Keys to Healthy Eating for Families

Keys to Healthy Eating for Families

It isn=t easy these days to raise a healthy eater. There is a lot of advice about how to feed kids. It can be confusing and frustratingBeven overwhelming--trying to sort through it all and find ideas that really work. With all this advice, eating sometimes seems more like a chore than something to be enjoyed. But, in order to eat well, we need to enjoy the eating experience. This lesson will discuss some ways we can relax about mealtimes and make them more enjoyable for everyone.

The topics we will cover today are:

What is healthy eating?

Keys to healthy eating

Handling Dessert

What is healthy eating?

This is what Ellyn Satter, a well-known expert on feeding children, has to say about healthy eating: AHealthy eating involves loving good food, trusting yourself, and sharing that love and trust with your children. It has to do with attitudes and feelings as well as choosing nutritious food and getting an appealing meal on the table.@

Here=s how to recognize a healthy eater:

-Enjoys eating and feels good about his eating experiences

-Shows interest in food and takes responsibility for his own eating

-Is flexible and relaxed about eating

-Knows how much to eat; knows when he is hungry and when he is full

-Behaves well around food and eating (has good table manners)

-Isn=t troubled by new foods; can even try new foods and eventually come to like them.

-Can politely say Ano, thank you@ if he isn=t interested in eating something.

-Can settle for less favorite foods

Keys to Healthy Eating

Ellyn Satter has outlined a few simple keys that can contribute to healthy eating for you and your family. These keys can prevent mealtime battles that contribute to a negative eating experience and can help your child develop a positive eating attitude. They seem like simple ideas, and you may be skeptical about whether they will work or not, but you may be surprised. It will be difficult at first-- you may find you and/or your family resisting these ideas-- but over time you will see positive results.

Parent=s Responsibility:

-Buy healthy food

-Plan and prepare consistent, balanced family meals and snacks, and serve them at the

same time everyday

-Serve meals and snacks at the table

-Be an example of eating a variety of healthy foods, using moderation

Notthe Parent=s Responsibility:

-To provide children with only the foods they like

-To make sure children eat all the foods that are prepared

Child=s Responsibilities:

-Choose which foods to eat from the foods the parent has offered

-Choose how much food to eat

Not the child=s Responsibility:

-To tell the parent which foods to purchase

-To tell the parent which foods to prepare

-To choose where foods will be eaten

While forcing or bribing your child to eat a certain food may seem like it=s working, studies show that in the long run these techniques don=t work. For example, if you tell your child he can=t have dessert until he takes 2 bites of his vegetables, he will eat the vegetables for that meal, but it doesn=t mean he will grow up to like vegetables. So how do we get our kids to eat a variety of foods? Studies show that just offering your child a new food, while letting him decide whether or not to eat it, is more successful than forcing or bribing. The more pressure a child feels about eating a certain food, the more he may resist eating it. If a child can say Ano@ to foods he doesn=t want to eat, he is more likely to say Ayes@ to new foods more often. In the words of Ellyn Satter: AChildren often do more and dare more when they feel they have control over a situation.@

Trying new things is scary for anyone. When we start a new job or move to a new neighborhood, there are a lot of things we may feel nervous or unsure about. Children may feel this way about trying new foods. It=s important to keep this in mind when offering new foods and allow them the chance to try it when they are ready. At first your child may only be able to tolerate having an unfamiliar food in the same room, maybe on the counter or the table or maybe even on her plate. As she becomes more comfortable with seeing the food, she may decide to touch it, then eventually to taste it, then to even chew and swallow it. This process may happen quickly (sometimes the first time the food is offered), or it may take several times of her being offered this food before she will actually eat it. Studies show that sometimes they need to taste the food as many as 15-20 times before they will swallow it, and decide they like it. They may not always want to eat the food when it is offered, though. This is okay. Their tastes and preferences change from day to day just as ours do.

Another good thing about feeding our children this way is it teaches them how to be independent. Our children want to be independent. Choosing what and how much they eat is one way they can show their independence. Giving them these choices about eating while setting limits and boundaries helps them practice being independent without being overly dependent. When we don=t let children decide how much to eat and what to eat from the foods offered, they become confused about what it means to be independent. If we let them choose what foods will be served them, they don=t learn about limits and boundaries.

Using these guidelines reduces fights about food and eatingBmaking mealtimes more pleasantB and teaches children how to be healthy eaters by allowing them the freedom to choose a variety of foods. This way we can relax and enjoy mealtimes

more.

AYour child=s eating attitudes and behaviors are more important than

what he actually eats on any given day. If his attitudes and behaviors

are healthy, he will eat well and get the nutrition he needs.@BEllyn Satter

Handling Dessert

Dessert is a difficult subject for many parents. Often, dessert time turns into a battle. We may find ourselves bargaining with our children about dessert. For example: AEat your vegetables and then you can have dessert.@ Or AJust take two more bites of dinner and you can have dessert.@ Bargaining about food doesn=t help children. They get the idea that dessert is better than other foods. It=s much more helpful to serve dessert with the rest of the meal, even for the child you worry is chubby. Give them only a single serving, and don=t allow seconds. Let them decide whether they will eat it all at once, eat it in the middle of their meal, or save it for last. This teaches them to enjoy sweet foods, but within limits. Also, try to make the dessert healthy, like fruit and yogurt, oatmeal cookies, or a Aslushy@ made from 100% fruit juice and frozen fruit.

If your child is not used to having dessert at mealtimes, he may try to get you to give him more. Don=t give in, even if he leaves the table having only eaten dessert, or if he throws a tantrum. Being firm about the Ano seconds@ rule teaches your child about structure and limits with eating. Calmly remind your child that it may be a long time before the next snack, and that he can eat anything else provided for that meal, but that he cannot have more dessert. He may decide to eat more of his meal, or he may learn later when he=s hungry that maybe he should have eaten more at mealtime.

AIf you withhold dessert to get your child to eat his vegetables, he may overeat twice: once to get his meal down, and again when he eats dessert after he=s already full.@ BEllyn Satter

*The ideas presented in this module were taken from books by Ellyn Satter as well as from her web page. See references below.

For more information:

- WIC dieticians

- EFNEP

- Private health clinics, ask for a referral to the dietician to evaluate nutrition, food selection and feeding relationship issues.

- Ellyn Satter:

Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense

How to Get Your Child to Eat...But Not Too Much

Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family

-Fun books to read with your children:

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman

D.W. the Picky Eater by Marc Brown

Bread and Jam for Francis by Russell Hoban

Please answer the following questions. When you are done, check in with your WIC educator. Thank you!

1. What is something new you learned from this lesson?

2. Name one responsibility in feeding that belongs to the parent.

3. Name one responsibility in eating that belongs to the child.

4. Fill in the blanks: If your child can say A____@ to foods he does not want to eat, it frees him to say A____@ to new foods more often. AChildren often ______and ______when they feel they have control over a situation.@

5. What is one idea from the lesson that you would like to use to create more enjoyable mealtimes?