Getting Children To Eat Right
How to Get Children to Make Healthy Food Choices and Keep Fit
Getting children to eat right and make healthy food choices is often a struggle, leaving parents feeling bewildered as to how to get children to eat right and keep fit.
Getting children to eat right and make healthy food choices - habits that will last into adulthood - is often a struggle for parents. Enticing fast-food restaurants and television commercials targeting children with high-calorie and high-fat foods often leave parents feeling bewildered as to how to get children to eat right. By carefully following these five tips, along with having a determination and focus on a healthy viewpoint about food, parents can help ensure their children will grow up healthy and fit.
Set the Right Example
Children learn what they live, making it vital that parents set the right example with their own food choices. If parents are routinely eating and snacking on unhealthy foods, how can children be expected to do any differently? Setting the right example to get children to eat right requires parental self-discipline. Parents need to provide loving and firm guidance in making healthy and wise choices regarding food and snacks.
Remember the Five Food Groups
Studies on nutrition show that parents who consume a healthy portion of foods from the five food groups (fruits, vegetables, grains, meat and other proteins, and dairy products) on a daily basis are much more likely to get children to make better food choices and greatly reduce the chances of developing obesity and many other health risks. Remembering to introduce foods from the five food groups at an early age helps develop their taste for healthy foods rather than a taste for salty or sugary treats.
Choose Healthy Snacks
Choose healthy snacks for children such as low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese, fresh fruits and vegetables with tasty dips. Keep healthy snacks well-stocked at home, readily available and easily accessible for children to grab. Save cookies and other sugar-coated treats for an occasional sweet treat or special occasions. Never get into the habit of giving children cookies or other sugary-treats when the family meal is being prepared or is almost ready to be served. Consider offering a couple of bites of the vegetables or salad already planned for the meal to tide them over.
Children Need Exercise
Children need to be moving their bodies and be getting the right amount of exercise regularly. Schedule family walks after mealtime or family outings to the park where children can run and jump, rather than spending hours idling in front of the television set or playing video games. Arrange for children to participate in after-school activities such as baseball, basketball or tennis where children can learn that exercise can also be fun.
Provide Necessary Discipline
Children typically do not like changes being made to their routines, so expect children to express their dislike to newly implemented changes in the family meal plan. Calmly explain that “this is what we’re having for dinner”, and if children adamantly refuse to eat the planned meal, simply cover it and save it for when they say they’re hungry. Remember, your home is not a cafeteria-style restaurant where children dictate what they will or will not eat. When the child later says they’re hungry, simply say “Well that’s good because I saved your dinner for you”, and then reheat as needed.
Following these five tips will help to get children to eat right, thus providing them proper guidance and parental example towards developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with food.
