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In this “The 10! Show” segment, Premier Baby Concierge founder, Shannon Choe, brought some tips for parents to encourage their little ones to eat healthy.

Read books with themes about food and healthy eating.

Books are a great way to broach a new topic or developmental stage with little ones. Whether you’re getting ready for a first trip to the dentist or hoping to instill good eating habits, books offer kids a context for new adventures, characters to identify with, vocabulary to discuss what’s happening or any concerns they may have.  There are LOTS of great books for kids of all ages at your local library or bookstore.  A few Premier Baby Concierge faves:  Bee- Bim- Bop, Little Pea & The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach.

The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach.  $16.95.  www.MitchSpinach.com.  Mitch Spinach drinks high-powered fruit and vegetable smoothies which give him special powers to solve mysteries and help out at school.  Written in collaboration with renowned physician, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., this book has been shown to influence over 96% of children, ages 3-9 to eat more fruits and veggies!

Involve kids in growing, shopping for and preparing food.

Studies have shown that kids who are involved in growing, shopping and preparing meals and snacks are more likely to try new foods.  Makes sense!  After shopping, they can identify more fruits and veggies.  Kids are proud to be involved and some can be quite interested in the science of how foods change color or texture when they mix with others or are heated.  The once foreign foods are not quite as “suspicious” looking when they arrive on a dinner plate co-mingled with other items.

For playing store or hitting the real farmer’s market in your town, try Reisenthal Parent/Child carry bags $29.99 – $39.99 www.reisenthel.com.  They are light weight, yet have the capacity to carry more than 6 gallons and can store easily, as they collapse to one inch thick.

When it’s time to cook, grab a personalized quilted apron and cook set available from Timeless Designs and Monograms.  Let kids pack their own lunches (maybe the night before if your AMs are too hectic!) in a matching lunchbox.  $13.95-19.95  Timeless Designs and Monograms is offering 10% off orders with code: 10show. www.tdmembroidery.com

Make it fun!

Keeping food interesting, by presenting it in new ways can bring new life to a familiar food and make new foods more enticing.  Use toothpicks, placemats, fun tableware to spice up mealtime.

Check out Mr. and Ms. Food Face plates, $12.95 www.amazon.com

Empower kids to make their own choices.

One way to do this is to make your own food “bank” to help your kids learn how to balance snack choices.  At our house, we use a recycled circular plastic carry out container on our counter as our “bank.” Each morning, each child gets three poker chips to put in their own container, with each chip representing one sweet snack or drink.  Tired of being asked all day long about juice and snacks, I decided to put the decision in their hands.  We talked about which items would require payment of a chip and why: juice, pancakes with syrup, a cookie, etc.  Whenever they choose to eat or drink something that requires a chip, they take it from their bank and pay it to the mine.  If they choose to spend all three by 9AM, so be it.  When they ask later in the day for a treat, I simply say, “Do you have any chips?”  They quickly learn that they are in control.  As an added an incentive to not spend chips on sugary snacks, chips remaining at bedtime may also be traded for extra books to be read at storytime.

Chart & recognize healthy choices.

It’s been said that new habits take about two weeks to become habits.  Charts are not only a great way to set goals, but also offer kids a concrete way to chart success.

The Today I Ate A Rainbow Kit was create to encourage kids to eat a variety of fruits and veggies each day.  The kit includes a book that introduces them to why this is so important, 4 sets of magnets, the chart and a shopping list notepads that kids and parents can make together to ensure that a “rainbow’s worth” of fruits and veggies are available.  Each time they eat a fruit of veggie, they put the corresponding colored magnet on the chart. I was actually amazed that within minutes of opening the kit, my kids “got it” and ran to the fridge to see what else they could eat!  $25 www.todayiatearainbow.com

Be flexible.

Every day doesn’t have to be perfect.  It’s hard to get kids to eat fruits and veggies at all sometimes, let alone a great variety of them daily which is ideal.

For those days (or stages!), fill in the gaps with nutritional “insurance” like JP+ Soft Chewables). $22.75 www.FoundationalNutritionwithJuicePlus.com It’s an all natural, whole food based nutritional product made by juicing a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies, drying the juices and  offering the powders in capsule and chewable form.  It contains 17 raw, juiced fruits, veggies, grains.