How to get kids to eat nutritious, healthy food

How to get kids to eat nutritious, healthy food

As enforcers of food rules, parents seek the delicate balance between setting rules about kids' food choices and ensuring that they are followed for a nutritious and healthy diet.

Parents are a major influence on the food choices and diet of their children. They make decisions about which foods are best for their child's diet, nutrition and health, which foods are available at home, and where and when foods can be eaten in the house.

As enforcers of food rules, parents seek the delicate balance between setting rules about food choices for their children's diet and ensuring that they are followed. For example, a parent may decide to limit the supply of treats like chips and biscuits that are stocked in the kitchen yet have an ample supply of nutritious fresh fruit or healthy snacks.

Rigid food restrictions may backfire

Guiding food choices helps children learn to make smart nutritious decisions about their diet rather than simply learning that foods are either OK to eat or forbidden. Banning particular foods can make them even more appealing to children. The best strategy is to include some of these foods in the child's choice of treats.

Striking a balance is particularly crucial when parenting a child who is trying to reach a healthy weight. Rigid food restrictions may teach the child that healthy weight is about following a highly structured regime of nutrition and diet, not fatty foods. The negative effects may be compounded if the same food rules are not enforced in those siblings with a healthy weight. To avoid this, it is vital that parents provide the same food and healthy diet guidelines to everyone in the household.

Healthy foods served without fanfare

Parents who are overly enthusiastic about healthy or nutritious foods as a way to encourage children to eat them may find that the strategy backfires. Extreme verbal responses and obvious body language affect the child's beliefs and preferences for foods in their diet, so the best approach is neutral and equal reactions to all foods.

When the child is a picky eater

Virtually all young children have the potential to become 'picky' or 'fussy eaters'. This is because they are naturally neophobic, that is, they are afraid of new things, including foods. The way that parents introduce new healthy foods to a child's diet can help lessen food neophobia. For example, research has found that it may take up to 10 'exposures' to a new food for a child to feel brave enough to try it.A useful strategy for parents is to keep serving the same nutritious food day after day, but without calling undue attention to it. In time, and without prodding, many children will try the new healthy food. Seeing parents introduciong a new food to their own diet also takes away some of the fear factor for the young child.

Some more tips on food and family health:


Last revised: Thursday, 13 January 2011


blog comments powered by Disqus