Archives for February 2017

This is a follow on from last week’s column for APN on how to feed your child healthily.
Now let’s take a moment to look at our globes current heath status: Right now in our developed countries, we are in obesity epidemic due to many thing’s, but often originating as poor eating habits developed in childhood and often involving the consumption of over abundant portion sizes and of the wrong types of foods, so keep this in mind for the next few paragraphs.

Feeding your child healthily is a massive challenge, even for those of us who know how to eat well. And our little darlings can also be so so so persuasive, so as parents, there’s a few challenges to face.

1) Firstly, let’s look at breakfast and keep it simple.
Whatever you eat here sets the tone for the entre day.
The sweeter your child’s breakfast is, the more they crave sugar for the whole day and are usually more moody and poorly behaved to boot.
So while we have been marketed towards to believe the cereal isle in the super market is the right place to shop, it’s not always the case.

2) Be firm, kind and patient.
Stick to your guns, don’t let them push you out of the boundary you’ve set but you can do it without losing your temper- I’ve noticed with my own children that they take more notice and respect more this way.

3) Remind yourself when you hear your child complain they are so hungry and need more snack foods: We are in an obesity epidemic; unless your child is in a third world country, don’t fall for this one. Instead, limit snacks to whole food vegetables or fruits and encourage them to eat their main meals more thoroughly. This covers all the bases and saves you money and limits wastage too.
Healthy Breakfast Ideas:
-Boiled/fried/scrambled or poached eggs with organic/gluten free toast and coconut oil/avocado.
-Smoothies: Milk of choice, ice or frozen banana, mango, berries, vanilla, honey, oat meal, lecithin granules, LSA (linseed, sunflower, almond meal), cooked quinoa, raw cacao (go slow, can make them a bit hyper).
-Unsweetened muesli with yogurt.
-Eggs and bacon with toast.
-Gluten free pancake mix; add in egg, cooked quinoa, cinnamon and vanilla extract.
-Gluten free Weetabix with milk, LSA, lecithin.
-Toast with coconut oil, vege spread (tastes like vegemite) and chia seeds.
-Raw chocolate chia pudding. (My book)

Healthy Main Meal Ideas:
-Spaghetti Bolognese (see A Diet in Paradise version-hide veggies)
-Stir fries with brown rice, quinoa or just veggies and a meat and natural sauces such as Organic Tamari sauce and toasted sesame oil (Spiral brand).
-Steak with salad or steamed veggies.
-Roast chicken, lamb, etc…
-Meatballs with veggies
-Stews
-Soups
-Tacos with lots of veg
-Curries (if they tolerate a mild spice).

Snacks
Fruit
Veggies
Nuts
Hummus with sakata rice crackers or unflavored ones. Seeds are ok, just not BBQ flavor, chicken flavor, etc…
Protein balls

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1) Firstly, I’ll remind you that no one is perfect and us mum’s are flat out busy already so when we contemplate the seemingly impossible task of helping our children to eat healthily, it can suddenly feel like an insurmountable gauntlet.
Even those of us who know how to eat healthily can still struggle with it, but it is actually really simple, we’ve made it hard because there is so much choice.

2) The next thing to remember is that it takes 10 introductions of the same food just for your child to even CONSIDER eating it!
So be patient, and just keep introducing healthy foods.

3) I find that having them eat their healthy food first and then giving them the food they want after is another good tip for your tool belt. (I make our own juices or smoothies and freeze them in Popsicle holders, or protein balls to give as a treat after they eat their meal.)

4) Begin to implement healthy foods as a normal part of each main meal and as snacks, which gets them used to expecting it over time.

5) Now think about your child’s eating from this perspective; if they are eating enough of their main meals, they shouldn’t require large, filling snacks that are anything other than fruit, veggies, nuts or rice crackers with hummus.

We have fallen into some unhealthy patterns due, probably mostly to clever marketing of snack foods, encouraging us to fill up our children on unhealthy packaged foods, but it actually throws their whole eating out of whack. WE have been tricked into thinking our kids should have elaborate snacks when they don’t need them and it actually stops them from eating their main meals properly.

So if you remove all snacks other than fruit, veggies, nuts or rice crackers with hummus, what happens? They eat less junk, it’s cheaper and they are also more likely to eat their main meals!

Follow next weeks article on part 2 of feeding fussy children. Find Honor on Facebook and Instagram