Nutrition No No’s – 6 Mealtime Mistakes to Avoid with Your Children
A good number of us give thought to avoiding the mistakes our parents made in exposing us to food choices and try to teach good eating habits. Children are curious by nature and our own attitudes can form a child’s eating habits and preferences for life. Here are some simple meal-time approaches to exposing children to a variety of healthy foods in order to develop a healthy and open-minded relationship. These tactics run the “gamut” from the grocery store to the kitchen and household practices of handling and thinking about food.
1. Keeping children out of the kitchen during meal preparation time.
It is understandable that adults don’t want kids near boiling liquids and sharp knives while meals are being made. But studies have shown that children given a hand in preparing and cooking meals, whether it’s a snack or dinner, will desire to try the food they’ve helped to make. Give them small, age appropriate tasks. Here’s a guide for what they can do, based on age:
Two and Three Year Olds Can:
● Wash hands
● Wash fruits and vegetables
● Peel bananas
Four and Five Year Olds Can Also:
● Pour broken eggs from bowl into a mixture ● Knead & shape dough
● Open packages & pour into a bowl ● Set the table
● Pour cereal & dry ingredients
Six Year Olds and Older Can Also:
● Measure dry ingredients ● Gather ingredients from cupboards and refrigerator
● Pour liquids with assistance
2. Forcing Children to clean their plates or take a bite.
Let children learn to listen to their own bodies to tell them when they are full. If they say they are not hungry and they become hungry later let them choose a healthy snack-type vegetable dressed up a bit such as celery or carrot sticks with flavored yogurt as a dip. As to making them take a bite of a new food, studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward. From my own experience, I have never liked a particular vegetable because I was forced to eat it when I was six years old during a large family holiday dinner.
3. Making all decisions about foods the children have available to eat.
Take the children to the grocers and encourage them to choose they’re own healthy snacks for the week. Use the trip to the store as a fun experience to learn about the different food groups and the “healthy places” in the store. Usually, these places are the perimeter of the store where dairy, meat, fish and produce are displayed. The center isles, by and large, contain processed foods, heavy with added sugars, salt and fat. After arriving home, give them a special pantry shelf or refrigerator spot that they can call their own “snack space.”
4. Using favorite foods as a reward.
When a child refuses to eat a vegetable, it is all too easy to resort to bribery. Children can alter this into thinking that the broccoli you want them to taste is “bad.” This, in turn, can cause the child to think of the sweet dessert as a prize and more valuable than other foods on the plate. So, allow your children to make their own decisions. Remember that it can take as much as 10 exposures to a new food for a child to try it. Be patient and be a role model. Children learn by imitation. Seeing for themselves that others are eating and enjoying a certain food will go long way in forming healthy food choices.
5. Depriving children of all sweets.
Studies have consistently shown that when children are denied cookies or other snack foods, they want more of them, and, when they do have access, they will increase their consumption. Limiting but not completely abolishing sweets is the best approach.
6. Allowing unnecessary liquid calories.
Did you know that American children consume 10 to 15 percent of their daily calories from 100 percent fruit juice or fruit drinks, sodas, and sports drinks? Most of the “extra” calories from these beverages supply very little in the way of essential nutrients. Your children are unlikely to feel full from consuming lots of soda or juice and so they won’t eat less when the next meal or snack is offered. The extra calories from these drinks add up and the result will be weight gain in the long term. Set a good example, and don’t drink them yourself!
Remember that as a parent you are a primary role model for your family and that your food and meal-related behaviors have a direct impact on your children in forming good lifestyle habits.
Links for more ideas:
Healthy eating materials for 6- to 11-year-olds
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
Nutrition for Teens’ Life
http://www.fooddomain.msu.edu/
Janice Wade-Miller is the nutrition editor for Grand Magazine, an on-line publication for grandparents and their families, and the nutrition consultant to The Children’s Campaign headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida. If you would like to receive a free subscription to Grand, click here: http://bit.ly/
Janice earned her bachelors and masters degrees in Food and Nutrition from Florida State University. In her role as a health educator, she has assisted all age groups, from young children to senior citizens in learning about good nutrition, health and food safety. Her email address is jmiller@iamforkids.org.
