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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Raising healthy eaters requires effort. As parents we need to appreciate family dynamics, recognize age-appropriate feeding skills, select good food choices, as well as understand the impact of food advertising and food availability. Sounds like a daunting task, but it isn’t. The best way to teach children to be good eaters is to be a good eater yourself and to eat with your children.
Eating together as a family can be tough to negotiate between school, work, activities, and limited time to make and prepare a meal. With all these obstacles, 47% of Americans report they eat dinner together as a family nightly which shows that families understand sharing a meal is important. Sadly, as children get older, family meals often take a backseat to other activities. Most families spend less than 2 hours a week eating together. Even though the time is limited, no other family activity occurs with such regularity.
The more often a family eats together the more likely children will make healthier food choices, have fewer behavior problems, be less obese, and suffer fewer eating disorders. Kids who eat with their family regularly, at least 3 times a week, have enhanced language skills and higher academic achievement. Why, you wonder? We talk at the table. This introduces children to a wider vocabulary and the conversation is an inadvertent source of knowledge. They hear about local news. Mom and Dad may talk about work. Their world and experiences widen simply by sitting at the table together.
But simply sitting and eating together is not the whole picture. Parenting styles influence children’s food choices. Four parenting styles have been defined: authoritarian, permissive, neglectful and authoritative. Children with authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful parents are more likely to be overweight.
Neglectful parenting is fairly obvious. Children have few rules and the parents are often emotionally uninvolved. Obviously this is a negative approach to child rearing and will impact poorly on good eating habits. Differing styles of parenting may work in some situations but the authoritarian and permissive approaches both result in poor eating habits.
The authoritarian parent is a disciplinarian with little regard for the child’s choices. A child may be forced to clean their plate, overriding the natural feeling of fullness. Many foods may be forbidden, making less desirable choices, like candy and soda, all the more alluring. Children may be forced to eat foods they don’t like, setting up lifelong aversions to groups of foods, like vegetables.
Permissive parenting is associated with drinking less milk and a lower overall nutrient intake, except for fat. Kids are allowed free choice and without guidance and experience they make poorer choices.
Authoritative parents set boundaries but allow some choice. This is a more cooperative approach to eating. The parents decide which foods are offered and the child determines which foods are eaten. In this setting a child feels free to give tomatoes a thumbs down and the parent may then suggest a banana. The swap is acceptable and allows the child some independent choice.
An authoritative feeding approach usually results in a greater intake of fruits and vegetables and lower intake of candy, cake, soda and cookies. Parents decide what, where and when to eat. Kids decide what to eat from the choices available and how much to eat. Parents often misjudge an appropriate child’s portion based on what is an acceptable adult portion. Left to their own devices kids typically eat the amount they need. Providing small portions and allowing the child to ask for more is the best approach.
Children also need time to accept a new food. Many experts feel that it may take as many as 6 to 9 food exposures before a young child will be tempted to eat something new. If you are trying to encourage broccoli, you may have to put a small piece of broccoli on your child’s plate repeatedly before he will eat it. An authoritative approach would suggest the broccoli goes on the plate but if the child decides not to eat it, that’s OK.
Authoritative parents are also less likely to allow children to graze on food throughout the day. Instead, meals and snacks are offered at similar times daily. If the child isn’t hungry or doesn’t want to eat, there should be little nudging or encouraging until the next time food is offered. Like adults, children are sometimes very hungry and sometimes not. That is the normal cycle of appetite. By not insisting on eating, your child listens instead to her own body’s cues to eat when hungry and stop when full.
Modeling good eating and good food choices is key to helping your child develop good habits. Moms are often the gatekeeper of what comes into the house and what is served at meals, but interestingly, research shows that what Dad puts on his plate has a direct influence on what children eat. Heads up Dad, the kids are watching. Make good food choices and eat together tonight.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with sales of more than 8.5 million books.
Look for:
The Diabetes Counter, 4th Ed., 2011
The Protein Counter, 3rd Ed., 2011
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
Your Complete Food Counter App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/your-complete-food-counter/id444558777?mt=8
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to: < href="http://www.TheNutritionExperts.com/">TheNutritionExperts
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