How to train children in ""healthy eating""

Those who have children are well aware that during the first two to three years of life, the child changes faster than ever before. In science, this unique window of time in a person's life - i.e. the period between conception and approximately the third year of life – is called "window of opportunity" This is because during the period of the first 1000 days or so, the brain develops rapidly and thus exhibits enormous plasticity. This brain plasticity enables children to learn an enormous amount within a very short time, such as crawling, sitting, walking and finally speaking. Conversely, this means: Never again can a child be so strongly influenced and shaped as in this unique time-frame. One more reason for parents to look into the imprinting of their own children. But even if we missed this unique phase, we should not bury our heads in the sand. Also slightly older children from the age of 4 up to the teenage years learn a lot from their parents. In the lower sections we will deal with a sub-field of imprinting, the so-called food imprinting. We will look into the following question and give practical advice: How can we influence our children in such a way that they become ""health conscious"" their whole lives, i.e. choosing the healthier option each time?

Read more / 6 useful advices for a healthy child nutrition

Useful advices for parents

1) Set a good example

Children are world champions in imitating their parents, because this is how they learn most things. So it makes sense how important it is for parents to set a living example to their children by eating healthy food themselves.

2) Enjoy meals together

Regularly eating together with the whole family is twice beneficial: While the parents decide what is served, the parents can show and explain to the children what each food product is good for. You can best combine this by telling a realistic story about the individual healthy components of the meal, e.g. ""Carrots help you to see better because they contain vitamin A"" or more childlike phrasing ""Muesli for breakfast is good and healthy because the oatmeal helps to clean our intestines from "bad bacteria", etc..

3) Create a healthy environment

Children at home only eat what they find in the fridge or in the pantry. This means for parents that healthy food imprinting begins when shopping. Ideally, at the beginning you should go shopping without children, because supermarkets offer them many temptations. If the children join you, you can specifically select which shelves you want to avoid.

4) Combining healthy eating with pleasure

Parents often reward their children with sweets. Why not simply turn the tables? Fun-cut raw vegetables like carrots shaped into a crown or a cucumber throne taste just as good. Then wrap it into a lovely story with a king or a princess.

5) Cooking with children

This is alreday our next tip: Involve children when cooking. This way, children will learn, in a playful way, how to prepare healthy food.

6) Create birthday-parties using healthy food

Of course, a tasty birthday cake should not be missing. How much sugar it contains and what ingredients it is made of can be easily influenced by us. Meanwhile, there are many ""delicious"" recipes with little sugar and fine fruits or vegetables as main ingredients. How about a juicy zucchini cake in a green Shrek look? Or else, apple-rose muffins for Sleeping Beauty? If parents also tell a lovely story when serving the cake, it will be associated with good food for a lifetime. You can find good and at the same time healthy recipes based on our two Kids Crunch crunchy mueslis, inspired by beaver Bobby and squirrel Elly here.