Curtis Harwell Discusses Childhood Obesity and Stopping it.

Tip #1 -
Allow your child to play with her food. 

Yes, you heard me right.  Trying something new can be a challenge to small children.  Allow them to use all their senses to explore new and sometimes strange fruits and vegetables.  Let him hold the kiwi and treat it as a ball before you cut it and let him eat the green inside.  Let her pretend to color with the celery stick before she tries it.

Tip #2 -  
Encourage your child to be creative with their food. 

Make fruit salad into a smiley face.  Use two grape halves as the eyes, a strawberry half as the nose and an orange slice as the mouth.  Try ants on a log.  If the child is over two, place peanut butter on a banana that has been sliced lengthwise.  Sprinkle raisins over the sticky peanut butter to represent the ants.  You can also replace the banana with a celery stick.

Tip #3 -
Read stories to your children about food. 

This age group loves to spend time listening to their parents read to them.  Take advantage of this.  Not only will this help their cognitive abilities but can also help them to try healthy foods.

• Trying to introduce a protein rich egg, read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
• Oliver's Vegetables, Rabbit Food or any Veggie Tales book is great while introducing new vegetables.
• Alligator Arrived with Apples or Oliver's Fruit Salad helps to get new fruit down.  You may even want to play the game Hi, Ho Cherrio, too.
• Wanting your little one to like whole grains, try If You Give A Pig A Pancake, If You Give A Moose A Muffin or The Little Red Hen.