Help your child to have a healthy relationship with food

Children need food to grow and develop. Making healthy choices at an early age helps children learn to make good decisions when they are older.

It can be hard to know what’s right and wrong when it comes to encouraging healthy relationships with food. Especially if you’re not sure yourself or if your child is a fussy eater.

There are things you can do to make healthy food choices part of your family life.

A healthy relationship means you can view foods as neutral (not ‘good’ and ‘bad’). It promotes flexibility in your eating, rather than lots of rules and restrictions. It also means learning to trust and listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues.

A great place to start is to talk with your child about how different foods make you feel physically and mentally. Encourage a healthy lifestyle rather than quick fixes. The NHS Live Well website has lots of simple advice about eating healthily and moving more.

Remember that it’s not possible for every meal to be the “perfect healthy meal”. Allowing less healthy choices every now and then prevents these foods being seen as treats.

Cooking from scratch when possible is a great way to make sure your children are getting the nutrients they need. This doesn’t need to be a big fancy meal, you can find healthy, quick recipes on the NHS Healthier Families website.

Introduce your child to a wide variety of foods and encourage them to try new things when you can. If your child has a food allergy or other dietary restrictions, this can create some anxiety around trying new foods.

If your child is vegan, the Vegan Society have some helpful tips on meal planning. If your family is vegan or vegetarian and you are weaning your baby or young child, First Step Nutrition has some advice on feeding vegan infants.

To help your child learn to make healthy choices, it’s important to teach the difference between hungry and full. If your child doesn’t want to finish their food, don’t force them to empty their plate.

You can also:

• try to avoid using screens while you’re eating – this helps you listen to your body’s signals better
• teach your child about balancing a variety of different foods in their diet
• teach your child about nutritional content of food and the effect different foods have on our body
• try not to use food as rewards or punishments – this can build an emotional relationship with food in the future

Sitting down as a family to eat together allows your children to see you eating the same foods as them. This is a good chance to connect and can make them a feel bit more open to trying new foods.

It doesn’t have to be all the time. You could start by planning a special meal together once a month. This could be a meal at the table or a picnic on the floor.

Involve your children in planning and preparing the meal, or shopping for the ingredients. This will help them feel more involved and provides opportunities to build positive associations with food.

This is an opportunity to connect with your child over food. Try to keep the conversation light and avoid putting pressure on yourself or your child.

It’s important to be mindful of the language you use around your children when discussing food and weight.

Your relationship with food can affect the way you view and think about your body. By teaching your child positive ways of thinking about food, you can help to them develop a good body image.

You might worry if your child seems to be very selective or want the same foods every day. There are lots of reasons why this happens and understanding the reasons why your child is limiting their diet can help you support them.

Some young people avoid certain foods because new tastes or textures feel overwhelming. They may stick to familiar “safe” foods that feel predictable and comfortable. Sometimes the issue isn’t the food itself, but how it’s cooked or presented.

Food aversions can also develop after illness. If a child links a food to feeling sick, they may stop eating it – even if they enjoyed it before. Re-introducing those foods slowly and gently can help.

Encourage your child to try new things at their own pace. Involving them in choosing, shopping for, and preparing food can make them feel more confident. Start with foods they already like and introduce small variations from there. Let them know its OK if they don’t like something and praise them for trying.

A restrictive diet can also be linked to other factors, such as:

• eating disorders
• neurodivergence
• sensory sensitivities
• Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (Arfid)

Children and young people pick up a lot from watching and absorbing the behaviours they see around them. Things like cutting out meals to lose weight may encourage children and young people to believe that this is a good choice. Try to:

• be mindful of your own relationship with food and how you talk about this in front of your children
• make healthy food choices for yourself as well as for your child
• avoid restricting certain foods in front of your children, as they may learn to do the same
• speak to other caregivers for your child (such as co-parents, grandparents, school or nursery staff) to make sure expectations and rules around food are consistent

Page last reviewed: March 2026

Next review due: March 2029