Creating Healthy Eating Habits for your Child

Although, not a well publicized statistic, until recently, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past two decades—15% of American children are obese the U.S. Obesity Task Force reported.

With TV commercials bombarding children with ‘junk food’ options and fast food restaurants entice parents to ‘take a break’ from tedious cooking by offering toys or a play room, staying on a healthy eating plan is difficult.  Using TV; the computer; and a plethora of video games as a babysitter/fun activity doesn’t instill the concept that exercise is a way of life. Coupled with no P.E. in school; children are ensconced couch potatoes early.

The good news is. Humans are born with the most important effective weight management tool—a hypothalamus, which helps to regulate the amount of food required for maintaining optimum health and weight.

The hypothalamus is a thermostat for homeostasis—maintaining the body’s status quo. Blood pressure, body temperature, fluid, electrolyte balance, and body weight are held to a precise value called the set-point. Although this set-point can migrate over time, from day to day it is remarkably fixed.

If you observe infants and young children, you know that it is difficult to make them eat when they are not hungry—and it is almost impossible to deal with them when they are hungry. Toddlers in perpetual motion sometimes eat only small amounts of food, but they eat frequently enough to meet their needs, because at this juncture their natural weight management tool has not been overridden or indoctrinated with poor nutrition habits and eating practices.

During periods of rapid growth, particularly the teen years, children may be hungry all the time.  When their calorie requirements decrease, they lose interest in food—thus they avoid eating more than their body needs.

The bad news is, if parents have poor nutrition habits and/or use food to soothe emotional pain, or numb out pain—a.k.a. mindless eating, children will be indoctrinated with these poor habits and practices.  For example, if a baby is feed to calm them every time they cry, the baby soon learns that eating is the only way to receive soothing for discomfort. Humans need emotional and nutritional sustenance.  If they are given food to keep them quiet or busy, in lieu of emotional sustenance or stimulation, they learn food is the solution for life’s travail.

Once a child begins to eat solid food, well-intentioned parents sometimes play games and praise the child to encourage them to eat the food they think the child needs. They may say, “Good boy, you ate all your dinner!” or “What a good eater you are!”  Unfortunately, this praising teaches the child that when they eat, it makes mommy and daddy happy. Instead, praise the child for good manners and allow them to eat as much or as little as they desire.

Older children are urged to eat everything they are served by saying, “There are starving children in (insert name of country).” The child then ignores the physical discomfort of being full in order to comply with the parent’s expectations and win their approval.  Sometimes parent’s insistence to eat certain types and amounts of food backfires, and mealtime becomes a power struggles.

Another well-meaning parental tactic to encourage eating is “Clean your plate or you don’t get dessert.” Children may realize that since their parents are bribing them to eat, the food must be “less than desirable” and that dessert is the reward for eating ‘less than desirable food’ and more than their body is hungry for.  The result is a potential lifetime membership in the ‘Clean Plate and Obese Club.’

The bottom line is, although meeting children’s basic nutritional needs is critical, it is important to provide meals and snacks in a way that respects the child’s hunger and fullness cues and teaches them that food is simply for fueling their body.  If not, the stage is set for junk food eating habits and weight problems in the future.  The keys to helping your children thrive and avoid overriding their hypothalamus include:

· Respect your child’s internal cues of hunger and satisfaction.

· Avoid junk food—Yes, I know it is difficult to be the ‘junk food police.’  Simply DO NOT buy junk food. In the end, you will be glad you gave your child a healthy childhood.  If you are a junk food eater, you will need to ‘clean’ junk food out of your life to be a role model.  The old adage, ‘Don’t do as I do, do as I say,’ seldom works. Remember: Not only will you give your child a healthier life you give yourself a healthier life.

· Teach your children that some foods are healthier than others.  This helps children learn to balance eating for health with eating for pleasure.

· Involve your children in shopping, meal planning and preparation. This is a great opportunity to teach them about nutrition—they will be more likely to eat new foods if they helped choose the food and/or make it.

· Avoid forcing children to clean their plates or bribe them with dessert for finishing their meal. Use small portions and they can have seconds.

· Avoid using food as a reward.  Reward desired behavior with praise, extra attention and privileges.

· Avoid using food to comfort your child. Use understanding, empathic words and hugs.

· Help your child develop interests and skills that increase their success/pleasure—they will be less likely to use food for fulfillment.

· Process feelings to decrease the likelihood food will serve the purpose of emotional comfort.

· Avoid imposing stringent food rules—this can lead to rebellious eating when the child is away from parental supervision.

· Eat together as a family. Mealtimes can be a pleasant time to reconnect with one another and model healthy eating.

· Help your child build a lifetime of natural exercise by consistently planning physical activities as a priority, reducing the sedentary activities.

· Plan fun family activities that provide everyone with exercise, enjoyment and time together.

· Be a positive, encouraging role model for your family. When your child observes you enjoying healthy foods and physical activity, they are more likely to do the same.

Prevention of weight problems and the development of lifetime healthy eating and physical activity is easier learned when the parent is a role model.  Armed with these important insights, children will mange their weight instinctively throughout their lives—no matter what others around them do.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, specializes in family issues, including sexual abuse, incest and physical abuse prevention and recovery, as therapist, author, consultant, lecturer, and trainer. If I’d Only Known… Sexual Abuse in or out of the Family: A Guide to Prevention is available at a 20% discount direct from the publisher at www.gen-assist.com