Written by Cassie Vanderwall, MS RD CD CDE CPT
A recent anti-obesity campaign from Children’s healthcare of Atlanta’s Strong4Life movement, released a video that has sparked great attention. This PSA, “Rewind the Future,” features a 300-pound man having a heart attack in the ER as his life flashes before his eyes. The viewer gets a sneak peek into the habits that may have led him to that hospital.
Eating well starts at birth and there are a variety of things that parents can do to help their child develop mindful eating habits.
- Read Books about Food. Help your child to learn about where food comes from.
- Play Games with Food. Keep food fun and let it penetrate into different areas of life besides the dinner table. Food can be used to help your child with math, shapes, colors, and a variety of sciences including horticulture, biology and chemistry.
- Plant a Garden. Get dirty with your kids. Researchers have shown that kids who garden tend to eat more vegetables than those who do not.
- Invite your child to plan the family’s meal. Children who have a say in what they eat are more open to try new foods and tend to have better diets.
- Ask your child to help prepare the family’s meal. Don’t stop at meal planning, invite your child into the kitchen to learn how healthful food is prepared.
- Eat as a family. There are loads of benefits that come from family meals, including better communications skills, healthier meal patterns and a stronger sense of belonging.
- Avoid power struggles. Keep meal time a peaceful time and learn to trust your child’s choices during meals and snacks.
- Let your child develop their palate. Help your child to explore a variety of foods, including those that you may not like. Remember, just because you like sweets after a meal, or salt and butter with your veggies your child may not. Allow your child to develop their own nutrition likes and dislikes.
- Allow your child to obey their instinct. From birth, infants follow their internal hunger and fullness cues. They eat until they are satisfied. Help your child to preserve this intuition.
- Be a good role model. Kids tend to model their parents eating habits. If you’re reaching for vegetables, whole grains, fresh fruit and water, they will too.
