I see a lot of parents with overweight kids who are just totally exasperated that they cannot change their kids’ eating habits. “They don’t eat vegetables,” they say. Or perhaps “They eat junk too late at night.” Some of these children are heading straight for a lifetime of serious health problems, and starting sooner rather than later, but the family either thinks nothing can be done or, worse, that being obese is just natural due to family history. Kids have strong willpower, and one of the few things they can control is what they swallow. Probably the parents’ battles over food have been fought and lost many times and the parents reached a point where they just gave in.
In many of these cases, I see that the parents are struggling with weight themselves. I think that the most important factor in determining a child’s eating habits and health behaviors is likely what the parents’ eating habits and health behaviors are. The most important thing you can do for your child is to eat a healthy diet yourself. Try to avoid fighting over food, which is easier said than done, I know. Here are some tips for getting some buy-in from your children:
1. Eat a healthy diet yourself.
Both parents, if involved, have to commit.
2. Eat a healthy diet yourself.
Discuss the rationale for eating healthy with your kids. They are smart!
3. Eat a healthy diet yourself.
Get the picture?
4. Expose them to healthy foods.
Be sure to give young children and toddlers frequent exposure to healthy foods even if they don’t like it at first. Just because they make the yucky face the first time they have spinach doesn’t mean that spinach should be retired! Offer and have them taste it often.
5. Limit unhealthy foods in the house.
There should not be any processed snack foods, sodas, or candies anywhere in the house. You buy the food, after all. As nutritional “gatekeeper” for the household, you do most of the food purchasing and preparing, and you control directly or indirectly 72 percent of what your child eats both inside and outside of the home. You cannot get too upset if your kid is just eating what you’re buying and putting in front of them. What does “in front of them” mean? It means anywhere in the house when you are talking about hungry kids and salt, sugar, and fat.
6. Keep healthy snacks plentiful, convenient, and available.
Fresh, whole fruits and vegetables are available year-round. Carrots, celery, homemade hummus, whole grain toast, and low-sugar jam are some foods you might stock. Put them where they are easily seen and reached (at eye level in the front part of the fridge or in a bowl on the table, for example).
7. Let them choose.
Give your child a choice over what foods they want to eat, but limit the choices to healthy options. For example, they can have veggie lasagna (loaded with spinach, tomatoes, and other veggies, but without cheese) or minestrone veggie soup with whole grain pasta. Let them help prepare the food, if they want to. Help them feel in control of the process and you’ll get more buy-in.
8. For school-age kids, make firm, fair, consistent, and clear rules about eating.
For example, no dessert until at least a good effort has been made to eat the healthy food. Repeating food and taste exposures early on, even if they are unpleasant at first, will eventually change their preferences. There doesn’t need to be any arguing over these rules. If your child doesn’t meet your requirements, then dinner is over and there’s no dessert, period. It’s the child’s choice, really, and you don’t need to fight over it.
This is hard work, and I do not mean to suggest otherwise! But encouraging healthy behaviors is well worth the effort. Once expectations are clear and patterns are established, your kids will more often become partners rather than adversaries. Raising healthy kids will become much easier!
