5 Tips for Healthy Eating While Traveling With Children

Traveling with children is difficult. If anyone tells you that it's not, they're either lying, or they've never been around children for any length of time. Even the most well behaved of children will have a difficult time when they're taken out of their comfort zone and forced to do things they don't want to do. If you have a long car ride or even a short plane ride, you're going to have to keep your child occupied and sitting still for hours at a time. That's a hugely difficult thing to do.

Traveling with children is difficult. If anyone tells you that it's not, they're either lying, or they've never been around children for any length of time. Even the most well behaved of children will have a difficult time when they're taken out of their comfort zone and forced to do things they don't want to do. If you have a long car ride or even a short plane ride, you're going to have to keep your child occupied and sitting still for hours at a time. That's a hugely difficult thing to do.

Given all of that, it's no wonder that some things go completely out of the window. There's simply not enough time and energy to devote to some of the things that you'd normally do when you're at home. Children wind up being a little bit messier than they would at home, because you're trying to divide your attention between keeping the child safe, and all the other things you'll have to deal with during travel. Maybe your child winds up wearing the same clothes for several days in a row. Things like this aren't a huge deal, but they can add up to make things a little more stressful for you.

Given all of that, it's no wonder that some things go completely out of the window. There's simply not enough time and energy to devote to some of the things that you'd normally do when you're at home. Children wind up being a little bit messier than they would at home, because you're trying to divide your attention between keeping the child safe, and all the other things you'll have to deal with during travel. Maybe your child winds up wearing the same clothes for several days in a row. Things like this aren't a huge deal, but they can add up to make things a little more stressful for you.

However, one thing that doesn't have to go out of the window is healthy eating. It's incredibly easy to eat junk when you're traveling. It's easy to stop at a gas station and buy a few bags of chips and a couple of candy bars. It's incredibly simple to stop at fast food places because you don't have time to go to a full sit down restaurant. Each of these decisions makes perfect sense at the time, but they can all add up to huge problems down the road. After all, it's been proven scientifically that a poor diet can affect a child's behavior. When all they eat is junk food, they may have a harder time keeping themselves under control.

That doesn't mean eating healthy is easy when you're traveling with children, however. It's something you'll have to go out of your way to do. Even so, if you're willing to put a little bit of time and effort into planning ahead, you can make certain that you can keep your child eating healthy when you're on a trip. Not just your child, but you as well. Your child will thank you, your own health will thank you, and your future self will thank you for making it easier to deal with the child!

Tip 1: Pre-plan Snacks

The easiest way to not eat healthy is in snack foods. When you're traveling with children, you need something to help distract them. Not only that, but children are small, which means they can't eat as much and what they do eat doesn't last as long. That's just basic biology. Children need to eat more often than adults do, because their bodies are still growing and they need all that energy and nutrition in order to keep themselves growing and strong.

Because they have to eat so often, it's incredibly easy to buy them a pack of cookies and call it a day. The child likes cookies, after all. Maybe buying them something sweet like cookies or candy will not only feed them, but also help keep them calm and quiet. This never works, however, because junk food has a detrimental effect on children's behavior. So not only have you fed them unhealthy food, but you haven't even made things easier on yourself in the long run.

This can be avoided if you're willing to plan ahead. Instead of buying whatever you can find at a gas station, try packing extra snack foods in your travel bag. This is fairly easy if you know what you're doing. You can cut up some carrots for carrot sticks. You can cut up an apple and get apple slices. Broccoli makes a great thing to munch on. These are all fairly easy to cut up and pack away, and they allow you to get some healthy fruits and vegetables into your child as you're traveling.

Tip 2: Plan Ahead For Meal Time

One of the hardest things to do when traveling is deal with meals. It's an easy problem to come up against. When you're planning for your trip, you don't want to worry about planning for restaurants or worrying about packed lunches. You want to get your bags packed, make sure you've got a place to stay if you have to travel over night, and then get going. Then, the next thing you know, everyone's hungry and you're stopping by a fast food joint because it's easy, it's quick, and it's cheap. Two or three meal times like this, and your guts are in major upset.

There's an easy way to avoid this if you plan ahead. When you're planning your route, take some time to figure out what restaurants may be on the way. You can take a look at what the restaurants may sell for their menu, and then figure out what you might want to eat.

This may require stopping for meals at a time when not everyone is especially hungry. After all, it's difficult to plan exactly how your body is going to work. However, the other option is to do the fast food stop, and that's what you're trying to avoid. So it will be much better to take some time before the trip, and try to plan out your meal times.

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Tip 3: Keep Things To Occupy The Child

Like many adults, children tend to want to eat when they're bored. And of course, when a person is eating just because they're bored, they're more likely to want to eat junk food. For an adult, this isn't necessarily a problem because an adult is capable of stopping themselves and actually considering their actions. A child, however, isn't always capable of doing so. This can easily lead to a massive break down as the child wants some kind of sweet snack food.

You can avoid that problem by keeping extra books, crayons, and other things that can keep the child occupied ready at hand. No doubt you're already planning to have such things available anyway. Just be ready and willing to utilize them the second your child starts getting fussy. That way, you can keep them occupied and keep them away from thinking about snacks.

Tip 4: Avoid The Children's Menu

When stopping at a restaurant for lunch or dinner, your children are no doubt going to be drawn to the children's menu. Unfortunately, most children's menus are packed with some of the most unhealthy foods you can find. Things like pizza, deep fried chicken strips, and other unhealthy foods are the order of the day on most children's menus.

A better option is to have them order an adult entree, and pack the leftovers away for a later meal. This allows you to ensure your child eats healthy, and also allows you to utilize your resources to make sure you can keep them fed on the trip!

Tip 5: Stay Calm

This may be the most difficult tip, and it certainly sounds flippant. Staying calm is a thing you're already trying to do! It's hardly a tip to be told to stay calm, since it's a lot like telling someone to simply "cheer up" when they're upset.

However, it's important to remember that you're the adult, and you make the rules. Children are going to cry, scream, get fussy, and break down. There's simply no way to avoid that. If you're getting stressed while they're busy breaking down, then no one can accomplish anything. It leads to simply giving the child whatever they want in hopes that they'll finally calm down. But once you break down and give in, they'll learn that they can get what they want when they scream and cry. That's a horrible lesson to teach, which means you need to stay calm and stay in your right mind.

Traveling with children is difficult. But that doesn't mean you have to eat junk food. Just remember that you're the adult, and it's up to you to make sure everything runs smoothly. You can plan ahead, and make certain that things work out for the best.

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