[AD] Healthy Eating And Outdoor Activity’s Equals Healthy Children

Disclosure: This Post was commissioned by Every Child Wales

The world has moved on since the dark ages of mums being the only full-time carers of children. Nowadays more and more dads are taking on the role of being the principal main carer of children by doing the school runs, cooking, laundry and much more.

There are probably a lot of reasons why this happened. One factor is women today now finally have more equal opportunities in the workplace which has lead them to being able to become more successful. Which consequently has resulted in more mums being able to pursue their careers and becoming the main earner in a family, which in turn means dad will be running the home full-time. 

I am a very hands on dad and have always been this way with my children so cooking or going on the school run has never fazed me in the slightest, and I’m not uncommon today, but I have always wanted my children to have healthy, active lives and one of the ways that this can happen is simply making sure that they eat healthy foods from the start of their lives.

I have recently teamed up with Every Child Wales to encourage parents to have a healthier lifestyle for their children and encourage them to eat well and get outdoors from an early age. Every Child Wales has a 10 step guide to help you give your child a healthy weight because a child that is a healthy weight will feel better about themselves, will find it easier to play and learn and will grow up to a healthy adult life.

Child obesity is on the rise in Wales and that can be by no nobody’s standards a good thing. Of course, many factors have contributed over this such as ready meals, fast food outlets and of course one factor that was not there when I was a child is screen time. Kids today spend far too much time in front of a screen sat down instead of getting outdoors and being active.

I have always felt that yes, screen time is important but it should be used in a very controlled way and more importantly they should be learning from it. It should never be used as a babysitter which is so often the case today. We are in danger of making screen time normal and the problem with that is a generation of children will grow up thinking it’s ok to be indoors on a screen, and it is not. That is why at any opportunity I get I go to the park with my seven year old twin girls whatever the time of the year it is. Getting outdoors for children is vital for their growth and keeping them healthy.

One of the other steps on Every Child Wales is all about healthy eating. This for me is vital and the quicker you introduce all types of food and most importantly fruit and vegetables into the lives the better. Every Child Wales has approved Public Health Wales recipes and they are super easy to make. I have picked to make Cheesy Pasta with Broccoli. A perfect meal for the whole family.

For me it’s all about taking the time to buy fresh food and then involving your children in preparation and cooking of the food, but in truth it takes very little time or effort to make fresh food and involving the girls in the process will always encourage them to eat many types of food. It also has fantastic life skills lessons that as they head into adulthood they will have done cooking skills so hopefully they will eat healthily.

As you can when preparing tonight’s evening meal the girls love to be involved by breaking the broccoli florets or measuring out the pasta, and as I have said the girls are not fussy eaters, but when it comes to pasta, one will only eat straight pasta and the other will only eat curly pasta otherwise known as fusilli. I love these times. They are very special and I hope my twin girls grow up with fond memories of cooking with dad. I also added some courgettes and carrots to fill up any empty spaces in their tummies after a hard day at school. The approximate cost of this meal is incredibly cheap at under £5 which is brilliant for a family of four. Check out my IGTV video of us getting tea ready right here.

 

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[AD] I have teamed up with @everychildwales for their 10 steps to a healthy weight campaign. Obesity in children is on the rise, and there are a number of reasons why. One particular reason is the diet and foods our children are eating.

With my seven year old twin girls we as a family have always made sure they have a balanced healthy diet which is full of vegetables and fruit. This is something we have done since they were weaning.

The benefits from this is now paying dividends because the girls now have a wide range of tastes and likes when it comes to food. How did we manage that? Well, we have always involved them with the preparation and cooking of meals. In addition we have always tried our best to eat as a family and the same meals. After all, children will look to us as role models and it is so important to lead by example.

Take a look at us preparing tea together which is a Public Health Wales approved meal of cheesy pasta with broccoli. Not only is it very nutritious and healthy, it’s also tasty and loads of fun cooking with your children.

I would love to hear your experiences of your child’s healthy eating, especially if they are under five. What do you do to help them to have a healthy diet?

Take a look at how we got on making tea together. Full blog post tomorrow on the blog. Link in Bio.

#healthylifestyle #healthyeating #healthycooking #everychildwales #diydaddyblog #children #kids #10stepstoahealthyweight #childobesity #getoutdoors

A post shared by DIY DADDY: NIGEL (@diynige) on Nov 24, 2019 at 10:58am PST

Here is the recipe card for Cheesy Pasta With Broccoli.

If you would like to read more about Every Child Wales and their 10 Steps to a healthy weight just visit their website here. Find out how as parents we can help our children lead healthy and fit lives.

When the girls were between the ages of three and five, we as a family made sure they were always involved in cooking and deciding what they would like to eat. We always offered a wide selection of fruit and vegetables too. Some tips I can offer to parents of under five year olds are:

1. Involve your children in the cooking or baking process. They are more likely to eat something they have prepared.

2. Eat as a family and always try to have the same meals. It can be very difficult cooking different meals for children and then for yourself, children will learn by example, so I believe when the girls were under five if they saw us eating the same food that they had, they would eat it, it was really that simple, and this has without question widen their tastes in food and lead to much more healthy meals for all the family.

3. Finally always look for healthy options not easy fast food options. We don’t go to fast food outlets very often, so when do it’s like a treat for our girls. It’s all about moderation, which will help our children have healthy weight.

I’m now the full-time child carer of my seven year old twin girls. This involves everything from the school run to cooking their tea and doctors appointments etc. Slowly but surely society is more accepting of dads being stay at home dads, but I still receive the odd comment such as: “Oh! Are you giving mum a rest?” There was a time when I would have been offended but nowadays I just laugh it off. Even though I’m home for my twin girls, I still work. I run a business from home which I can fit around the girls and this helps the family finances, and most importantly I’m there for the girls needs. Those early practices and experiences when the girls were under five are now paying dividends.

Are you a full-time stay at home dad? I would love to hear your experiences of how you encourage and help your children to lead healthy and fit lives in the comments below. 

This is a paid collaboration.