Providing healthy lunch for children is not only important to support their physical growth. On the other hand, this will also help him stay focused mentally and emotionally while studying at school and continue his activities throughout the day. Unfortunately, sometimes not all the lunch you prepare is spent by your little one.
Child eating habits that are applied early on can in fact continue to develop and carry on until he grows up. Therefore, why not start trying to get children to make their own lunch? In this way, children will slowly become accustomed to adopting healthy eating patterns.
The importance of teaching children to prepare their own lunch
You may often find your child too picky about food, so they tend to reject some types of side dishes and vegetables on his plate or lunch box. Now, you want to encourage children to want to taste all kinds of healthy foods?
From now on, it never hurts to invite children to make their own lunch. In addition to being able to teach knowledge about nutrition from an early age, this method will gradually spur children to increase their intake of fruits, vegetables, and side dishes that they may not like.
More than that, well-fulfilled nutrition from food will certainly contribute positively to the child's long-term health. In other words, the risk of a child developing a chronic disease will decrease, according to a study in the Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
How to teach children to pack a healthy lunch
Some smart tricks that you can do to encourage interest in making lunch for school lunch, namely:
1. Open a chat about healthy food with children
If you are confused about where to start, you can start by inviting children to exchange ideas about the provision of daily lunches that you usually give. For example, whether they have loved it or not; is there anything that needs to be added or actually reduced; what usually makes them excited to spend their lunch; and so forth.
Explain that eating vegetables and fruit is important, because from here the body will get optimal vitamin and mineral needs. Or if the child has difficulty eating fish, explain that fish contains a lot of protein needed by the body. Say everything in a way that is fun, firm, but not too cornering the child.
2. Involve children when shopping
Inviting children to shop together to meet the food stock for a full week can make them more eager to prepare their own lunch. Free the child to choose what foods he wants to eat in the next week, but still pay attention to the variety of food so that all nutrients can be fulfilled.
In addition, this method will also help children to appreciate any food that will be served in their lunch box. Slowly but surely, here you actually have opened the desire of children to be more concerned and pay attention to the food they have brought to school.
Children also feel that their opinions are taken into account in the selection of food, both at home and in the lunch box.
3. Make provisions for all family members
So that the little one is more enthusiastic in preparing the provision of healthy eating, you should make the same provisions for all family members. Because the child generally will be easier to do something by imitating the behavior of the people around him.
So, be a good example for your little one. If you want your child to eat vegetables, fruits, and side dishes that are rarely touched, try starting this from the family.
Ask the child to compile his own portion of the meal, but with the contents of the food that is similar to the provisions of other family members. Over time, children will slowly try to like what their family members like.
4. Use creative ways when making lunch together
Maybe all this time you are accustomed to making school supplies that are just that, so it is not interesting. Now, you should replace the tricks of making "old" provisions in a way that children prefer. You can choose a place to eat that is easily opened and repackaged, but make sure it's not easy to spill.
Consider how much your child eats, not too much or lacking. To make it more appetizing, you can cut and shape fruits, vegetables, side dishes and rice in a size and shape that is more attractive to your child's taste.
When in the kitchen, don't forget to take the kid to joke and laugh. If your child spills something, for example, don't even be yelled at or scolded. This will make the lazy child into the kitchen and prepare lunch.