Nourishing your child is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. Kids are never too young to learn about healthy foods and good eating habits.
In fact, the path to childhood obesity can begin in infancy. You have the power to prevent childhood obesity by teaching your kids about healthy habits.
It may sound simple, but the key to preventing childhood obesity is to manage the number of calories consumed and burned each day. That may be easier said than done.
Whether your child is overweight or not, use the tips listed below to instill good eating habits that can last a lifetime:
1. Let Your Kids Lead
Don’t just tell your kids how what to eat. Kids tend to embrace change when they have a say in it. Empower them to make their own healthy choices. One easy way is to encourage them to explore the healthy eating activities that are part of the kid-led movement empower ME.
2. Provide nutritious foods
Healthy, balanced, low-fat meals offer the nutrition that your children need and help them develop smart eating habits. Teach them about the importance of eating balanced meals with a variety of nutrient-rich items like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy, legumes, and lean meats.
3. Make Food Fun
Involve your children in meal planning, food shopping and cooking. Give your child several healthy menu options, then let your child take it from there. Make it fun and creative. Use fresh fruits and vegetables to make food faces or sculptures.
4. Follow the 5-2-1-0 Rule
It’s a simple formula endorsed by the Childhood Obesity Foundation
5 – Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies per day
2 – Limit screen time to less than 2 hours a day
1 – Spend at least 1 hour per day doing something active
0 – Cut out all sweetened drinks and fill their glasses with water or low-fat milk.
5. Be a Role Model
When you make an effort to eat right and exercise, your kids will notice your lifestyle. Don’t just tell your kids to eat healthy foods and snacks, make yours healthy, too. Children learn by following your example as a parent.
6. Reduce Food Portions
Reduce your children’s food portions. Some parents often fill their children’s plates with far more food and calories than they really need. Use smaller plates and bowls to dish food at home. This will make your children eat fewer calories.
7. Make School Healthy
Children spend so much time at school so it is important to pack healthy foods for them to take to school. Let them know why they must eat healthy foods all the time and not only at home.
8. Ask for Help
Children require at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. Schools can help prevent obesity by offering higher quality and more active physical education-for all grades, every day-and by promoting physical activity throughout the school day. As a parent, you can also take your children for long walks and aerobics sessions at the gym on weekends.
9. Remove temptations
If you stock the pantry with junk food, your children will be more likely to eat it. Kids look to parents for examples of how to eat. So be a healthy role model, and remove tempting but unhealthy options like calorie-rich, sugar-filled, and salty snacks from the house. Remember, the calories from sugary drinks add up, too—so try to cut back on the amount of soda and juice you purchase for your family.
10. Turn off TV while eating
Kids may overeat if they watch television while snacking, according to experts at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Research has shown that the more television children watch, the more likely they are to gain extra pounds. HSPH also notes that children with televisions in their bedrooms are also more likely to be overweight than children with TV-free rooms.