Helping Kids Build Healthy Eating Habits
I’m not an expert in child psychology but I do know a thing or two about instilling healthy eating habits in children. Betwen my experience with my own daughter who is now 4 and the influence I had over my 13 year old niece during her early years, I’ve picked up a few helpful tricks for helping kids build healthy eating habits.
It’s no secret that children learn from watching and mimicking. They are sponges and absorb everything they see, hear and experience. They acquire knowledge and skills quickly and begin forming habits early on in life. Studies have shown that most habits are formed by the age of 9, many of which are carried into adulthood.
As adults, we know how difficult it can be to shed the not so productive habits and form new healthier ones, especially around our food and lifestyle choices. It can feel like an uphill battle to give up sugar or quit smoking. Something as simple as drinking more water can be a challenge for many of us.
As parents, caregivers and influencers of little people, it’s our duty to instill and reinforce healthy food and lifestyle habits that will help them live a healthy happy life, all without creating a culture of fear around food. It’s no easy feat, but it’s very much possible.
Here are my top 9 tips for helping kids build healthy eating habits while also helping them develop a positive relationship with food:
Lead By Example
To the dismay of many parents, the reality is that children often do as we do and not as we say. It’s extremely important for parents, caregivers and influencers to lead by example.
Show them how to eat, by eating the foods you want them to eat.
It’s a futile exercise if you tell them to eat a bowl of broccoli while you eat a potato for example. They will want the potato if they see you eating a potato. If they see you eating the broccoli, then the chances of them eating the broccoli increases.
If we’re being honest, they still may not eat the broccoli, because certain flavours and tastes aren’t always agreeable to a child’s palate, and they can sometimes be stubborn, but the responsibility is on us to set that example, by eating nutritiously and hoping they follow suit, eventually.
The same holds true for driking plenty of water. Instead of chasing your child around the house with a bottle of water, pick up a glass, drink some water and let them see you. Chances are they will want some too. If they don’t ask for it, offer it to them. Keep a cup or bottle of water within their reach so they can drink whenever they feel thirsty. Amal has a favourite thermo
Start Them Young
Studies show that there is a flavour window between 4 and 18 months, during which a child will acquire a taste preference for certain foods. Offering a new food multiple times during the flavour window makes a child more likely to like these foods and more willing to try new ones. So the moral of the story here is, start them young and be sure to introduce as many new foods as you can during this flavour window.
Be Persistent
Don’t give up. If your child doesn’t like certain foods the first time, second time or even the third time, don’t dismiss it as a lost cause and stop serving it.
Studies have shown that repeated exposure to foods can help children develop a taste for foods they don’t like. You may need to offer the food up to 15 times, without forcing it on them, before your child will develop a liking to it.
While it may not work on all children and with all foods, by repeatedly exposing a child to the healthy foods you want them to eat, you’ve sent the message loud and clear, that the proverbial “broccoli” is an important part of a healthy diet.
Offer Variety
Children never get tired of what they like, but are easily bored by what they don’t like. While they may never say no to their favourite chocolate chip cookie or strawberry ice cream, they may very well get bored by the same bowl of steamed carrots, peas and corn over and over again. Variety, in terms of colours, shapes, cooking methods, and textures is important to nutritionally balance a diet and keep things exciting. We eat with our eyes and kids are particularly attracted by vibrant colours.
Another important reason for offering variety is that you ensure that your child always has something to pick from at the table. If you know they aren’t likely to eat red peppers and broccoli and that’s all you offer in terms of vegetables, then you’re pretty much guaranteeing that they won’t eat their vegetables. Make sure to always include at least one or two vegetables you know they like.
Make Healthy Food Fun
Healthy always gets a bad rap while ice cream, cookies and chocolate are celebrated the world over.
While it’s certainly ok for your child to eat ice cream, cookies and chocolate from time to time, it’s important for them to learn to appreciate that real whole foods are also tasty and can be transformed into something fun as well.
Keep the refrigerator and pantry stocked with health promoting snacks like fruits, vegetables, dried fruits and nuts and use them to prepare delicious snacks and treats with the kids.
Fresh cut vegetables and homemade dips, homemade nut butter, dried fruit and nut balls, smoothies, banana ice cream, sweet and savoury pancakes and savoury hand held foods like patties and filo pockets can all be vehicles for creating fun with food.
When children see how foods can be transformed by blending, juicing, and mixing, they develop a new found appreciation for the ingredients and the magic that happens in the kitchen.
Involve them in the process
Children love to get their hands dirty and love to help and feel like they are contributing.
Bring them to the supermarket or farmer’s market and allow them to chose their favourite fruits and vegetables and other healthful ingredients that you can then come home and transform into a meal together.
Assign age appropriate tasks to the child, like brushing something with oil, mashing something with a fork, or tossing something together in a bowl. Pre measure ingredients and have the child combine them. The more involved they are in creating something the more likely they will be to eat it or at least try it and even if they don’t enjoy it, you’re still teaching them invaluable life lessons that they will carry with them forever.
Don’t Reward Them With Food
Offering cake, ice cream or a cookie in exchange for a clean plate is never a good idea. It promotes unhealthy eating habits and goes further to vilify healthy food and make the not so nutritious foods more fun and appealing.
In fact, I prefer not to reward with anything when it comes to food. A child shouldn’t be encouraged to mop their plate clean, despite being full, just to get a sticker or extra play time.
They need to learn to listen to their bodies, and that’s hard to do when they’re busy shoveling food so they can have a reward.
Let Them Eat Cake
While it may seem counter productive, allowing your kids to eat some sweets and “junk food” is actually healthy. When you make food forbidden, you also make it highly desireable. Think about the foods you tell yourself you can’t eat. I bet those are the same foods you crave most often and “can’t be left unsupervised with”.
Labelling foods as good and bad creates a lot of fear and promotes an unhealthy relationship with food. Instead, try positioning it as foods that help us grow and feel our best vs foods that are just fun to eat.
Kids will inevitably be exposed to “unhealthy junk foods” at some point, and it’s best if you teach them to enjoy these foods in moderation. Making them completely off limits only makes them more appealing and may encourage your child to eat them behind your back.
Make sure they understand the importance of the healthful foods to grow, stay strong and healthy and offer them plenty of opportunity to chose the good stuff by making it accessible and front and center.
Respect Their Hunger & Satiety Cues
It’s natural for a parent to panick when their child doesn’t eat, but remember, a child will not let themselves go hungry. Most of the time, barring any healthy issues of course, a child will eat when they are hungry and will stop when they are full.
Never force a child to eat. The key to developing a healthy relationship with food is to listen to our bodies and tune into our hunger and satiety cues. It teaches us self control so that we eat when we’re hungry, stop when we’re full, and avoid binge eating, even on our favourite ice cream, cookies and chocolates.
It can get tricky sometimes. When you fill their plate with food and they eat all of one thing, ask for more and don’t touch the rest, it can be frustrating and wasteful. One trick is to fill the plate together, getting their input about what they want and how much while also ensuring they have a nutritionally balanced plate in front of them.
The bottom line is that children need role models and guides and we need to set the example, but they also have a palate and taste preferences of their own, need to be given some freedom to make decisions about what and how much to eat. If I can offer one take away from this whole piece it’s this: present them with a variety of healthful options, let them see you enjoy it, don’t force them to eat and relax. The more stressed you are about what and how much they are eating, the more pressure you’ll put on them and the less likely they will be to do what you ask.