Article published May 25, 2009
Healthy food choices are important for all ages
Debbie Verkin-Siebert is a pediatric dietitian at St. Vincent Mercy Children’s Hospital.
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THE BLADE/LISA DUTTON
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By DEBBIE VERKIN-SIEBERT
SPECIAL TO THE BLADE
Each month physicians and other health practitioners from ProMedica and Mercy Health Partners will write columns about weight loss and fitness.
Taking time to feed your children a healthy diet is a great investment in their future. Healthy foods eaten regularly, mixed with physical activity, are the best prevention for your children becoming overweight.
And for parents who are able to adopt a healthy lifestyle, even if it's not "perfect," your kids stand a better chance of maintaining healthy habits down the road.
Here are some points to consider for helping children enjoy healthy food choices:
• Join the team. The best team is the family. Involve your children in food shopping and preparing meals. If you have school-aged children, encourage them to help with weekly menu selections and shopping. Having your children do this can give you valuable insight on their food likes and dislikes and may give you an opportunity to talk about nutrition. Working as a family team provides them a sense of accomplishment and pride for helping to make decisions.
• Guide your family's food choices. Keep a variety of healthy foods available in your house. We all enjoy convenience, especially kids, so try as best as possible to bag your own kid-portion snack foods - popcorn, dried fruit and nut mixes, cut up fruit, or vegetables - setting them aside on a shelf or in a drawer just for snacks.
Try to purchase junk foods less often, but don't fall in the trap of restricting these foods all of the time. Children need to learn that these foods are not "bad," just less healthy.
• Support and respect your child's ability to regulate his or her own appetite. All of us, starting as infants, are wired with built in appetite controls. Never force or bribe your children to eat more than they want, or restrict the amounts of food they eat.
Telling children that they will get dessert if they eat all of their vegetables sends the wrong message about vegetables. In time, this overrides children's appetite regulation. Your job is to provide healthy meals and it is up to your child to determine how much of it to eat, so relax.
• Limit where your children eat meals and snacks. Avoid eating in the car, in front of the TV/computer, or in the bedroom. This causes distraction, mindless eating reduces the connection between hunger and fullness. Eating meals in the kitchen or at the dining room table - TV turned off, if possible - is a great way to focus on family time and provides a good opportunity to practice table manners.
• Bring back the family meal. In research conducted by the University of Minnesota, Harvard University and Rutgers the eating habits of nearly 40,000 middle school students and teenagers were studied. The studies show those who ate meals with their parents eat more fruits, vegetables, and calcium-rich foods, take in more vitamins and nutrients, and consume less junk food. Some of the research has even shown that kids who regularly sit down to a family meal are at lower risk for behaviors like smoking and drug and alcohol use.
• Strive for 5-Count it out - a combination of at least five fruit and vegetable servings a day for each child. Seems like a lot, but portions are not as large as you would think.
Suitable portion sizes for toddlers up to preschool age start at one tablespoon for each year of age. Once your child starts school, portions are a bit larger. Don't sweat it if your child doesn't eat this amount every day, what is important is what they eat over a week's time.
Building on their food preferences helps to reinforce positive eating experiences. If your child has difficulty accepting new foods, start small. Offer one bite on the plate for him to taste if he wants. If he says "No way," keep trying the same vegetable or fruit at different meals or in different ways. If he eventually tries it and doesn't like it, just chalk it up to his taste buds and move on to another food.
Check out www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov. You will find pictures of food portions and awesome recipe ideas.
Share your feelings about food: Talk to others who are responsible for feeding your children including daycare providers, school, and family. Communicate what your philosophy is about food and how it relates to your child's eating habits.
Try to reinforce what you are trying to do for your family at home, but realize that healthy eating is not always possible or realistic. Additionally, children cared for outside the home can benefit from being exposed to positive peer pressure, consistency of mealtime routines, and are more apt to try more choices as there is usually less time for negotiation and short order cooking.
Licensed day care providers are mandated by state licensing regulations to give scheduled meals and snacks. Children in day care are less likely to eat and drink continuously throughout the day.
For more information on healthy practices in child care, visit www.healthykids.us/chapters/meals_main.htm.
Above all, remember that by being healthy and active, you will teach your children, by example, about the best choices in life. And there are no better role models for our children than their parents.
Debbie Verkin-Siebert, pediatric dietitian at St. Vincent Mercy Children's Hospital, is a registered and licensed dietitian.
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