Playing With Food is Good or Bad?

Have you ever noticed how your children will have fun doing almost anything, as long as they are involved? How you buy expensive toys and still they can have more fun making paper airplanes because it is their creation?

The same principle holds for getting them interested in eating healthy food. To combat the waves of commercial advertising for less healthy foods get them involved in shopping, choosing fruit and vegetables, preparing them, Let them feel a level of control and input and see how their enthusiasm slowly (or quickly} grows .....

Kids love learning! They also love putting things in the shopping cart and feeling responsible. Have fun letting them choose fruit and vegetables, with your guidance and this will increase their motivation to prepare and try them.

Next step ..... get them helping in the kitchen! 

Children love nothing more than helping their parents (granted not all the time, but when it is made fun they do). The younger you can start them helping out after helping choose the fruit and vegetables they want the better and quicker this will go. 

Showing them different ways to prepare different items, how to cut them, ideas how to put them on a plate and how to serve them, making a "cooking video", there are many creative ways to get your children engaged in preparing healthy food.

Lastly back to the beginning and the age old question ..... Is it OK to play with food?

If incorporated into preparation this can be very useful. We are not talking about throwing food around, but make eating the food fun. Try pairing up foods, making food shapes to be recognised, use sliced up food and vegetables as snacks at family time and when friends come round, have a checklist of fruit and vegetables to be tried and mark them off as tried ...... every idea will add something positive to your journey.