Foster care is all about supporting children from traumatic backgrounds to get the most out of life, which is a truly magical experience. Part of this involves promoting a healthy diet, which can be accomplished by introducing change into daily life. However, you need to consider that your foster children may not have grown up around healthy food, so you need to take it steady and be patient. To point you in the right direction, explore the following ways to encourage healthy dieting in foster children.
What Does Healthy Dieting Involve?
Promoting a healthy diet will be impossible without understanding what this involves. If you search for answers on the NHS (National Health Service) website, they say a healthy diet means:
- Having a variety of food types spread evenly—this is what makes a diet balanced.
- Consuming the recommended food amounts—depending on age and gender, this helps to keep the body strong and at a healthy size.
Although this is simple enough in theory, you may need support in introducing a healthy diet to your foster children. Luckily, you will always be able to contact your agency, such as thefca.co.uk, and they will provide helpful insights and direction. After all, both you and the agency are dedicated to improving your foster child’s quality of life.
Actively Involve Foster Children
Depending on the age of your foster children, they may be able to help with the cooking. When your foster child helps with the food prep, healthy eating becomes a fun experience – who doesn’t enjoy eating their kitchen creations? As well as engaging your foster child in the cooking process, handing over some control of the shopping list will allow them to feel less forced into eating foods they usually wouldn’t.
Alternative Cooking Styles
There are many different methods of cooking the same food, but they don’t all provide the same level of health. For example, if you choose to cook chicken in a frying pan, it will be full of grease that’s harmful to the body. To reduce the grease, you can use the grill or oven, which will drain away the grease. However, when there’s no way to get around frying, use a light spray instead of traditional oils.
Cooking a Variety of Foods
Eating the same foods over again will likely become boring, regardless of how delicious it is. Therefore, to keep mealtimes exciting, cook a wide variety of foods. If you need some inspiration for healthy eating, check out this list of bestsellers; involve your foster children by having them circle dishes to try.
Don’t Forget Healthy Drinks
Drinks make up the other half of a healthy diet, and there are plenty of recommendations for how much liquid a person should have in a day. However, quantity isn’t all that matters, you need to make sure your foster child is drinking the correct types, which means low-sugar products and plenty of water.
Encouraging your foster child to maintain a healthy diet is part of your calling, and it’s a great way for you to find bonding moments by involving them.
