The habits that children form when they are young are what they will carry with them as adults and further on to last a lifetime. So it is important to nurture good eating habits and expose them to healthy foods, in their younger days, so that they opt for those when they grow up by default. Moreover, as a parent, you can have the most control over your kid’s food when he/she is very young. If all they eat is healthy food that is what they will prefer when they get older.
Here are ways in which you can inculcate healthy eating habits in your children:
1. 
Check the refrigerator:
Children eat what they see in the refrigerator and on the shelves. Hence, it is important to store healthy foods, so that your child will not have access to junk snacks and will habitually start liking healthy items.
2. Be a role model:
A child learns the behavior patterns and tries to emulate his elders at home. Make sure, you practice what you preach as your actions have a great effect on your kid’s responses as they tend to do the same thing that you do. Whenever the family sits together, provide the same healthy set of choices for everyone and don’t eat that which you do not intend giving your child. And if you want, do it when kids are away or sleeping.
3. Make boring foods interesting:
Children often avoid healthy foods, but when those same foods are made interesting, they have it with joy and even ask for more. For instance, when kids avoid rotis, you can actually fry the rotis in a little oil and add sprinkle spices and some coriander to it and your kid would lick his fingers. Similarly, with apples, you can blend apples in a blender and mix it with milk and some sugar to make a smoothie, for a child who hates eating apples.
4. Do not use food as a reward - ever.
Because if you do, there can be long term implications that may not be in your favor nor in the favor of your child’s health. This habit can make his eating habits go weird and also can make him obese as he would judge everything in terms of food. This will make them feel that every outing, every activity, everything they do, must be accompanied by a high calorie snack.
5. Be well-informed:
Your child is much ahead of you in terms of awareness and curiosity. And if you do not meet his levels, especially when it comes to food, he is sure to eat exactly what you don’t want him to. Hence, educate yourself so that when your children do ask for particular foods, you can explain your answer. If you do not want your child to eat junk foods that contain trans fats, make sure you refrain from it too. Be ready with suggestions and explanations when your child asks for something which you think is a bad idea.
6. Teach your kid to read labels
Take your kids to grocery shopping and visit a superstore with the best quality of produce. Also, teach them the way to read labels and the importance of it and also involve them in the decision making pertaining to kitchen.
7. Food and screen time – separate always
This is one habit which if formed, during childhood, remains with the kid as he grows up. Hence, it is important that you inculcate the importance and the sensibility associated with separating watching TV, or computer and eating food.
8. Cook together
Be a chef with your kids helping you in the kitchen on their holidays. Tell them you are trying a health recipe and that way you can make them aware of the way a dish is prepared and they will enjoy food eating as well as preparing.
9. Free them on holidays
You have been restricting them from soft drinks and colas and too many chocolates on a daily basis. But now that they are in a party or on a holiday, you can make exceptions. Children will always want their treats especially when they are with others and on special occasions. Also, binging on their favorite foods, on rare occasions, will not make them fat. Children get fat because they consistently consume more calories than they burn. That means you should worry about daily patterns, not holidays.
Keep these tips in mind and see your child row into a healthy individual who knows to make the right health choices too.
