Building Good Eating Habits for Children's Health
What you teach your kids can play a key role in ensuring that your child makes good choices for healthy snacks and meals in the future.
By Kate Lowenstein
Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH
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Healthy eating habits are often established at a very young age. Primary caregivers play a central role in influencing what kind of eater a child becomes. But setting up a child with a lifelong commitment to healthy eating doesn’t have to mean spending hours teaching your child about nutrition.
Children’s Health: Setting the Right Example
The great news is that you can incorporate healthy snacks and meals into your daily life with just a few simple strategies.
Start early. Even before your child takes his first bite of solid food, you can establish taste preferences. “Begin early — in infancy — and each day, with each meal choice, show kids that eating healthy is just what we do,” says Jatinder Bhatia, MBBS, professor and chief of the section of neonatology at the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia. Research has found that breastfeeding can be the foundation for developing nutritious habits. Infants have a taste for sweet and salty things. If they’re given sugary drinks and other unhealthy foods early on, they’ll be more prone to obesity later in life.
Offer nutritious choices and variety. “Kids who are offered a variety of fruits and vegetables every day are going to be more likely to choose these items when they are away from home,” says Dr. Bhatia. It’s very important to introduce a wide selection of healthy snacks and meals to your young child. If they’re continually exposed to healthy choices, they are likely to eventually incorporate them into their diets.
Don’t give up if the food is rejected. Even if your child rejects healthy foods, repeated exposure will encourage a child to eventually incorporate them into his or her routine, says Janet M. de Jesus, MS, RD, a nutrition education specialist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “I give my young daughter a vegetable on her plate at lunch and dinner every day,” says de Jesus. “When kids refuse to eat a certain food, some parents just give up and stop offering it. I keep offering it, and if she doesn’t eat it, I will!”
Turn off the TV. Strange as it sounds, one way to get your child to eat her veggies may be to turn off the TV. A recent study found that adolescent children who ate meals in front of the television without their families consumed significantly fewer vegetables, grains, and calcium-rich foods and had higher intakes of sugary sodas, compared to children who did not watch TV during meals. Notably, however, the children who had family meals in front of the TV were found to eat more healthfully than those who didn’t have regular family meals at all.
Practice what you preach. Children’s lifetime habits come largely from the daily choices they see their parents make. “We learn most from our daily environment,” says Bhatia. “Overweight parents who live on fast food can't really expect to have slim, healthy kids.” Adds de Jesus, “Kids are really watching you more than you know or think. My husband and I eat healthily in front of our daughter, to the extent that if we want a snack we’ll wait until after she goes to bed.”
Healthy Snacks and Sugary Treats: The Right Approach
While some parents rely on making vegetables and fruits more appealing by cutting them into funny shapes or coloring them to be more exciting, this should only be a last resort, as it’s not a technique for creating lasting habits. “Children should learn early that food is delicious and fun in its most natural form,” says Bhatia. “A bowl full of grapes or brightly colored kiwi is enjoyable to eat. At what point do children learn to accept food for what it is and not expect to be entertained at each meal? Teaching kids the joy of trying foods from different cultures would be more beneficial.”
Unhealthy foods, such as those high in sugar and fat, are often used as “reward” foods for children who have completed their homework or cleaned their rooms. Bhatia advises reserving these foods for special occasions. “I would never call any food ‘bad,’” says Bhatia. “I strongly believe that all foods can fit into a healthy diet. Foods that are high in sugar and fat, such as brownies, cake, and chips, are foods we enjoy sometimes.”
Teach your children the appropriate serving size for these foods, and demonstrate that pigging out is never an option. “If we enjoy healthy foods each day,” says Bhatia, “it’s OK if we go out for ice cream on Friday night — just make sure it is not a double or triple scoop!”
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What you teach your kids can play a key role in ensuring that your child makes good choices for healthy snacks and meals in the future.
By Kate Lowenstein
Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH
Healthy eating habits are often established at a very young age. Primary caregivers play a central role in influencing what kind of eater a child becomes. But setting up a child with a lifelong commitment to healthy eating doesn’t have to mean spending hours teaching your child about nutrition.
Children’s Health: Setting the Right Example
The great news is that you can incorporate healthy snacks and meals into your daily life with just a few simple strategies.
Start early. Even before your child takes his first bite of solid food, you can establish taste preferences. “Begin early — in infancy — and each day, with each meal choice, show kids that eating healthy is just what we do,” says Jatinder Bhatia, MBBS, professor and chief of the section of neonatology at the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia. Research has found that breastfeeding can be the foundation for developing nutritious habits. Infants have a taste for sweet and salty things. If they’re given sugary drinks and other unhealthy foods early on, they’ll be more prone to obesity later in life.
Offer nutritious choices and variety. “Kids who are offered a variety of fruits and vegetables every day are going to be more likely to choose these items when they are away from home,” says Dr. Bhatia. It’s very important to introduce a wide selection of healthy snacks and meals to your young child. If they’re continually exposed to healthy choices, they are likely to eventually incorporate them into their diets.
Don’t give up if the food is rejected. Even if your child rejects healthy foods, repeated exposure will encourage a child to eventually incorporate them into his or her routine, says Janet M. de Jesus, MS, RD, a nutrition education specialist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “I give my young daughter a vegetable on her plate at lunch and dinner every day,” says de Jesus. “When kids refuse to eat a certain food, some parents just give up and stop offering it. I keep offering it, and if she doesn’t eat it, I will!”
Turn off the TV. Strange as it sounds, one way to get your child to eat her veggies may be to turn off the TV. A recent study found that adolescent children who ate meals in front of the television without their families consumed significantly fewer vegetables, grains, and calcium-rich foods and had higher intakes of sugary sodas, compared to children who did not watch TV during meals. Notably, however, the children who had family meals in front of the TV were found to eat more healthfully than those who didn’t have regular family meals at all.
Practice what you preach. Children’s lifetime habits come largely from the daily choices they see their parents make. “We learn most from our daily environment,” says Bhatia. “Overweight parents who live on fast food can't really expect to have slim, healthy kids.” Adds de Jesus, “Kids are really watching you more than you know or think. My husband and I eat healthily in front of our daughter, to the extent that if we want a snack we’ll wait until after she goes to bed.”
Healthy Snacks and Sugary Treats: The Right Approach
While some parents rely on making vegetables and fruits more appealing by cutting them into funny shapes or coloring them to be more exciting, this should only be a last resort, as it’s not a technique for creating lasting habits. “Children should learn early that food is delicious and fun in its most natural form,” says Bhatia. “A bowl full of grapes or brightly colored kiwi is enjoyable to eat. At what point do children learn to accept food for what it is and not expect to be entertained at each meal? Teaching kids the joy of trying foods from different cultures would be more beneficial.”
Unhealthy foods, such as those high in sugar and fat, are often used as “reward” foods for children who have completed their homework or cleaned their rooms. Bhatia advises reserving these foods for special occasions. “I would never call any food ‘bad,’” says Bhatia. “I strongly believe that all foods can fit into a healthy diet. Foods that are high in sugar and fat, such as brownies, cake, and chips, are foods we enjoy sometimes.”
Teach your children the appropriate serving size for these foods, and demonstrate that pigging out is never an option. “If we enjoy healthy foods each day,” says Bhatia, “it’s OK if we go out for ice cream on Friday night — just make sure it is not a double or triple scoop!”
Explore Everyday Health
Common Topics:
Resources:
Experts:
Support Groups:
Partners:
More:
Source:
Everyday Health.com