During the onset of early childhood, it is common for a child's appetite to decrease. It goes without saying that a child's diet should consist of low amounts of fats, oils, salts, and cholesterol. Also, foods high in sugar should be avoided due to their links to tooth decay as well as decreasing a child's appetite for healthy foods. Another drawback to foods high in sugar is that they can give a child a "sugar high", however this short lived explosion of energy can often make a child very tired when it wears off, leading to calories that don't get burned off and end up being stored as fat. These amounts must be closely monitored due to the smaller portions of food that children at this age take in. One way to overcome this obstacle is by giving a child a daily multi-vitamin which would supply the child with the daily allowance of vitamins and minerals that are crucial for keeping a growing child healthy.
In order to keep the child interesting in eating healthy, I would not have a set menu for the child to follow, rather I would keep things different to avoid boredom with eating. In order to help the child enjoy eating healthy, I would try to include as many good tasting foods in the child's diet as possible. For example, watermelon, turkey, skinless chicken, grapes, cantaloupe, cereal, eggs, and sweet corn are all types of food that can satisfy a child's sweet tooth, all the while providing generous portions of the proper ingredients essential to helping a child grow up to be a healthy adult. .
Although I believe positive reinforcement is an excellent way to promote good habits in children, I would be very wary of using this technique to promote good nutrition because this would cause the child to like the treat more and the healthy food less. Once the child was old enough to get food on his own, he would skip the healthy part and go straight for the snack. One way around this would be to use a tasty health food for a reward, rather than cookies or brownies; which are loaded with fat.
