Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. We catch up with special friends and family and share delicious food. Often, those ‘sometimes foods’ become ‘multiple times daily’ foods! So, how do we keep our children healthy during these next few months until school goes back? Karina from Smartbite shares her top tips.
As a mum, I appreciate any good ideas, so here are six tips for keeping your kids healthy this festive season.
Six tips for keeping kids healthy during the festive season
1. Keep the colour coming!
- Throw as many different coloured vegetables at them as you can! Different colours equate to other nutrients.
- Turn a side salad into the main affair and make it fun by involving the kids. Pre-prepare lots of little individual bowls with a large variety of ingredients. Choose whatever you want from baby spinach, chopped cos lettuce, grated carrot, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, snow peas, cheese, halloumi, hard-boiled egg, tuna, beetroot, nuts, seeds, olives, corn, roasted veggies. Get them to fill their own bowl with the mixture of their choice and then top with yummy dressing (eg. extra virgin olive oil and a good tasty vinegar such as balsamic). Owning their salad will make them much more likely to eat and enjoy it!
- There are also so many amazingly delicious summer fruits to try! Kids love fruit kebabs, which can either be pre-prepared or made by the kids using their imaginations!
2. Make sure they move their bodies!
- Children need to be active for 60 minutes EVERY DAY. There’s probably a summer camp for soccer, ballet, swimming, cricket—you name it. Being involved will not only get them moving but can also teach them lifelong skills such as teamwork and help keep them on a schedule.
- Limiting “screen time” (TV, iPhone, iPad, PlayStation) is necessary. Kids need to use their imagination, so let them get bored!
- Keep your family active by going on evening walks to look for Christmas lights in your area. I have fond memories of this on a warm summer night—I was always on the lookout for that yummy ripe nectarine hanging over the fence, just waiting to be picked!
3. Get baking
- If you’re worried about your child being presented with a constant deluge of sweet treats over Christmas break, start making more of your own cookies, muffins, or cakes.
- You can bring them to parties with you. A homemade option is usually much better for them than shop-bought treats
Get baking this Christmas!
4. Stick to schedule
- Whilst it’s so nice to slip into the “holiday time zone” with late nights and sleeping in, younger children especially thrive on structure. Keeping some degree of “normality” with mealtimes will actually help their appetites and will also make the transition back to preschool/school a lot easier.
- Try to discourage too much mindless snacking between meals
5. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind!
- Firstly, try to leave as much junk as possible on the supermarket shelf….but if it does make it into your cupboards, it should be treated as sometimes food.
- By keeping these types of foods out of sight and out of reach, you’re removing their temptation to ask for them and preventing them from grabbing them and munching on them when you’re not in the kitchen.
- Snacking is essential for younger children as their nutritional needs must be met for growth. Many good options will make it easier for your children to eat healthy throughout the day.
- Ideas include fresh-cut fruit, sliced vegetables with hummus or pesto, cubes of cheese, grainy crackers with peanut butter and nuts, yoghurt ice cream, homemade muffins or muesli biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, tins of baked beans, baby corn, and chopped cucumber in a balsamic and oil dressing (one of my daughter’s favourites).
- Try to remain firm and make the everyday dessert fruit or yoghurt-based rather than making ice cream “the norm.” Homemade ice blocks using milk or yoghurt blended with fruit are a brilliant alternative to regular ice cream.
6. Make water THE option … and make it fun!
- Little ones need to stay hydrated, so keeping cold water in the fridge (and keeping the sugary stuff) will help them to stay hydrated in a healthy way.
- Water can be made fun and tastier by adding fresh orange and lemon pieces or mint, strawberries, and cucumber.
