It is probably a common scene in many homes, where the mother prepares a balanced meal and children trying their best to skip it or finding fault with it. Irrespective of what age your child is, you have to ensure your child eats well by doing these simple things:

• Have regular (family) meals at least twice a day

• Choose a variety of meal patterns

• Eat well, yourself

• Include a meal journey by making it informative & interesting 

• Don’t turn mealtimes into battle zones 

Children should be taught to have a healthy relationship with food, because it would help them eat better when they are on their own later in life. A number of illnesses can be avoided by just incorporating nutritious meals in the family’s diet plan. 

Hectic work schedules often prevent parents from incorporating a nutritious diet plan, but it is also important that while junk food and takeaways may satisfy food cravings, it isn’t a temporary solution. Constantly eating such food would lead to obesity, blood pressure, heart diseases, followed by fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, lack of immunity and so on. 

The best thing to do would of course, be a role model and eat healthy meals yourself. Unhealthy food habits are cultivated, and they must be conditioned to accept carrots, spinach and broccoli just as they eat pizza and pasta. When your child is very young, that would be the easiest time to program their mindset into eating healthy foods. As they grow older, you can teach them the importance of eating nutritious meals, and then they will understand better, whether they agree with you or not. The younger the better! Even if you are running out of time, you can adjust your schedule to prepare and eat home cooked meals before you leave for work every morning. Eventually your child will see it, and learn to follow.