Helping kids stay healthy during the holiday season

The holiday season is meant to be a fun time of year for the whole family and the last thing you want to be worrying about on top of everything, is whether or not your kids are getting enough of what they need, and not too much of what they don’t. These are our top 5 tips for looking after your kids (and ultimately your own) health this holiday season:

1. Pack your own snacks. Sometimes it’s easier to pack your own snacks so you can ensure that the treats your littlies are eating are nutritious as well as delicious, particularly for long car trips where healthy snack stores are few and far between.
2. Don’t take starving children anywhere. No one makes good food choices when they are starving. Throughout the holiday season, kids should still have three healthy meals and snacks a day to make sure they don’t show up at parties ravenous and with limited options for healthy food choices.
3. Get your kids involved. Kids LOVE to help in the kitchen. It makes them feel adult and for parents, it’s a great way to get them to want to take part in their food and health and is often used as a great tool to overcome fussy eating. Our vegan gingerbread people are a tasty snack that is healthy and feels like a treat. Getting your kids to help make and decorate the cookies is the perfect way to get your kids involved in the kitchen.
4. Stay active. Exercise is important for the whole family. Plan to do activities together (such as walking, rock climbing, swimming, dancing or even skating) each day to maintain exercise throughout the holidays and to benefit as a family from looking after your health and spending more time together.
5. Be a healthy role model. Kids mimic what they see their parents do. If you want to have a healthy, happy and relaxing Christmas, then these are the traits you need to embody for your kids to feed off. If you want your kids to enjoy but still be healthy, then eat the foods you’d like them to eat, drink plenty of water, do family activities together, and make the focus about family and connection. The more you enjoy it, the more they will too.

Ultimately the holidays are a time to relax and enjoy that only roll around once a year. So, try not to stress too much about your kids enjoying some of what makes the festive time fun. At the end of the day, stress isn’t good for your health either. Try to optimise health in the areas you can and for the rest, just remember the holidays don’t last forever. Resting, relaxing and enjoying time together is as important for your health so you can all start the new year refreshed and rejuvenated.