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Healthy Eating Habits

Teaching healthy eating habits

Teaching healthy eating habits

You can help your preschooler learn about healthy eating habits in a variety of ways. Here are some ideas.

  • Provide nutritious food choices. Serve a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, lower-fat dairy products, and lean poultry and meats.
  • Limit foods with excess calories and little nutrition. Try to keep sweetened beverages and sugary snacks to a minimum in your home. Teach your child that these foods are "sometimes" foods and should not be eaten every day.
  • Offer appropriate serving sizes of all foods. Start with one-quarter to one-third of an appropriate adult serving and offer more if your child is still hungry. Adult serving sizes are too big for her small stomach to handle.
  • Let your child see you enjoying nutritious foods. Young children like to imitate what they see. It's one of the many ways that they learn behaviors. So act as a good role model for healthy eating and even if you don't like a particular food, try not to show it.
  • Make favorites more nutritious. Substitute lower-fat ingredients in recipes and use whole-grain alternatives. If your family loves pizza, make it more nutritious by using a whole wheat crust, part-skim cheese, turkey pepperoni, and lots of vegetable toppings.

Still unsure about what to serve your preschooler for breakfast, lunch, and even snack time? Let us help!

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