As originally featured in Simple Kids, I have written a few guidelines for parents struggling to get their children to eat healthy. You can see the original post and comments with this link.
Many parents struggle to teach their children healthy eating habits, especially in today’s world laden with overly processed, heavily sweetened foods.
It used to be so easy. As a baby, junior gobbled up his vegetables to his little heart’s content. You were certain he would happily snack on organic carrot sticks while his preschool buddies scarf down snack cakes. However, as he’s establishing greater independence, he’s beginning to turn his nose to healthy choices.
So, what’s a mom to do? First of all, take heart knowing you are not alone. Establishing healthy eating habits takes a lifetime. It’s a continuous journey involving creativity, gentle persistence, and encouragement. Listed below are some ways to successfully implement healthy food habits that carry into adulthood.
1. Start Early
2. Make It a Game
3. Be a Role Model
4. Use Consistency and Gentle Perseverance
5. Offer Non-Food Rewards
1. Start Early
The most important step to creating healthy food choices is starting early. It’s important to offer a wide variety of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables starting in infancy, perhaps even flavors and textures that are unfamiliar to you. I am personally an advocate of homemade baby food. It tastes better, costs significantly less, creates less environmental waste ,and you control the ingredients.
However, whether you choose to feed your baby homemade baby food, conventional store-bought food, or a combo of the two – consistently offer him a wide variety of nutrient dense foods, steering away from sweet treats for the first year. Your child’s tastes are developed early in life. The earlier the exposure to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, the more apt he will be to eat them later in life.
Photo by Cozy Memories
2. Make it a Game
I’ve never been into the “deceptive” technique of sneaking vegetables into your child’s diet. It’s seems a little, well, deceptive. As a parent, it’s important to teach honesty and integrity in all walks of life. This includes making healthy food choices.
Fresh fruits and vegetables come in a wide variety of colors and delicious flavors. Instead of sneaking spinach into a pan of brownies (yes, this is recommended by some nutritionists) why not use food as a teaching tool – encouraging children to eat foods that represent all the colors of the rainbow? We recommend using a fun chart like this Nutrition Checklist.
This exercise encourages children to make healthy food choices while also providing a guideline for parents to ensure optimal nutrition. For example, if your child eats a serving of spinach, have him check off one green box in the vegetable category. Do this after every snack time or meal so he soon associates healthy eating with positive parental feedback.
3. Be a Role Model
As much as we hate to admit it, children imitate their parents’ behavior. If you yell and scream at your child, he will eventually yell and scream back at you. The same principles are true for food . You can’t expect your child to happily eat his broccoli while you scarf down a plate full of french fries.
As parents, we need to be role models who inspire healthy food choices. If your child sees you consistently making healthy food choices, he is more apt to do the same.
4. Use Consistency and Gentle Perseverance
If you have a picky eater, do not expect overnight change. Children can learn to eat healthy foods, but it can take eight to ten tries. The key is not to use force. Force will ensure in your child’s mind that healthy food must be bad .
Instead, let your child consistently help you with meal planning, grocery shopping, and even the food preparation if he is old enough. This allows a choice in the matter, and he will be more apt to eat the foods that included his input. If your child is still belligerent, be persistent and encourage him to eat only as many bites as he is old. For example, ask your three year old to eat only three bites of broccoli.
If your child still refuses, let him go hungry. This sounds harsh, but he won’t starve. If the healthy food is replaced with something he prefers, he quickly learns that persistent refusal ends in his favor. Don’t give in. It will only harm him in the long run.
5. Offer Non-Food Rewards
Let’s be honest. Most of us prefer double-chocolate cake over a plateful of steamed broccoli. It doesn’t matter how often you eat the broccoli. Human taste buds are genetically wired to prefer sweet foods. It is the same with our children. Even breast milk and infant formula are quite sweet, so our little ones begin life with a predisposition for sweet foods.
With this in mind, it’s important not to provide sweet rewards for healthy eating. Every parent (I’m included!) has been guilty of saying something like, “Aimee, you may have a cupcake for dessert if you finish all your broccoli.” We bribe our children to eat their vegetables, thinking that if they eat their broccoli enough times, they will eventually do so without negotiation. This is not an effective way to teach healthy food choices, as Aimee will eventually assume the cupcake is superior to the broccoli because it is used as a reward.
Instead of sweet treats, offer physically active rewards – such as extra playtime with mommy or friends, a fun day at the park, or a new CD so they can dance to the music. Get creative and implement your child’s unique personality into his rewards.
And for the record, there is nothing wrong with sweet treats on occasion. Some of my best memories as a kid involve baking goodies with my mom. Just avoid using them as a bartering tool. Enjoy them for what they are in moderation, and your child will eventually learn to have an appreciation for all foods!
