier things you can pack, if you out some thought and experimentation not it. My son just stopped asking for lunchables once the novelty wore off. Sub whole what for white bread. Add one extra fruit or veggie to each meal. Pro bugs kefir is a little pricy, but comes in a fun squeeze tube and packs tons of healthy probiotics. I do my own version of Egg Mcmuffin with no bacon. You could try it on a whole grain mini bagel. I do cut sandwiches with cookie cutters into shapes and try to make presentation fun. |
Anonymous
| *forgive all the spelling errors. |