Can somebody give me ideas for healthy meals for a 6 year old?

I have problems with my 5 year old too. It’s getting easier to make her eat healthy since she stopped spending so much time with relatives who give in to everything she wants.

Here are some of the rules to make your kid more willingly eat healthy:

#1. Make it fun! Broccoli is mini-trees. Couliflower is trees covered in snow. ... Simple stuff like that. Use your imagination.

Who wants a boring ol' burger when you could eat an elephant?! Put a carrot stick in the middle for a nose. Cut a cherry tomato in half and put it in the place of eyes. A couple of pieces of lettuce or cabbage would make nice ears. Maybe a little squirt of ketchup for a smile. And broccoli makes nice feet. ... Do a little elephant voice saying "oh no! no! don't eat my trunk! My long, beautiful, trunkety nose! Don’t Eat It! No!!!"

Oh yeah, who better to eat the vegetables than a veggie monster!

#2. Be sneaky. I use to cut the little green tops off of broccoli and throw them into maccaroni and cheese. Oh No! It's the attack of the pokadotted macaroni and cheeses! Quick! Quick! Hide them in your tummy before they pokadot the whole house!

You can easily sneak stuff into saucy dishes such as spaghetti. Just finely chop some peppers, onions, tomato, and peppers. (tip: red peppers hide the easiest, but yellow seems to be harder to taste) Home-made chili is another food that is easy to sneak stuff into. ... Chop the vegetables up small and cook them with the meat. Then add seasoning, beans, and some cheese and ketchup. - Yummy!

#3, It's more fun to eat something that you made yourself. Can she grow anything in your yard? ... If not, I am sure that there is at least something that she can help prepare. My 5 year old likes to pick the "hairs" off of fresh corn on the cob and wash carrots, broccoli, etc... for me. And once the food cools off, she can help serve it. When you taste what she helped make, remember to tell her what a great job she did and ask for seconds!

#4, Ketchup makes everything better! … It goes surprisingly well with green beans (you know, the green french-fry imposter people) and several other things.

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Also remember not to make these fun ideas too much of a habbit. It’s ok for your kid to enjoy her meals. But she also needs to know that there are times when you should just sit there and eat nicely. My daughter and I have a “fancy restaurant” about once a week. We light a few candles, she sets the table, I serve the plates, and we practice our good manners as we eat. … Swallow before you speak, ask nicely if you need something, use a napkin, etc…

I know it sounds harsh... especially when they are screaming stuff like "I'm hungry! You have to feed me." But when these don’t work, sometimes you have to just give them a plate of healthy food and refuse to give them anything else until it is finished. Last night my daughter just had a small piece of chicken and begged for more "good" food for over an hour. But she eventually gave in and my little “veggie monster” ate some mixed vegetables in a light cheese sauce.

Good luck getting her to eat right! And remember not to push the veggies too hard. They are important. She does need to eat them. But take it kinda easy on her… Once you find some vegetables that she likes, offer them with every meal. Give her a serving of that and a small serving of something you want her to try. If she doesn’t like something as much as you thought she would, offer it again in a month or two to see if her taste has changed.

My doctor suggested I give my daughter poly-vi-sol. You can get it at Wal-Mart. It's a vitamin supplement for children who need extra nutritional support. My daughter was small from birth. She was a tiny 7/12 and lost down to 7/4 before leaving the hospital. She wore preemie clothes for about 2 months after birth. The doctor's said she was 20-25% and then a time or two less than 15% on her height and weight scale. She's still shorter and tinier than the kids her age. I gave her the poly-vi-sol a few times, but otherwise I chalked it up to her genes. Both her grandmothers are short and petite so I figure she will always be small. Otherwise, keep feeding her like you are and have her checked regularly to make sure she's growing properly.

Michelle's was a fantastic answer, but just to add that some kids don't like the texture of vegetables. Mine are like that, doesn't matter how pretty they look, but they'll happily eat vegetable soup (which is drop dead easy to make at home) even made with vegetables they won't touch normally, and they've never noticed mashed carrots in gravy :)

My daughter loves carrot sticks with ranch dip. That and french fries are about all I can get her to eat without a fight. But I have gotten her recently to like home-made sweet potato fries which are supposed to be very good for vitamins and such (as long as they're not greasy). As for lunches, I try to keep her stocked up on the carrot and dip sets that come in a pack. She will also eat cherry tomatoes. Cheese cubes are always good (but not a vegetable). At dinner, I make broccoli with home-made cheese sauce (basically just real cheese melted a bit with a little milk and butter) and she tolerates that as long as the broccoli is not crunchy. Sorry, I know it's not many ideas, but hope it helps.

You need to make it fun. Let her help make it & she will be more willing to try. Try making Ants on a log with her (celery, peanut butter & raisins) Or you could use the veggies to make a face on the plate. Kids like to put things on sticks too. Try making veggie kabobs. Don't feel the need to cook every vegetable. My daughter HATES cooked veggies, but loves raw broccolli, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. There are more vitamins in the raw veggies too. My daughter favorite lunch is a piece of whole wheat bread with cucumber slices & carrot sticks with a little cream cheese.

I occasionally get the Del Monte Italian Pasta Bake dinners... they include two full servings of vegetables, and they taste like regular spaghetti or lasagna. My four- and five-year-olds love them.

They also love the Flat Earth chips, in the Garlic Herb Fields flavor and the Tomato Ranch flavor. They're no different from regular chips in taste or texture, but have half a serving of vegetables.

Why make it harder than it has to be, ya know?

If you find healthy foods she'll eat, let her eat them. Variety is nice, but not really necessary. If the only vegetable she likes is green beans, serve green beans a LOT.

Michelle has got it right.

In addition to the polka-dot thing (very funny, couldn't help laughing because it's something my four-year-old would definately go for), literally sneak them in. Shred, then chop, carrots. Cook them in hamburger patties and meatloaf. With meatloaf, for example, put it in cupcake liners, cook them for less time, top them with ketchup or bbq "frosting". CUPCAKES FOR DINNER!

Make a hamburger pattie, with the carrots snuck in. When serving it, put it on a plate, use ketchup and/or mustard to make a lion "face". Surround with baked fries (regular potato or sweet potato).

Make cornbread, and mix in some actual corn.

Make Green Eggs and Ham. Add green food coloring to eggs before scrambling, then toss in some pureed or finely chopped broccoli and green onion. Get the Spinach Herb tortillas from Mission. Fill with chopped ham, and the "green eggs". Make a wrap.

I don't believe in telling my kids they can have dessert (junk food) if they eat their healthy food, but my kids believe things like yogurt or sliced strawberries mixed with fat-free cool whip is "dessert". What they don't know won't hurt them!

Mac n cheese with broccoli, mashed potatoes with spinach, veggie kabobs, corn on the cob...kids will eat anything if it's on a stick....and will try anything they cook themselves. Try making biscuit pizzas. Use the grands biscuits and flatten them out. Then spoon on some spaghetti sauce, and let the kid sprinkle the cheese on and pick out the different veggies to put on. You could also try Veggie chicken nuggets. Let her sprinkle some cheese on her veggies...pack p-nut butter or ranch dip in her lunchbox to dip carrots and stuff in. Cut cucumbers into cool shapes like hearts and stars.

As long as the only foods you eat are healthy foods - then she has no choice but to eat them.

To really get her to eat the veggies - allow her to dip them in some Ranch dressing for a while. Kids try to be very sneaky, when it comes to certain foods, but you just have to remind them EXACTLY who the boss is - YOU not them!

Do not allow her to eat anything else on the plate until she eats her veggies first. Then make her eat the meat leaving the starches for last - plus, NO bread until everything else has been eaten first! My son does this with his 3 girls (has been for years) and now they automatically eat veggies first, meats and then starches.

She should be eating what the rest of the family is - no special considerations. Make stew and she won't even notice the veggies. Same with homemade spaghetti sauce. I even baked brownies with spinach inside. You can make sauerkraut chocolate cake (can't even tell it's in it).

For school lunches, let her help you pack it. Let her go grocery shopping with you as well, and help you choose fruits and veggies.

I don't think that it would be a good idea if your child eat junk food as hamburgers, etc...Replace some of the ingredients of her favorite dishes and remember quite always the kid prefer something with a top up with cheese!!

Hope that helps!