Foster carers have a responsibility to provide a stable and healthy home for children in need, which involves making provisions for a well-balanced and healthy diet. Knowing what a healthy diet involves is one thing, but helping your foster children overcome any bad eating habits can feel like an uphill battle. Luckily, we’re here to help you overcome these barriers and teach your foster children to take better control of their dietary needs.
What is Meant by Healthy Dieting?
Before you can encourage foster children to eat healthily, you need to fully understand what it looks like. According to the NHS, healthy dieting has the following elements:
- Correct food portions relating to gender and age, which maintains body size and keeps the body feeling strong.
- Different food types shared between meals throughout the week.
The concept of a healthy diet is pretty simple, but some foster carers need a little bit more support on how to encourage foster children to eat better. If this sounds familiar, make sure you keep in regular contact with an agency like thefca.co.uk, who will have team members on hand to support you.
Switch Up Styles of Cooking
In the kitchen, there are several methods to reach the same goal: a delicious and well-balanced meal. However, some paths are unhealthier than others. For example, by deep frying everything, you’re adding unnecessary fat to the food. On the other hand, cooking under the grill or in the oven helps to remove unnecessary fats and grease.
This doesn’t mean you can never use a frying pan; sometimes there’s no other way to get the job done. However, if frying is the only way, you should consider stocking up on low-calorie oil spray designed to make cooking healthier.
Get Foster Children Involved
Foster children are more likely to eat healthy meals when they feel in control, so invite them into the kitchen to help out with creating tasty meals. After all, what person doesn’t want to get stuck into a meal they helped cook? As well as being involved in the kitchen, you should get their input when writing the shopping list, which will guarantee you have foods your foster child will enjoy.
Offer a Menu Full of Variety
When people eat the same meals every single day, it can make eating feel more like a chore. Therefore, to engage your foster children in healthy meals, be sure to mix things up by cooking different meals every week. If you need help choosing healthy recipes, feel free to explore these best-selling family cookbooks.
Make Sure Drinks Are Healthy
Food makes up a large part of dieting, but it’s important to make sure the work isn’t undone by allowing foster children to drink too many sugary drinks. As well as providing healthy options, you need to encourage children in your care to drink the recommended amount of water.
Supporting foster children with healthy dieting naturally contributes to your commitment to providing a safe and secure environment, and it can open the door to plenty of exciting moments for strengthening relationships.