Getting kids to eat healthy foods is a growing problem for many parents, especially healthy eating for picky kids. Why is it so hard for parents these days to get their kids to eat healthy foods, I wonder? We hear so much about kids being “picky eaters” and how children refuse to eat anything healthy like vegetables and fresh fruit, and how even toddlers are only willing to eat fried foods, sugary treats, high calorie snacks and junk that have no nutritional value whatsoever.

One of the typical excuses I’ve heard in recent years is that parents are too busy and too tired to prepare and cook after working all day at their jobs, and when they get home after a hard day at work, the last thing they want to do is slave away in the kitchen doing the necessary preparation and cooking to serve a healthy, nutritious meal for their family. Unfortunately, many stay-at-moms have complained about the same problem with their kids. Namely, how to get kids to eat healthy when the kids say they don’t like something?

I’m so glad my kids are all grown now and I don’t have to deal with the problems and struggles of raising young children and teens anymore. Something else I don’t understand is when parents of toddlers talk about their difficulty in getting their little kids as young as 3, 4 or 5 years old to eat anything remotely healthy. Getting toddlers to eat healthy foods is elementary “Parenting 101” as far as I’m concerned.

Healthy Eating For Kids

The idea that it’s so hard to get a toddler to eat healthy foods seems preposterous to me. Geez, if a parent can’t manage to deal with the problems that come from a little kid like a toddler, what are parents going to do when their kid gets a little older, or enters middle school and high school when things really start to get interesting?

Children have to be taught the difference between good and bad eating habits, which starts even before a kid is officially labeled as a toddler, not when kids have already become teens. Teaching healthy eating habits to kids, toddlers and teens is not rocket science. Parents don’t have to become a licensed nutritionist or get a college degree in health subjects to teach kids how to eat healthy and learn to like healthy foods at the same time.

With so much information available online and in books for parents, guardians and caregivers to learn how to teach healthy eating habits for kids of all ages, it seems silly to me to say anything about the need to encourage healthy eating from a very early age by introducing and reintroducing new healthy food items on a regular and continuing basis.

When was the last time you really took an inventory of the kinds of foods found in your refrigerator, freezer, food pantry or cupboards? What types of foods are you as the parent choosing to feed your kids? Are your cupboards primarily filled with high calorie, sugar laden cereals? Twinkies, donuts, chips, cookies, cakes, frozen waffles, pizza and similar unhealthy foods and snacks?

What percentage of the foods in your home would be considered “healthy” versus the percentage of “junk foods”? Who buys the food your family and children have been eating? Whose fault is it if your kids refuse to eat healthy foods, if the majority of the foods you buy for your children and family is fattening junk food?

Are your kids fast food junkies? To be really blunt, if your kids refuse to eat healthy foods and are throwing tantrums and hissy-fits about wanting nothing to eat except unhealthy foods until you give in to their demands, you only need to look in the mirror as to the reasons why children are getting fat and why getting your kids to eat healthy is so hard. Sorry, but it’s true.

Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

Kids throw a fit and start complaining, whining, crying and screaming about what is being served for mealtime, and what do the parents do? Fuss and fight with their kids for awhile, but eventually give in. Your kid is teaching you rather than you teaching your child to eat what has been prepared for the family. You’re allowing your kid(s) to turn you into a short-order cook in your own home. Dr. Phil calls that “the tail wagging the dog”, and today’s parents have fallen for that little trick “hook, line and sinker”.

The primary role and responsibility for parents is to teach their children everything they need to know to become full grown, responsible adults, and it starts from the moment kids are born. If you want your kids to eat healthy, then you as the parent must be a good role model by fixing healthy foods for yourself and for your kids, rather than doing what may seem fast and easy because you are tired or have other things you want to do.

You only get one shot in this life to raise your kids right, and if you don’t take healthy eating seriously enough right now while your children are young and teachable, the rate of obesity in children will continue to skyrocket and their health may be damaged beyond repair.

Even if your kids are in school and are eating the junk foods the school system puts out in the cafeteria, how are you providing your children a well-balanced nutritious healthy meal during the time they are at home with you? What is breakfast like in your home? What are you serving your children for dinner that would help balance the unhealthy foods they may be eating at school?

Getting kids to eat healthy is not that hard. Parents just have to make the firm decision that living a healthy lifestyle matters not only for themselves, but also for their children and teens. When planning a grocery list of foods to buy and a weekly menu of meals to prepare for your family, cross off your list high calorie, fattening foods and create a grocery list of primarily healthy items and begin training you and your children’s taste buds to like healthy foods more than what is unhealthy.

Before long, you will all begin to discover that many unhealthy foods don’t taste nearly as good as it once did and you won‘t crave junk food or salty snacks, and your new healthy eating habits will have become second nature to you and your kids.

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