Helping Your Kids Eat Right

It can be really hard to help kids eat right. Find out how much of each of the basic food groups your kids should eat (it’s not as much as you think!) There are also some great recipes to help you incorporate more vegetables into their days – something we can probably all use help with!

Helping Your Kids Eat Healthy

Eating healthy can be hard, especially when it comes time to get your kids to eat. Start with confusion about serving sizes and portion sizes, add in confusing food labels at the grocery store, mix in busy schedules and a picky eater (or two), and it can feel impossible to get your family to eat “right.” And just when you think you get the grocery store layout figured out, they go and move everything around! But what is eating “right” anyway? It probably looks a little bit different to you than it does to me, but let’s break down some basics.

Portion Size vs Serving Size

This is the most basic. A portion is the amount of food that you actually put on your plate. A serving is the amount of food that you should eat in one sitting. The serving size is what nutrition labels on packages are based on.

Most packaged bread has a serving size of 1 piece. So if you eat a sandwich with two pieces of bread (as most of us do), the portion of bread that you ate is actually two servings.

Reading Nutrition Labels

Now that we have that cleared up, it’s time to brush up on reading a nutrition label. You can get into some detail about nutrition labels in this post. Definitely go check that one out. For now, let’s just focus on the serving size and calories. Those are both up at the top.

My Plate

The USDA recommends that for each meal, your plate be roughly 25% each fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein. And don’t forget the dairy – that’s important too! (Check out Choose My Plate for more information.) Remember, these are just general guidelines. You should try to incorporate each food group into each meal, but let’s be honest – that’s hard to do!

The good news is that we have some great recommendations on how much of each food group you should try to get your kids to eat in a whole day. So work with those numbers, and spread it out over all their meals and snacks.

Fruits

Any kind of fruit counts here, even 100% fruit juice! So go ahead and pour a serving of orange juice with breakfast, and it counts towards their fruit for the day!

Vegetables

Any vegetables count here, too, even 100% vegetable juice. (Turns out, there’s something to those V8 commercials, after all!) Think about all the different kinds of vegetables – potatoes, beans, peas, dark leafy greens, green veggies, and brightly colored veggies.

Grains

There are so many things that fall into the grains category – anything that is made with wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, or other grains fit here. Breads, pasta, rice, and cereal are common grains. The USDA recommends that at least half your grains are whole grains. Whole grains have the bran part of the grain kernel, where refined grains do not. A simple comparison is rice – brown rice is a whole grain (the bran is what gives it the brown color), but white rice has had the bran removed and is not a whole grain. Popcorn and oatmeal are great whole grain snacks.

Protein

Protein doesn’t just come from meats. You can get your daily protein from red meat, pork, poultry, seafood, beans or peas (and double-dip on a vegetable serving, too!), eggs, soy, nuts, and seeds.

Dairy

Drinking milk is an easy way to get your dairy servings in for the day. Yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese are also great ways to get dairy into your diet. Not everything that is made with milk fits here, through. Cream cheese, butter, and cream don’t have a lot of calcium, so they are not included in the dairy group.

Not sure how to gauge serving (and portion) sizes? Using measuring cups is the best way, but it’s not always the most convenient way. This article has some great ways to estimate portion sizes with your hands (a “measuring cup” you always have!). Check out these other ways you can also estimate portion sizes.

Here are some recipes to get you started trying vegetables in new ways:

This Butternut Squash & Sausage Ravioli from my friend Amy at A Latte with Ott, A.

These Grilled Sausage & Veggie Packs from my friend Liz at The Farmwife Cooks.

Add some veggie punch to your basic chili with my Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chili at Alarm Clock Wars.

Pack in some serious veggies with this 20 Minute Skillet Pizza from my friend Leah at Beyer Beware.

Make veggies fun with these Mini Turkey Pot Pies from my other site, Alarm Clock Wars.

Next time you want pasta, try these Broccoli & Ricotta Stuffed Shells from my friend Amy at A Latte with Ott, A.

Make your sweets just a bit better for you with these Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies from my friend Claire at The Blog Bloom.

Tempt your sweet tooth with this Zucchini Custard Pie from my friend Stacy at The Backroad Life.

What do you think? Do your kids get enough from each food group? If not, no need to panic. Start slowly, and introduce them to new foods. Try to bump up the fruits and vegetables a little bit at a time, and you’ll get them there!

{Affiliate links were used in this post.}