Help parents make healthy choices for children
Nowadays it is more and more difficult to convince children to eat healthy food and be active.
You are invited to give one piece of advice to a parent on how to encourage their school child/teenager to eat more vegetable and fruits instead of sweets and to get out instead of watching TV or playing computer games.
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/downloads/gswflashcards.pdf
Do you know that “monkey see – monkey do” saying? Kids learn by example more than you think! If you want a child to change a bad eating behavior, start challenging your own habits. Start having fruits or seeds as a snack, instead of pastry or sweets. Start having fresh vegetables beside your lunch, every day. Start preparing different salad combinations together! Be patient and educate by example. It works especially with toddlers, but I suppose it’s never to late to change the eating habits of both you and your child!
ReplyDeleteDiana, do you think this will be easier to apply with smaller children or with teenagers?
DeleteSometimes it's easier to start early with healthy food choices, because small children know only things they have been exposed to. However, my experience as mom of teenagers, is that they more likely to understand also the effects of unhealthy food and therefore, they accept, for example, veggies/salads besides their main dish, as long as they look appealing :)
DeleteAs a mom to be, I also think that you, as a parent, are the best example for your kids. They do what they see and they will always want to be or do things like mommy or daddy does, so any food choices you make will be the choice of your child as well. Spending some extra time together and having more meals as a family would have a great impact on their food choices. Also, having a variety of options and making it fun and appealing for them would make a great difference as well.
DeleteNagy Sz.
ReplyDeleteParents need to understand their child , if thay just take away the candy or unheath food out of the blue the child will think that he did something bad or inappropriate , thats common mistake . The child needs to be informed right about the food he eats , for this the parents need a lot of patience and often help from a nutritionist . If we educate correctle from a young age our childrens , we can achieve that he is not going to buy fastfood of candys when hes not at home and he can choose a healthy meal of snack without our help or supervise , and that a real achievement .
In conclusian if we have a very young child , we need to inform him step by step , little by little until he has a concept about what`s healthy and what is not . If we have a more older child we need to slowly but surely change his opinion about health .
I agree with you, it is important to inform the child from an early age.
DeleteHowever, in order to choose the healthiest food for the child, the parent should set a good example to them. Each child learns from their parents. Therefore, choosing BLW could be a good decision.
Have you ever heard about that?
Briefly: The Baby-led Weaning is a method for introducing solid foods that don't involve purees or spoon feeding. In fact, the babies eat by themselves soft foods, which are placed in front of them by their mums.
Sorry for the long post , i didn`t realised it was 50+ words .
ReplyDeleteBojian Ioana-Emilia
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, a child is most attracted to color, so food should look colorful and fun. Parents could try mimicking their child’s favorite cartoon or game by playing with food placement on their plate. Taste is also very important, especially when dealing with teenagers. Maybe try a new recipe or improve your old ones. No matter what, keep in mind that forcing kids to eat when they don’t feel like it will have a negative effect on their relationship with food.
Balan Andra-Daniela
ReplyDeleteWell, i m not a parent yet but still i can imagine how i would do it with my child. Children, mostly, watch everything their parents do very carefully and then they copy so basically they learn by imitation. So our daily living influences a lot the behavior of the child and the first change we can make is to improve ourselves. Regardless of age, we can still play in the park with our child and also we can drink healthy juice and pretend it's a magic juice that makes us superheroes. My opinion is that everything can be learned by playing.
Bichir Carmen Elena
ReplyDeleteAs Diana pointed out, the children develop the parents habits. The power of the example is very strong and it will form the same routine for the child and it will lead to the same habits. It's a well known study the one with the twins from an obese family wich were separated at birth. One stays with the natural family and the other goes to an adoptive normoponderal family. Over the years one becomes an obese adult as well as the parents and the other raised in the adoptive family grows up as a normoponderal, healty adult.
My opinion is that parents can make healthy choises for their children; especially when they are little it s very simple. If you as a parent make time to cook healthy for you and your family, to educate you children what means a helthy food and you give an example, your kids will eat healthy, as well. But there is a problem for parent to maintain this education, because when children grow up and go to school at and see what other children eat,there is a "bad influence"; even if they know that choise is not so good to them, they want to try "junk food". There should be a support for parents in school, i mean, classes of healthy eating and nutrition maybe, to continue and support an education which some parents try to mantain at home.
ReplyDeleteJidveian Ioana
Moga C.
ReplyDeleteI think it is much easier to teach the child to eat fruits and vegetables, starting with his first years of life.
However, if you have considered adopting a healthy lifestyle and he does not agree with it, you can try a few tricks. ;)
First of all, cook at home for the whole family, cook with your children.
If you can cut the fruit or vegetables in unique shapes. For example for breakfast prepare some simple cereals with fresh sliced fruits.
Secondly, it is very important that we also prepare a package for them at school to avoid fasfood consumption.
And another opinion, encourage your relatives and friends to offer your child fruits or various healthy dishes in exchange for candy or chocolates.
Have a good day!
Pfeifer Melany
ReplyDeleteIt’s always easy to talk when you’re not in the situation like in this case. What I will definitely do like a responsible parent is explaining that how important are our eating decisions. Many times the visual experience is more important to us than the taste, so I will try to prepare the food as attractively as possible. If we set a good example, I think we can make a big impact on them.
Orban W.
ReplyDeleteOne of our jobs as parents and caregivers is to help kids make healthy choices so that they stay well now and grow into healthy adults. The best way to do this is to teach by example.
Kids do what you do more than they do what you say. Your child is likely to pick up your good and bad habits, so try to start adding more good habits to your life today!
Kelemen A.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion changing bad behavior patterns is one of the hardest things, speacialy when it comes to teenagers. It is a proven fact that small rewards increase the chance of changing human's behavior. For instance, if a child goes out to play from his own will, reward him with something. That will motivate him to do it again. Slowly, they will unconciously do the right thing and after a while they will even start enjoying having healthy snacks.
Many times the absence of knowledge can lead people to eat for their tongues not for their mind.
ReplyDeleteParents should study how to make delicious healthy foods and little by little transforming their children's taste . What you eat first in the morning influences your whole day being careful to eat than some fruits in the morning can also help.
Agavriloaei Elena A.
ReplyDeleteI have a younger sister, she have 4 years old. We also have some problems with her, because she didn't want to eat what we want. So, we start makeing changes like: she will eat when we eat, the food will be colorful and not too much. We also make her laught and try to make her to feel safe, comfortable and we encourage her to eat, because we have the same food. Sometimes we try her food just for her to see that is good, is tasty and nothing will happen if she eats. We don't force her to eat, if she dind't want, it's ok, she will eat when she is hungry, but until she eats, she will not receive sweets. Sweets are the reward if she eat... I think this is some good advice for parents with children, I have one child at home so I think it will work.
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ReplyDeleteBarte Iulia
ReplyDeleteWe all know that children copy their parents behavior. I would advise parents to start making changes in their own nutrition and to inform themselves about what a proper nutrition means. Also, parents should induce healthy choises and explain them to their kids because they can t be everyday near them and by doing that, they can be sure that their kids choose the right kind of food. However, kids are known to be in love with sweets and they should receive them but in the right quantity. Don t teach your kids that sweets are bad and they shouldn't touch them. Teach them that candies and chocolate are good but with balance and not everyday. Another way to make your kids eat healthy is to make their snacks look funny and colorfull (cut vegetables to look like little animals or write a little note for every food in the plate about the benefits that food brings). In conclusion, parents should start the change with themselves and also make balance in their kids eating habits