• Start young. Incorporate healthy foods into your children's diet early on. Serve fruits and vegetables with every meal if possible, and avoid relying heavily on processed and fattening convenience foods like chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and others. By getting kids used to healthy foods when they're young, they will have already developed a taste for it and motivating them to eat healthy won't be such a struggle.
• Be an example. Studies have shown that kids' eating habits are largely shaped by what their parents eat. This makes sense, because you typically feed your children the same things you eat, especially as they get older. Model good eating habits to your kids to motivate them to eat healthy by eating fruits and vegetables, healthy meats (for example, chicken breasts instead of fattening cheeseburgers), and avoiding candy and cakes and cookies. Not only will you help your kids to eat healthy, but you will benefit as well.
• Make it fun. Kids can be easily motivated to eat healthy if you incorporate healthy foods into their meals in a fun way. Make a smiley face on their plate with fruits and vegetables, or turn a sandwich into a "butterfly" by cutting it diagonally and adding celery or carrot sticks as antennae. Kids also like brightly colored fruits and vegetables, or those with fun shapes like star fruit or kiwi. A little creativity with healthy foods will go a long way with motivating kids to eat healthy.
• Serve healthy desserts. Kids love dessert and look forward to it, so motivate them to eat healthy by serving healthy desserts. Strawberries with low-fat whipped cream, smoothies you can all make together, or bananas dipped in a little chocolate sauce are great desserts kids will love. They will see healthy foods as treats.
• Take your kids grocery shopping with you. You can motivate your kids to eat healthy by bringing them with you to the grocery store and allowing them to pick out healthy foods that are appealing to them. Let them try a new fruit or vegetable, or pick out healthy snacks with packaging geared towards children.
• Use 100% fruit juice. Instead of giving your kids soda and sugary juices, give them 100% juices with breakfast or lunch. There are many brands that offer healthy juices. Be sure to read the labels carefully. Let kids pick out the type of juice they want.
• Cook together. Kids love to "help" cook and then eat their creations, and you can help motivate them to eat healthy by letting them help you cook healthy foods in the kitchen. Even if it's just stirring a pot or putting vegetables in a bowl, they will still be proud to eat what they have helped make.

Motivating kids to eat healthy isn't always easy. But getting your kids to eat healthy is a great way to start them on healthy eating habits for life. These are a few things you can do to motivate your kids to eat healthy.