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With obesity rising rapidly in adults across the UK, keeping children a healthy weight and eating a balanced diet can be of significant concern to parents. However, attempting to encourage children to eat a variety of foods and not be more inclined to feed them the meals they enjoy most, which tend to be unhealthy, can be a difficult task. It is important that children maintain a balanced diet full of nutrition that will give them energy for their long days at school and the various out of school activities.

Although it is drilled into our heads as a society of how vital healthy eating is, we can often forget the real reasons why it is so important. There are so many benefits that come from eating well including; reduced cancer risk, prevention of strokes and heart attacks, strong bones and teeth and better mood, alongside the more obvious reasons of maintaining a healthy weight and reduced chance of Diabetes.

As a generation growing up surrounded by technology and social media, this can impact their eating habits and relationship with food and make controlling this a much more difficult task. However, there are lots of ways to encourage children to eat healthily and here are just a few of our suggestions.

Eating Together

Children are easily influenced, and most times look up to their parents or guardians to see what they should do and how they should act. For mealtimes, when you can, try to eat as a family. If they see you eating the foods you want them to eat, they’re more likely to eat it too. Meals can also be a sociable time that they enjoy and look forward to.

Involve Them 

Allow your children to take part in meal planning, perhaps give them a book full of recipes you’re willing to make and have them select a few for the upcoming week. Or take them along to the weekly shop and show them the variety of healthy foods they can choose from. This means they’ll feel included in the process and will be more inclined to eat the meals that they’ve helped in preparation for.

Maintaining Structure

Strict routine is a very important part of childhood especially when it comes to meals and habits. We would encourage that you eat breakfast, lunch and tea at the same time every day, or at least around the same time, so there is a structure in place. This may make children less likely to eat at specific times. Plan the meals for the week ahead so children know what they’ll be eating, and any changes can be made in advance.

Including all elements of the eat well guide

It is vital that children have a balanced diet and are eating food from all the categories. Here is a reminder of the 4 types of foods.

Starchy food consists of bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes amongst many others. These are crucial for children to eat at a young age, as they contain minerals and vitamins that are essential for your child’s growth.

Fruit and Vegetables are the obvious choice for healthy eating, try to get in your child’s 5 a day, but if you are struggling don’t worry about different forms of fruit and veg, you can try fresh, canned, tinned, dried or frozen.

Protein Foods include beans, fish, eggs and lentils, as well as various others. We recommend that your child should eat two portions of fish a week, with one being an oily fish meal e.g. Salmon or Trout. Meat is also a great source of protein but don’t feel limited to this as eggs, beans and lentils are great alternatives.

Milk and Dairy products provide children with a good source of calcium and protein, important for bone development, as well as the nerves and muscles. Alongside milk you can also encourage your child to eat natural yoghurt and cheese. Make sure that they are eating three servings of calcium every day, as children under five require more calcium-based food to help them grow.

Trying to keep children fit outside of school, along with their PE classes and team sports, can be hard enough but during school holidays particularly this challenge becomes even tougher.

It can be hard to think of fun and engaging forms of exercise and activities for them to partake in.

We’ve outlined some of the best ways to keep your children active during the Summer holidays.

Create an activity schedule

This is something that may seem simple and obvious but it’s something we often forget. By creating an activity schedule, you can plan for the week ahead the activities you want the kids to do, on what days and at which times. This is helpful as you’re much more likely to do something you have planned in advance and you can also vary what you do throughout the week.

Tip: Have the kids help you to plan so they can choose their favourite activities.

Vary it Up

When you plan your activities ensure that you add a variety of exercises rather than doing the same activity every single day. Doing the same activity, no matter how fun it was the first time, can become boring and may eventually feel like a chore.

It’s vital that the kids enjoy doing the activities set so they’re excited to do them. They will also pick up a larger collection of skills from various activities rather than just one.

Involve friends and family

Children often enjoy sports and fitness much more when they’re doing it with a group of other people, especially friends. At school, they’ll be used to doing PE with all of their classmates and any sports clubs with their teammates. During Summer, at least once a week try to arrange for them to meet up with a couple or so friends and do it together. Even if they’re friends are away it can be just as fun with family.

Gym or Swimming

This is totally dependent on the age of your children and what kind of activity they enjoy but this can be super helpful to motivate and encourage them. You can get a pass to your local swimming pool for children, swimming is a great form of exercise and also lots of fun.

For slightly older children and teenagers you could purchase a gym membership for the Summer where they can do various different forms of exercise or even take part in gym classes.

Keep active yourself

This final tip may seem a bit strange and you might wonder how this helps your children to keep active. But with them looking up to you as a role model, by seeing you maintaining your fitness level and continuing activities during the holidays, it will encourage them to do the same. You can also encourage them by talking about the benefits of keeping yourself active.

This step can encourage you to do activities together, this way you all are getting something out of it, and it can actually create some great family time.