Is your toddler a picky eater? Does he refuse food, turns his nose up at the sight of food or drives you crazy by not seeming to eat anything at all for days on end?

Healthy eating habits are key to child’s growth and development. Current lifestyle exposes toddlers to junk food at very early stage which leads to problems including child obesity.

Here are few tips through which we can build healthy eating habits of kids:

Eating Breakfast: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, even if it’s just a banana and a glass of milk, kick-starts the body and maintains lasting energy throughout the day

If you can get your kids to establish the habit of eating a good breakfast at a young age, it should stay with them as they get older.

Packing lunchbox: Put a little thought when packing the lunch box. Keep in mind their likes and dislikes and take them into consideration when packing their lunch. Finding a funny face sandwich in the lunch box is more likely to be eaten than the one without. Add love notes with some short and sweet messages along with food.

Make mealtimes about more than just food: Having meal together helps to understand the importance of healthy food and gives you family time. Eating together lets your kids see you eating healthy food while keeping your portions in check and limiting junk food.

Provide Healthy Choices: Offer your toddler a variety of foods like vegetables, pulses and curd. This is important for maintaining a balanced diet. Also, reduce the amount of sugar sweetened drinks and salt in your child’s diet.

Be creative with food: Use your creativity to make kids food more presentable which will help picky eaters to healthy food. Offer your kids a colorful snack of different fruits and berries, or chop vegetables into interesting shapes to make them seem more fun and exciting. Do fusions with food like fruit pizza, frozen yogurt, spinach idli etc. A little thought and creativity goes a long way.

Have fun in the kitchen/gardening: Children become adventurous eaters if they know or see how to cook. Let them have fun by providing them their own aprons and letting them help you regularly with small tasks in the kitchen. As they get older and more confident, let them cook dinner once a week.

Don’t give up: Be patient with kids and don’t give up. Try new or more exotic tastes. A good tactic to get kids to eat a wide variety of foods is to tell them that tasting new things is a sign they’re growing up.

Children are able to decide how much food they need for activity and growth if allowed to eat according to their appetite. Forcing children to ‘clean the plate’ or giving sweets as rewards may lead to problems of overeating later in life.

Allow your child to decide how much food is enough.  Eating healthy doesn’t takes a lot of effort.

If your child constantly refuses to eat, it is important to understand the reasons and then remedy them rather than forcing them to eat.