Healthy Parents and Kids

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When planning meals always be sure that there are plenty of fresh vegetables, lean meats and fruit on hand. Make kid happy meals like fried chicken baked in the oven so that there is much less fat and when adding vegetables to the meal say broccoli add cheese sauce. It seems to be easier to get kids to eat them then. If they prefer French fries to other ways of preparing potatoes do something different like cut up potatoes wedges and add some salt and pepper and bake them in the oven. They will some out crisp, brown and delicious. Make sure your kids are getting plenty of sleep every night. They should have a regular weekday schedule of when they get up and when they go to sleep. About an hour before their bedtime make sure they are already getting ready and washing up. Then just before bed some quiet time like reading to them. Make sure that at this time all computers and TV are shut off not to distract or excite the kids. I remember it was easy for my mom to get me ready for bed because nearby to where we lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York there was a church that rang its chimes every night at 9 PM and that meant time for me to get to bed. Don’t let your kids hear you say negative things about food. Like this is fattening or I shouldn’t be eating this. It might be fine for you but your kids get it in their heads and if these are things they should be eating you know they won’t eat them because you said they were bad. Kids love sweet stuff encourage them to eat less candy. Keep some chocolate or cookies at home and on the occasion or once a day give them a treat. They did their homework a piece of chocolate or a cookie. Since I knew that I wouldn’t get sweets all the time I found other kinds of food to enjoy such as taking a piece of bread and soaking it in milk and then eating it. With kids around the house always make sure you keep pre-cut vegetables, fruit and plenty of lean protein snacks like hard-boiled eggs, string cheese or peanut butter. Keep these ready cut and made in containers. It’s so much easier for kids coming home from school knowing that mom has some healthy snacks around just to grab and go. Parents should always make sure that kids drink enough water and other liquids like juice and milk. Don’t keep too many sugar-sweetened drinks at home. Parents who enjoy drinking a diet soda or other kinds keep them tucked away from the kids. They will be better off without these drinks. If kids enjoy the occasional soda take some soda water or perhaps club soda and add fruit juice to it. Buy flavored mineral water. Make sure they don’t snacks between meals. The biggest problem is snacks because they are readily available and kids sure love potato chips, pretzels and other salty crunchy things. Encourage them to eat healthy food by allowing them one day a week to have some snacks. You can purchase the little snack packs of chips and other stuff and say on a Saturday let them have a package or two. It’ll give them something added to look forward to when the weekend comes. It will also keep them healthier and knowing that they will get their snacks on the weekend won’t make them too disappointed not to have snacks during the week. Have a family movie night over the weekend and make a large bowl of popcorn. When making the popcorn avoid the butter and add the salt liberally and to compensate for less salt add any kind of your favorite grated cheese and mix it through the popcorn. Keep yourself and your kids happy and healthy and it will benefit all of you.