An apple a day keeps the doctor away but making children eat healthy food can be difficult a task.

We all know how children would rather play or watch TV than eat that super healthy snack you made for the last hour or so.

The good news is, you might just get help in convincing children to eat healthy food by downloading some games on your Apple or Android devices to teach them about the benefit of eating healthy.

Healthy Eater

This app is super cute, or I might just be biased with pandas.

The game asks children to put healthy food on the panda’s table and feed it. There is a mini task you need to do every time you feed it with a certain kind of food.

The app is able to incorporate the benefits of the food in the game without making it sound like a lecture. Example, after the panda was fed with chicken, children are task to feed it more chicken so it would have enough strength to practice boxing.

I Learn with Bo: Nutrition!

This app is not entirely free but if you do not want to buy it, you can still play with a free game. All you need to do is to feed the bears by retrieving all healthy food and keep it in the basket.

Other games included are Food Group sorting where you help the cooks sort the right kind of food in their pots.

Another game is called Balanced Meals that lets children choose different kinds of food to serve for a party.

Parents can also track the progress of their children and children get stickers as a reward.

Awesome Eats

This app has a fairly simple concept. All you need to do is to sort vegetables and put them in the right box by swiping them left or right.

Each time a game starts or ends, there is a trivia about a fruit or a vegetable, although an adult should read it aloud so the child playing will benefit from it.

My other concern is that this game can get very fast and it may be difficult for very young children to keep up. I think this game is fit for older children and adults and young children can play along.

Beansprouts Cooking Fun for Kids

This app is created by beansprouts to help children get excited to try eating healthy new foods.

The app contains videos of recipes, stories and games that children can enjoy including:

• Veggie head
• Crocamole Puzzler
• Draw a Master Peas
• Match ‘em up: Beans
• Build a Bean
• Scavenger Hunt
• Color Peacaso

and many more.

Healthy Heroes for Kids by Yogome

If your child is more into monsters and heroes, then this might just be the one for him/her. Pretend to play heroes as you and your child defeat monsters by eating the right kinds of food – healthy food.

Encourage your child be a real hero by eating healthy foods as well.

Healthy Harold, Healthy Me

This app is one of Australia’s very own. I am really psyched to find it among the many apps for kids.

To play the app, you can choose from games focusing on Keeping Healthy, Staying Safe or Our Feelings. Each option has 2 more games inside and they are completely free! Yeah mate, way to go.

The games are pretty simple and can be easily done by young children. It is created to help parents start a conversation with their children about their heathy habits, safety and feelings.

Healthy Me

Healthy Me is a simulation game created by Kentucky Educational Television.

The objective of the game is to help children feel how long washing hands and brushing of teeth should be.

Some studies reveal that hand washing should be done for 30 seconds while brushing the teeth should last for 2 minutes.

I tried the app and I really felt the two minutes was a long time (and I am an adult), so children may get fidgety. It does help that the teeth seem to be very dirty no matter how many times you brush and you just want to keep at it, although I doubted 1 or 2 times if my tablet was working at all!

There is a small timer at the corner of the game and it will really give you and your child a sense of how long these things should be done.

 

There are more apps out there and I am not saying that these list are the best. There will be new ones out and updates with the old apps. Again, it is very important to try the app first before letting your child use it.

Remember, apps are not for passing time but more of a tool for your child to learn about different things and something you can use to start a meaningful conversation with him/her.