As a parent, you have the biggest say over choices that can help or hurt your child. For instance, you can determine what television shows, Internet sites and movies are appropriate for certain ages. You can also choose to shelter them from friends that are a bad influence on them. Along with all of this, we as parents shouldn’t forget that we have the biggest say in managing our child’s nutrition. This entails providing healthy options around the house, and teaching them about good and bad foods. From birth until age 4 to 5, our children’s nutrition is entirely in our hands. And when they reach school age, you even have the right to petition your child’s school board for healthier lunch and vending machine options in school. Here we will explore some ways you can start improving your child’s nutrition today.

One of the best things you can do is offer your child five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Be creative in how you do this—carrots go great with a little ranch dressing for example and fruit salad is often a lot more interesting than a boring ol’ piece of fruit. Whether it’s incorporating spinach into your next family casserole or offering “frogs on a log” for celery, find a way to make fruits and veggies a regular habit for your little one. If they don’t like one type of veggie, keep offering them new ones until you find one or two that they can enjoy.

Another important habit to get into is to limit the number of times you offer your child fast food during the week. On those busy days when you know you won’t have time to prepare healthy meals for your children, choose some of the healthier options today’s fast food restaurants make available. Subway offers some of the healthiest meals for kids, but even McDonald’s allows you to sub in milk or apple juice for a soft drink in your child’s Happy Meal, and apple dippers for French fries.

From the get-go, make sure you are giving your children whole grain breads and cereals and phase out white bread. Take a look at the sugar content of the next box of cereal you buy for your children and find one that has a good balance of nutrition and taste.

For more information on raising healthy children, take a look at these great tips for parents offered through the National Institutes of Health.