If your kids are like mine were when they were younger, one of your biggest mealtime struggles is to find creative ways to serve healthy foods that kids will actually eat.  Here are 6 ways we helped our children to eat healthy.

How Can You Get Your Kids to Eat Healthier?

Lead by Example with Family Nutrition

If parents do not make consistent healthy food choices, kids will not be open to healthy eating. Don’t forget that kids are pretty smart. They pick up on our habits very quickly.

Substitute Healthier Choices for Favorite Foods

Most families have favorite foods that they love to eat including pizza, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, cookies and so on. One thing I tried to do was to choose the healthiest version of these foods whenever possible.

For example, I would purchase organic, nitrate-free hot dogs with whole wheat buns if my family wanted them, or I would make macaroni and cheese from scratch instead of serving the scary boxed version with the orange powder.

Refuse to Purchase High Sugar Soft Drinks

You might not believe this, but we never had soft drinks in the house when our children were young except for very rare occasions. As a result, our daughters never developed a taste for these super high-sugar and carbonated drinks. They did however enjoy fruit juices, so our solution was to dilute any juice we served to about 50% water to reduce the sugar content.

Involve Kids in Preparing Meals

Involve Your Kids in Meal Preparation to Encourage Healthy Eating

Most children enjoy being in the kitchen, so why not involve them in preparing meals?  This sparks curiosity and creates interest in eating the healthy foods they have helped to prepare. A few good resources for cooking with your children and helping them to eat healthier are:

Add Nutritious Ingredients to Pizza, Sauces, Breads

Make Pizza More Nutritious to Get Your Kids to Eat it!

One of our favorite foods at home is home-made pizza. I would often sneak grated carrots, zucchini, sweet peppers and other fresh vegetables into the sauce and then layer on the cheese to “hide the veggies.”

For sweet breads and muffins, we added raisins, grated carrots, bananas, berries or nuts to our favorite bread recipes.

Make Healthy Foods Fun and Kid-Friendly

Moms who really want to inspire their kids to eat healthy can help a great deal by making nutritious foods more appealing to the eye. There is nothing less kid-friendly than staring into a plateful of brown or yellow foods.  Here are a few quick and very effective ideas to help you boost your food’s eye appeal.

• Muffins - dress up your healthy muffin recipes by putting them in party cupcake liners.
• Veggies - instead of soft, boring, cooked vegetables, put colorful veggies out on a party platter with healthy salad dressing as a “dip” at dinnertime.
• Oatmeal - oatmeal is boring, but if you add fresh fruit, nuts, maple syrup or brown sugar with some organic milk or coconut milk, it becomes a fun and colorful breakfast.
• Parfait - instead of high calorie, high fat desserts with almost no nutritional value, why not make a healthy parfait? Put a layer of organic vanilla yogurt, followed by a layer of fresh berries or fruit, then add a sprinkle of granola; repeat. For added kid-friendliness put the parfait in glass dessert cups!

Kids may need a little help from time to time to stay on track with making healthy food choices. However, parents can lead by example, encourage children to be involved in meal preparation and offer a variety of eye-catching healthy foods on a regular basis so that the entire family is eating well.