Cook With Your Child Has Many Benefits

Cook yourself at home has many benefits for all family members. One of them is to make all family members consume foods that can be ascertained the value of nutrition, cleanliness, and health. In addition to the benefits above, cooking food at home makes children and adolescents avoid the risk of obesity. Self-produced foods from home kitchens are also generally guaranteed to be healthier with lower calorie content compared to snacks outside the home.

Surprising benefits when cooking with your child

Not only is it fun and it strengthens the bond between Mother and Baby, there are many benefits that can be obtained by the Little One when cooking with Mother, including:

• Build confidence and cooking skills

Cooking with children turns out to be beneficial for their lives later. They will find it easier to build self-confidence and have a healthy lifestyle as adults. Cooking can also be used as a skill that promises their future.

• Stimulates the senses

Cook with your little one at home can help him get to know new foods and stimulate other senses besides the sense of taste. Children can learn to listen to the sound of the oven, kneading dough, to inhale the aroma of the cake.

• Study

Children can also learn mathematical concepts such as counting, measurement, until fractions that are generally listed on the recipe notes. Parents can explain how temperature can change the texture of food, or how certain foods can make the body healthy, can increase knowledge. Don't forget to use the new vocabulary in explaining or describing the taste of a food to Little One, Mom.

• Quality time

In addition, encouraging your child to cook and eat together can also reduce the time to play gadgets or sit in front of the TV. With cooking together, parents and children can enjoy quality time together. In addition, of course, children will also feel involved and contribute to the family.

What to Look For Before Cooking

In order to not cook for yourself at home, you need to pay attention to the following:

• Kitchen cleanliness

Did you know that the kitchen is the location of the most germs in the house? No half-hearted, the kitchen sink was able to have germs up to 100 thousand times compared to conditions in the bathroom. Rows of disease-carrying germs, such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter, enter the kitchen through raw food. If not handled properly, do not be surprised if the various germs above spread everywhere.

• Treat food ingredients properly

Make sure Mother gives an example to Little One how to produce healthy food. One thing that must be accustomed is to cook the food until it is cooked so that the germs in the food material die. Mother also needs to teach to wash vegetables and fruits before cooking or consuming. In addition, how to store food also can not be done haphazardly so as not to cause health problems, such as food poisoning, colds, flu, and diarrhea.

• personal hygiene

One of the trivial things, but often forgotten to do it right is hand washing. Hands are the most important medium of our body that can spread germs, so it is important to wash hands as clean as possible to reduce the risk of spreading germs. Wash your hands with warm water and soap before cooking, after touching the leftover cooking debris, and before and after touching raw food.

• Take care of child safety

When inviting children, several factors related to their safety must also be considered. If your child is still preschool, make sure they are kept away from shakers that use electricity, stoves, pans, and hot fryers. So that they forget the curiosity of the dangerous objects above, busy them with light tasks, such as preparing the dining table or stirring the dough.

• Maintain patience

Do not be afraid of a messy kitchen when inviting children to cook. In order to keep this activity fun, you should loosen the kitchen rules that must always be neat. Mother can give one task for him in each cooking one menu. Teach your child not to run around while in the kitchen and always ask for permission if you want to use a knife or electric cooker. To be sure, Mother must be more patient when facing the 'chaos' that might occur. Do not forget to keep encouraging your child when he can not do the tasks that Mother gave.

Well, Mother, make time to cook with Little One, so she and Mother can be more intimate. After that, invite Little to taste the results of his cooking, prepare it, and eat together with other family members.