March is National Nutrition Month—a perfect time to Make Nutrition Fun!

Make Nutrition Fun

It’s important that learning about foods & nutrition is fun for kids. Kids are naturally curious and it makes sense to use that curiosity to learn about the food they eat. Sometimes (wellmeaning) adults complicate things by trying to teach kids about vitamins or fiber or carbs. Mostly kids want to know if the food tastes good!

The theme this year is Food Connects Us. I love it! You know I say this all the time—Food IS Connection.

Food is something that we share with friends and family. Whether celebrating a birthday or gathering to honor a loved one who has passed on, we bring food to share with each other. There are traditional foods that we make around holidays and we pass those recipes on from generation to generation.

Food Connect Us.

Connect with your kids by making nutrition fun!!

How do we bring in the fun?

Here are a few ways to learn about food:

1. Cook together. Cooking together is fun & offers a low-pressure way to introduce kids to new foods.
   • Get kids washing produce, chopping lettuce & mixing and adding ingredients
   • Watch a cooking video together
   • Let kids use tools such as a safety knife or a veggie chopper
   • Put older kids in charge of dinner one night and let them plan, shop & prepare a meal
2. Have a Try It Night
   • Allow kiddos to choose a new food, prepare & serve it
   • Let kids get fancy- serve on a tray with tiny picks, wear a chef’s apron
   • Encourage everyone to take a bite
   • Record results on a chart for everyone to see (yes/maybe/no)
3. Describe foods in a neutral way:
   • This raw greenbean is crunchy; can you crunch yours?
   • I can smell the pie; is it a big smell (can smell from across the room) or small smell (need to be close to smell)?
   • This kiwi is tart; what other foods are tart?
   • Avoid judging words like smelly, yummy, delicious, gross, yucky, disgusting
4. Commit to preparing a food several different ways & discuss differences
   • Broccoli steamed, roasted, sauteed, with cheese sauce
   • Describe the flavors, textures & smells (see above)
5. Let Them Play
   • allow kiddos to disect the greenbeans to see what’s inside, give them a tool to cut the watermelon into fun shapes, juice a lemon and make lemonade…..

Want more ideas about helping your kids learn about foods in a low-key, fun way? Reach out at Karen@CoastalFamilyNutrition.com or call the office at 603-674-2479.

Snack Idea: Toasted mini bagel with melted cheddar cheese & apple slices

Please feel free to share this with someone who may like to learn more about feeding kiddos!