Creating Healthy Eating Habits in Your Children

There are many ways to encourage children to eat healthier and keep healthy eating exiting. Such as:-

Childhood obesity is a growing problem in America. "the percentage of obese children doubling from 6.5% in 1980, to 17.0% in 2006. Weight, nutrition, and physical activity are the main components to a child’s overall health.”(1) “When parents become too busy to cook meals in their homes, children learn poor eating habits and develop into unhealthy eaters.”(1) They will take what they learned at home and apply it to anywhere else that they eat. For example a child that drinks milk at dinner and sits with their family at dinner when asked what they want to drink when they are at a friend’s home will ask for milk because the child would associate milk with dinner. Children cannot make healthy choices of their own they need to be guided so

When working in a nursery you have to be aware that all the children’s nutritional requirements as well as making sure that these are being met. What this means is that we should always ensure that we are providing them with a balanced and diverse diet which meets the governments guidelines. We should provide children with a diet that is based around the Eat Well Plate this consists on Carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice etc. Dairy, like Cheese, Milk, Butter, Protein such as Chicken, Beef, Turkey, etc. Fruit and Vegetables and finally Fats the portion size for fat is much more smaller then all of the other areas on the plate as there not that good for our bodies and they don’t really of offer many nutritional benefits and they can sometimes

Eating a well balanced meal is crucial for someone in their early childhood stage. During this time period, between the ages of two and six, a well-nourished child can grow up to three inches and gain up to four and a half pounds per year (Berger, 2010). Children at this age also need fewer calories per pound of body weight than infants do. Since children need less food than they did before and many do not diminish the intake of their food consumed, obesity becomes a problem. The article “Child and adolescent obesity: a part of a bigger picture” states, “The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has risen substantially worldwide in less than one generation” (Lobstein, 2015). Obesity is a main factor that is present and can lead to other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The article also states that, “The food industry has a special interest in targeting children. Not only can the companies influence children’s immediate dietary preferences, but they can also benefit from building taste preferences and brand loyalty early in life, which last into adulthood” (Lobstein, 2015). Once children are hooked on the foods they eat during their childhood, they tend to follow those habits as they grow up. Children in low-income families are vulnerable to obesity because they rely on cheap fast food.

Heart disease, stroke, and death are just some of the symptoms of eating unhealthy food. Eating behaviors develop during the first few years of children 's lives. Children learn what to eat by observing other eating behaviors. Eating healthy food during infancy and toddler years is extremely important because the child observes the eating behaviors of their care giver or parent. Some benefits of giving your child healthy food at a you g age are, nutrients, vitamins, and energy.Adults and parents play an important role in children eating healthy because they choose the food choices for their families or themselves. Schools also play an important role in eating healthy food because they use certain strategies like having a

Nutrition isn't always the key with kids these days. Most kids only eat the good food at lunch not the fruit cups or the canned vegetables. Kids like food that is does not look disgusting and taste horrible for example fish tacos. We like to eat tacos, waffles, pizza, etc. Most of the food anyway is thrown away because it looks gross or tastes bad. The lunch menu needs to be fixed along with the lunches also.

The most logical way to stop this is to start with the parents.Children’s eating habits are caused by their parents because the buy their children most of the food. but then again some of children parents don't know much about healthy food or they are not healthy themselves.According to http://www.thepolypost.com/ they say “Another mistake is telling kids they can have dessert if they behave well. Making dessert seem like such a reward is a bad idea. It causes them think that this is what will make them feel good. This habit may stay with them their whole life and they may turn to sweets for comfort as adult cultural norms may be another reason why people are overweight for examples some cultures might eat more fatty foods than others and have bigger portion sizes. in American cultural norms we tend to eat all the time when we go

This influences what foods are chosen for the meal. Fast food, takeout, quick microwave meals, etc. are the basic foods a lot of children are getting on a daily basis. The kids diet contains a lot of fat, salt, and sugar, but very few vitamins and whole, natural foods.

To touch on poor nutrition, research shows that almost one-third of U.S. children between the ages of four and nineteen eat fast food every day; this results in weight gain of approximately 6 extra pounds on a growing child each year (NACHRI, 2007). Fast food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970. Not only is fast food an issue, but when parents reward their children with sugary foods and/or use fruits and vegetables as a punishment, this may cause children’s views toward nutritious food to be negative. Some great educational tools that can be shared both in and out of the classroom are “The Food Guide Pyramid” and “My Plate.” Both show that appropriate number of serving of each food category. “My Plate” does a great job of even providing games, activity sheets, kid-friendly recipes, and physical activity tips to elementary aged children (My Plate, 2015). They also provide great resources for adults so parents and educators can practice what they preach and set good examples for children. Educating children on an what a healthy diet consists of and why it is important is probably the greatest preventative tool we can use to prevent obesity. As the famous saying goes, “knowledge is

Schools have started to ban all sorts of fast food products such as sodas, chips and processed food, but in addition they should teach students the danger in consuming certain food. They should warn students of the effects those foods will have on their bodies in the long run. In “Don’t Blame the Eater” fitness expert David Zinczenko mentions that “fast food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels” (464). This false advertisement is often full of color, with images of happiness and delicious looking burgers to convince children to want their products. Fast food industries are smart to target children, because most of the time they know nothing about responsibility or what is good or bad for them. Zinczenko argues in his essay that without warnings or information“we’ll see more sick, obese children and more angry, litigious parents” (464). In contrast, if kids were warned and informed about the dangers in consuming unhealthy food, the number of obese children, diseases and angry parents would

​Parents must take proper care to ensure their child is receiving adequate nutrition every day, especially in combination with school or other day programs. The behavior and attitude of the parents have the greatest effect upon a child’s developing habits, especially as the amount of meals eaten together at home increases (Escobar, 1999). That being said, ensuring a child continues to eat healthily outside of the home can be a struggle without the support of a regulated school lunch

Step Five: Keep children busy, doing so can eliminate the urge to eat once they become bored. “Never offer food as a way to keep them busy while you are doing something else” (Childhood Obesity Epidemic). A parent should always supervise their children’s diet and should encourage them to be physical active because they have a key role when it comes to how their child eats.

Children, unlike adults are willing to try anything if given the chance and so allowing a child to taste test food is an ideal way to introduce new and healthy foods. Food and meal times can provide children with many learning opportunities, particularly by allowing a child to participate at meal times. However, food can also be a source of frustration and a cause of arguments between to food provider and the child. Building on positive experiences with food will help reduce such

Our children’s nutritional education is almost nonexistent. Ask a fifth grader what the food pyramid is and you’re likely to receive the same blank stare as I did. Most children have no idea what a balanced meal is because they may have never received one. Schools provide nutritional meals at lunch, but there is no enforcement when it comes to eating your fruits and vegetables. Lets face it, children eat what’s familiar. If they haven’t had it at home they are probably not going to eat it at school. If there are no vegetables at home, they are not going to eat them at school. Home life definitely sets the tone for a child’s eating and exercise routines.

Restrictions should be made against junk food in school to prevent children’s emotions and accomplishment correlated with food.“Using food as a reward or a treat, could be unintentionally teaching their children to rely on food to deal with their emotions”(rewarding kids). Children are being taught to rely on food for a confort and a emotional cope mecanism.“After a hard day of work, many adults run to food to deal with stress, reliving their childhood experience with food and comfort. The more parents use food as a reward for their children, the more likely the child will grow into an adult who eats for comfort”(rewarding kids). Kids being emotionaly attached to food may affect them when they get older and eventually into thier adult life.“The child learns to comfort themselves with that food. This leads to an unhealthy emotional connection between eating certain foods and feeling good “(rewarding kids). Children eating thier favorite foods make them feel happy so when they are upset they