Getting Your Kids Into Seafood

Eating fish is a great source of nutrients because of the overwhelming list of benefits omega 3 has. For adults, most of you can choose to take a supplementary capsule of fish oil to get your daily dose of omega 3 but for your kids, swallowing a large tablet is not a good idea.

They need to eat fish but that’s a whole other story because let’s face it the majority of our kids hate fish. Unless it was fish fingers, spliced up pieces of tuna disguised in a salad or again fish fingers. But in order for them to get their daily dose of omega 3, they need to eat straight up fish.

Food companies are also getting this picture. Recently there is a new product of salmon baby food on the market, which is just pureed salmon.

If they do, their brain functions would improve and be supported by omega 3 while they continue to develop. They would also have improved health in their lungs which is great news for asthmatics, they would have a lower risk to blood clots developing in vital blood vessels travelling to the brain and their bone health overall would improve in strength and density. The benefits of omega 3 is endless.  

But again, how do you get your kids to eat fish? If you are having trouble, take the following suggestions into account.

• First of all, ditch the fish fingers altogether and switch to fresh fish. Fresh seafood delivery is a good choice and if you are near the beach, make a detour at a local fish and chip shop. The fresher the better. If you’re kids love fish fingers then play a game with them when you give them fresh seafood. Name the creatures and tell them some interesting facts about them, such as how many legs an octopus has.
• Start early and introduce seafood to your kids when they are toddlers.
• Kids love to play with their food, so why not pair up the salmon pieces with a dip? Marinara sauce would go nicely.
• Disguise the seafood. You can make salmon burgers and just say ‘we are having burgers for dinner.’
• Eat seafood as one large happy family or serve it at a party. Kids like to copy others and they feel left out if they are not eating the same thing as their friends.
• Decorate the fish. You can make fish tacos and kids will find this interesting because they go off appearance more than anything.
• Be neutral about serving them fish. Just pretend it is no big deal and if your kids hate it, don’t show how disappointed you are because kids are heavily influenced by your responses and this can affect how they feel about fish. Just try again.