Nutritious meals and snacks are extremely important during early childhood. This is a vital time for growth and development and for forming good eating habits. It is also a time for healthy tooth development. Snacks are important to help curb your children’s hunger, so they don’t get cranky. It is also a great time to add key nutrients to their diets. The CDC sites many advantages of developing healthy eating habits in children:
To fuel your children’s interest in new, nutritious food choices, let them help you prepare their snacks and meals. Make the food choices fun and colorful. There are so many terrific snack ideas for kids on the internet. You might be surprised by how many new foods your children will try, and hopefully eat, when the food looks fun and inviting.
At our pre-school, we used healthy foods in a variety of activities to build healthy eating habits and reinforce our math and language lessons. One activity the children always enjoyed was making a Thanksgiving feast. They would help make sandwiches using a turkey shaped cookie cutter to cut the bread, turkey sandwich meat and cheese. We used white cheese for the eyes along with black olives for the pupils, and orange cheese for the beak with a small piece of red pepper for the wattle. They LOVED it.
Two other fun activities were to first sort the pieces of fruit from their fruit kabobs (by type and by color) and then to make a math pattern with the pieces, such as: strawberry, kiwi, banana, strawberry, kiwi, banana. Their parents were amazed at how many new foods their children ate and how much they learned at the same time.
Note: Always check for food allergies when introducing new items to your list of healthy food choices.
Drinks are equally important. According to HealthyChildren.org, children ages 4-8 should drink between 4-5 cups of water per day. Water is vital for the health of their muscles and organs, so they should drink throughout their day.
Staying hydrated helps children perform and feel their best. One way to encourage your children to drink water is to let them pick out their water bottles for the day and have them help you fill them up. You can also infuse their water with lemons, cucumbers, oranges, berries, or even mint. At my preschool everyone brought in their own water bottles. We had frequent water breaks throughout the day, especially when playing outside.
