Get Everyone Involved With Mealtimes

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Article Summary

The importance of home cooking goes far beyond its nutritional value. Planning, preparing and eating family meals together is both fun and educational, and encourages children to be adventurous in their tastes from an early age. After all your hard work, sit down together and enjoy dinner! FOOD

If mealtimes are always a joyful time, then you can encourage your children to try new foods, without forcing or bribing. Also, if you have cooked something new and exotic for the adults, try to persuade your older child just to try a small amount. If the baby is into copying her big brother, she’ll probably want a tiny taste too.

Always make mealtimes a happy, relaxed occasion when you are not in a hurry and can sit and chat and let the children eat slowly. Ask your partner or a relative to help you with the cooking, as meals prepared and eaten at home are usually more nutritious and healthy than readymade meals. They contain more fruits, vegetables, and dairy products along with additional nutrients such as calcium, and natural sources of vitamins A and C. It is also good for your children to understand the importance of knowing how to plan and prepare meals. So make it fun, and involve your older child in the food preparation.

For instance, he can count the strawberries, or fill a cup with peas, to help you get the meal ready. Or he can help you lay the table. This will not only make him feel accomplished but even develop his number knowledge as he distributes one knife, one fork, one spoon, to each place at table. Also, involve the whole family in menu planning and writing a shopping list. It will make everyone feel involved and save you time when organising your daily routine.

Also read about toddler snacks

http://pampers.ph/en_PH/content.do?type=101&contentId=2321

And tempting toddlers taste buds

http://pampers.ph/en_PH/content.do?type=101&contentId=2323

Category Tags:

Health

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Nutrition

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Meal Planning

Article Tags:

healthy meals

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bonding