Code Name: Mama

5 Tips to Help Kids Develop Healthy Eating Habits: July Carnival of Natural Parenting

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Welcome to the July Carnival of Natural Parenting: Let’s Talk About Food

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about their struggles and successes with healthy eating. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

Kieran eating his first corn on the cob last year.

Tom and I did not grow up with the healthiest of eating habits. Whole, non-processed (much less organic) foods were just not on the radar as much as they are now. Now that we have Kieran, we are taking positive steps to eat healthier and help Kieran make good food choices. Here are a few tips (from one reformed junk food addict to another) on how to help your child get a better start than you had:

1) Babies Need Breastmilk, Then Supplement with Real Food: Almost every medical association in the world says that all infants should receive breastmilk exclusively for at least the first six months.¹  That is the minimum standard, it is not the “ideal” or the “best.”

Once your baby is ready to supplement breastmilk with solids, skip the cereals. Cereals are nothing more than sugar and are full of empty calories. Babies don’t even have the enzymes necessary to digest cereal until they are eight or nine months old. It is a myth that adding cereal to your baby’s diet can help them sleep longer at night. They can even constipate your baby, doing more harm than good.² Instead of cereal, give babies who are ready for solids food that is healthy for their bodies: mashed up bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, etc. And there’s no need to feed your baby from a jar – just give her the real stuff!

2) Offer Healthy Snacks: Toddlers don’t often need big meals, their body chemistry works better when they can graze throughout the day, eating small portions to keep their blood sugar stable. Help them fuel their bodies with the right foods by offering an assortment of healthy snacks: fruit, veggies, healthy dips (hummus or yogurt based dips are popular), nuts and dried berries (when they are able to chew them), etc. Don’t get into a habit of making snack time synonymous with crackers and other carbs.

To encourage grazing, keep your toddler’s snacks within reaching distance. Many parents like to offer the snacks in a muffin tin or ice cube tray – the little ones like the novelty and it can turn into a fun sorting game.

3) Cook Balanced Meals: Forget the boxed stuff. It is just as easy to throw some chicken breasts in the oven, a veggie on the stove, and grab some rice from the freezer (that you made previously). Plus, you’re not putting the chemicals and preservatives into your little one’s body that are found in boxed stuff. If your little one eats all of his green beans and leaves the rice, don’t sweat it. Our little ones are generally more in tune with their bodies’ needs than we are. Trust them and relax. Research has shown that forcing children to finish food interferes with a child’s ability to tell when they are full and their development of self-control.

One of the most helpful things that I do is to cook extra portions and freeze them. Our deep freeze is full to overflowing with containers of soups, pre-made veggie burgers, and more that I can thaw if I don’t have time to cook.

4) Have Easy Pick-Me-Ups for Pre-Meal Snacking: One of the hardest times of the day is when I am fixing dinner, and Kieran wants to eat all of the meal prep items (or has a meltdown because something is in the oven and he has to wait). I recently read that one great way to offer more veggies is to serve them as a “first course,” or before the regular meal. This study showed that kids will eat more veggies that way, but it won’t necessarily interfere with their appetite for dinner.

5) If You Don’t Want Them to Eat It, Don’t Buy It: It always floors me when I hear a mother griping that her child eats too many sweets (or juice or whatever). Here’s the thing: your child doesn’t do the grocery shopping alone. She probably doesn’t spend any money on groceries either. Yes, I agree that it’s educational and helpful to let children help menu plan and shop, but it is up to parents to help them make healthy choices. Does your child have a sweet tooth? Steer him toward fruit. Does your preschooler like salty chips? Try a healthier option: pita chips and hummus or trail mix.

Use menu planning and shopping as a chance to talk about how our food choices fuel our bodies. Eat healthy foods and they will help you feel awake, active, and good. Eat junk foods and the opposite will happen.

Need more of a motivator? If you don’t introduce craptastic foods into your child’s food repertoire, you won’t have meltdowns about them when you pass them in the store. I can’t tell you how many little kids I have seen crying and whining over the candy bars in the checkout aisles.³ Kieran has asked me about them, but we’ve not had a meltdown yet because he’s never had a candy bar. He has no idea what is in those brightly colored wrappers. And I plan to keep it that way for awhile longer.

If you need more ideas to avoid mealtime battles, this article on “gentle parenting ideas for toddlers and meals” might help.

What easy tips do you have for giving your little one healthy eating habits?

_______

***

Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Welcome to Two — All About Food — In case you hadn’t heard, there is a conspiracy afoot from the two-year-olds of the world. Shana at Tales of Minor Interest stumbled onto their newsletter!
• Four Seasons of Eating Locally — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction has pointers for what fresh produce can be found year-round. (@MBJunction)
• Happy Families Can Have More Than One Diet — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now has figured out a way for her family to live happily as vegans and vegetarians with relatives who eat meat. (@DebChitwood)
• My Own Omnivore’s Dilemma — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante prioritizes responsible consumer choices for her family.
• No Gluten — No Cry — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma learned to cook balanced meals when her son’s food sensitivities prompted a diet overhaul. (@kitchenwitch)
• Try, Try Again — Stefanie at very very fine has become an enthusiastic consumer of locally grown food.
• CSA — Week 1 — Casey at What Love Is wants her children to know where their food comes from, so she joined a friendly CSA. (@CBerbs)
• Food: Parenting or Homemaking? — Michelle at The Parent Vortex sees food as part of a parent’s nurturing role. (@TheParentVortex)
• 5 Tips to Help Kids Develop Healthy Eating Habits — If you struggle with healthy eating, helping your child develop healthy habits might be a challenge. Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares five easy tips that will help your kids learn to make good food choices. (@CodeNameMama)
• Family Food: Seeking Balance Between Healthy, Sustainable & Affordable — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings has a whole list of ideas for how she can improve her family’s eating, both now and into the future. (@sunfrog)
• Whole Foods in, Wholesome Feelings Out — Jessica at This is Worthwhile has turned her back on the processed, preservative-ridden food of her childhood. (@tisworthwhile)
• When to Splurge on Organic (and When It Is Okay to Skip It) — Becoming Mamas tell you what foods to prioritize when buying pricier organic food, and where you can find it cheaper. (@becomingmamas)
• A Locavore’s Family Meal — Acacia at Be Present Mama tells a story in pictures of her family taking a trip to the local organic farmers market and then preparing a summer meal together with their bounty.
• Eat Your Food, or Else — Why should we not bribe a child to eat? TwinToddlersDad from Littlestomaks (Science Driven Real Life Toddler Nutrition) explains. (@TwinToddlersDad)
• Food, Glorious Food! — Luschka at Diary of a First Child describes three easy ways her family has started eating healthier. (@diaryfirstchild)
• Celebrating Food — Mrs Green at Little Green Blog believes in food as medicine and thinks it’s worth paying more to keep healthy. (@myzerowaste)
• Oil and Yogurt — What have you been motivated to do with the current oil spill crisis? midnightfeedings has started making her own yogurt. (@midnightfeeding)
• Growth-Spurt Soup (AKA “Beannut Stew”) — BeanMa has a special stew to help her baby through growth spurts that keep her up all night. (@thebeanma)

• Why I Love The Real Food Community — Much like many people who follow AP/NP values, Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! takes the parts of the “real food” philosophy that work for her family and leaves the rest. (@bfmom)
• Feeding a Family of Six — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children gives helpful tips for feeding a family of six.
• Starting Solids at 6 Months — Did your doctor recommend that you give your baby cereal? Sheryl at Little Snowflakes discusses how whole foods are so much healthier (and more delicious) than traditional cereal. (@sheryljesin)
• Am I What I Eat? — Andrea!!! at Ella-Bean & Co. has figured out a way to avoid grocery stores nearly altogether.
• Are We Setting Our Kids Up To Fail? — Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias found that cutting out the junk also transformed her sons’ behavior problems.
• Changing your family’s way of eating — Lauren at Hobo Mama has techniques you can try to move your family gradually toward a healthier diet. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Real Food — What kinds of fake foods do you eat? And why?! Lisa C. at My World Edenwild talks about why she chooses real food.
• A Snackaholic’s Food Battle — Julie at Simple Life wants to stop snacking and get into the old ways of cooking from scratch and raising her own food. (@homemakerjulie)
• Food, Not Fight — Summer at Finding Summer doesn’t want her kids to grow up like her husband: hating everything green. (@summerm)
• How Do You Eat When You Are out of Town? — Cassie at There’s a Pickle In My Life wants some tips on how to eat healthy when you are out of town.
• Carnival of Natural Parenting: Food! — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker hopes that by serving her children healthy, balanced meals, they will become accustomed to making good food choices. (@sybilryan)
• There’s No Food Like Home’s — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing revels in the Bajan food of her upbringing. (@BlkWmnDoBF)
• This Mom’s Food Journey — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment made a journey from not paying attention to food to growing her own.
• Who Knew Eating Was So Hard? — The challenges involved in changing to healthier eating habits take on a whole new dimension when you have a child who has difficulties eating. kadiera at Our Little Acorn shares her own experiences. (@kadiera)
• Loving Food — Starr at Earth Mama truly believes food is her family’s medicine and is willing to spend days preparing it the traditional way.
• Food Mindfulness — Danielle at born.in.japan details how her family spends money on each category of food. (@borninjp)
• Food for Little People — Zoey at Good Goog wants to bless her daughter with happy traditions built around good food. (@zoeyspeak)
• Eat Like a Baby — Have you been told that you should not equate food with love? Kate Wicker at Momopoly shows us why that’s not necessarily true. (@Momopoly)
• Food — Deb at Science@Home tries to teach her children three rules to help them eat a healthy diet. (@ScienceMum)
• Healthy Eating Lactose-Free — MamanADroit gives us tips on how to eat healthy if you are lactose intolerant (or just don’t want cow milk). (@MamanADroit)

Posted in Carnival of Natural Parenting, Food & Nutrition, Healthy Eating | 38 Comments »