Encourage healthy eating habits in your toddler with these tips

Mimicking parents’ behaviours and habits, as well as stressful home environments and sugar addictions are reasons why toddlers and children fall into bad eating habits.

Parenting styles are far more advanced than the “Eat your dinner or there will be no dessert!” ultimatums that were set in past generations. Encouraging children to distinguish their food preferences is very useful in promoting mindful eating in the family (as a side note,  the days of dessert should be limited to no more than once or twice per week).

Limited choices help children to understand and value boundaries. When children are not given any choice, or alternatively when they are given free reign, they experience stress. Developing an unhealthy relationship with food often begins with feeling that we have no choice in the matter. When a child does not want to eat a particular food, give him the autonomy to choose something else, providing it is healthy. No child is going to starve themselves, eventually they will eat.

1. Educate yourself

I once met a woman who fed her daughter muffins for breakfast because she believed that muffins were “healthy”. I asked her if she would consider feeding her already overweight daughter cake for breakfast. Mortified, she said that cake was fattening and unhealthy. I then told her to look up a recipe for carrot cake and carrot muffins. She came back a day later somewhat sheepish, admitting that there is little difference between the two.

The point here is that we are easily mislead by packaging and marketing. Most foods that we believe to be a healthy option are far from it. This includes most breakfast cereals blatantly marketed as health foods.

2. Look for emotional eating cues

Bullying, poor grades and limited social skills and boredom tend to lead to either comfort eating or complete loss of appetite in children. Abuse in the home and post-traumatic are also emotional eating triggers.

Therapy is important to help sort out these issues.

3. Battle of wills

Sheer force and coercion will seldom work in the long run. Your child will out-wit, out-smart and simply wear you out in the end.

Keep your attitude towards food light-hearted, and with certain foods or meal times, you need to have a non-negotiable attitude.

If take-outs and ready-made meals do not feature in your home, these will not provide leverage for negotiation. Eating should always be fun, sociable. The most important point to remember is that a parent should never mention dieting or that your child is overweight, even in passing, even if you think they’re out of earshot.

4. Control supply and demand

Sometimes we all feel like eating something different. Thinking creatively can be difficult when you have had a full day at the office and you run a household.

The ugly truth is that your child’s health and well-being need to take precedence over everything else.

Planning, delegation and preparation will take an enormous weight off your shoulders and keep meal times interesting for the whole family, especially if you get the children involved in whatever way possible.

5. Creativity keeps it fresh

If your kids won’t eat fruit and veggies but they will eat ice cream, make frozen fruit kebabs using pineapple chunks, bananas, grapes, and berries. If it doesn’t work, throw these in the blender with fat free milk as a smoothie or freeze the mixture into lollipop moulds for a fun snack later.

Add extra vegetables to soups, stews, and sauces, grated or shredded to make them disappear. Keep fresh fruit and veggies washed and available as snacks. Add yogurt, nut butter, or humus for extra interest. If it is available at all times, the healthy snack has a better chance of being eaten.

6. Don’t insist that your kids clean their plates

Help your children to realise that they can stop eating when they’ve had enough. When we learn to respond to feelings of fullness, we are less likely to overeat.

If you are concerned about waste, dish up smaller portions and save the leftovers for the next day. Better yet, teach your children to give the food they don’t eat to homeless shelters and soup kitchens – this will help them understand more about the importance of not wasting than eating everything on one’s plate.

7. Start young

Don’t make the mistake of believing that young children only like bland foods. Likes and dislikes begin forming in infancy; therefore exposure to a variety of tastes and textures is vital.

If you have to make a rule, insist that everything should at least be tasted once.

Don’t be disheartened if children are reluctant to try your new Asian-style cooking. Be patient, and re-introduce different flavours up to 9 times. They might have changed their minds about whether or not they like it by then!

8. Drinks can be the root of the problem

Fruit juice, sweetened carbonated drinks and especially energy drinks are loaded with sugar and very little else. Fruit juice not only adds empty calories, but rots teeth just like any other sugar containing beverage, even if it doesn’t contain added sugar.

Allow your children the opportunity to get used to drinking good, purified water. And if juice is a staple in your home, try diluting one part juice to two parts water.

Always remember that food is not love. Food does not make bad situations better. Find other ways to reward and comfort. Rather try hugs, attention, creative problem-solving and positive feedback.

About the Author: Good Night is a child and baby sleep consultancy that specialises in helping parents with children who struggle to sleep soundly. For more information, visit: www.goodnightbaby.co.za

Article Credit: Nicci Robertson is the founder of the Re-Invent Company and author of the Re-Invent Wellness Coaching Methodology. She is a clinical nutritionist, master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and Psycho-neuro immunology.

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