Planning meals

Ask your kids what they would like to eat next week. Better yet, ask them more detailed questions about which ingredients they would like in the next week’s meals. You and your kids can look up recipes together in cookbooks, or on the Internet, or choose some of your family’s favourite recipes and decide together on which meals to make.

Encourage your child to be open and try new meals with familiar ingredients. Later on you can encourage them to try new meals with one or two new ingredients.

Ask yourself and your partner what meal you would enjoy eating the following week because you guys matter too. Then you can start making your ingredient list based on the meals you are planning to prepare.

Having a pre-made shopping list will help you stay on track with your budget and not stray away in the shopping aisles. Your grocery trip will be relatively quick and painless.

Shopping

Shopping with kids can take a long time. I don’t always take my kids out shopping with me, but one or two times a month I involve them in my weekly grocery shopping. Knowing in advance that they will accompany you shopping, you can prepare yourself:

  • Have the shopping list ready (made with their help)
  • Have a short list as going on a long shopping trip might lead to them become bored before you go through the whole list
  • Read each ingredient from the list out loud (or let them do it if they can read), explain in which section of the grocery store the ingredient can be found, then look for it together
  • Take water and snacks with you
  • The snack has to be finger-friendly and not require a spoon or other tools. Good snacks are: muffins, grapes, bananas, celery sticks, and carrot sticks.
  • When you sense that the kids have had enough shopping experience (even if your grocery list is short), offer them a snack and water, put them in the cart, and try to go quickly through the rest of the list and finish it before the rest of their patience runs out. The purpose is to end the shopping trip on a positive note so they have a nice memory about it.

Preparing meals

I already covered preparing meals together here, but I would like to emphasize that cooking together should be done when everyone is relaxed, rested, and ready to have fun in the kitchen.

We are talking more about all these tips (and many other useful and practical topics) in the “Constipation 101 – How to help your child poop every day” program. Have you checked it out? If your child is going through a picky eating phase and is constipated, this could be the right program for you and your child.

Do you want to read the other tips on how to help you deal with a picky eater? Here they are:

Tip #1 – Set a good example

Tip #2 – Involve your kids in the kitchen

Tip #3 – Eat together as a family

Tip #4 – Make meal time enjoyable

Tip #6 – Never give up

 

Do you have a favourite tip that you think would be fun to try with your child? Please let me know which one in the comments section.

 

Photo source: AKARAKINGDMS/freedigitalphotos.net

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