Healthy lifestyle training for our children: Keeping children away from the dangers of food addiction
Healthy lifestyle training is very key in ensuring that the future generation are brought up in the right way. This is very important and it begins with encouraging new foods stuff in your menu. Many may see this as a serious obstacle owing to the kind of lifestyle many are living today but the following guidelines can be very effective in helping you in embracing the kind of lifestyle you would want your children to live:
- Serve a new food with one your child likes.
- Being patient and keep offering new foods, even if they are rejected at first and assume that your child will like new foods.
- Offer new foods in a relaxed environment.
- Don’t use food as a reward, pacifier or punishment.
Make mealtimes a positive experience
Mealtimes should be relaxed and happy. Suggestions include:
- Let your child explore food by touching and expect some mess.
- Let children feed themselves and give help if needed.
- Enjoy family meals together at a table, so children can watch and copy others, try the family foods and enjoy company while eating.
- Keep mealtimes relaxed. Don’t have too many distractions like the TV on.
- Offer encouragement, but don’t argue or force your child to eat.
- Talk pleasantly to your child at mealtimes, not just about food.
- Don’t ask your child to eat quickly.
Healthy lifestyle training for our children: Safety suggestions
To reduce the risk of choking, safety suggestions may include the following:
- Always supervise young children when they are eating.
- Encourage your child to always eat sitting down to prevent falls and reduce the risk of choking.
- Avoid small hard foods such as nuts, raw carrot, hard lollies and popcorn. Offer lightly steamed vegetable sticks instead.
Healthy lifestyle training for our children: Drinks for children
It is very important that you offer all drinks to your children in a cup. Sometimes children fill up on drinks, particularly sweet ones like juice, and this leaves less room for foods. This you can avoid by:
- Offering up to three cups of milk only each day, with water at other times for thirst. Full fat milk should be given up to two years of age and then reduced fat may be given.
- Remember that juice and sweetened drinks are unnecessary.
Healthy lifestyle training for our children: Seeking for professional help
Many parents worry about their children’s eating at some stage, particularly in younger children when food intake and appetite appear to change daily. Therefore if this concerns you, then you should ask for professional help if:
- You have concerns about your child’s growth
- Your child is unwell, tired and not eating
- Mealtimes are causing lots of stress and anxiety.
Finally remember that good training on healthy feeding and acceptable healthy lifestyle are the foundations that will make children grow up in resistance to the temptation of wrong food stuff that can be very addictive and injurious to their general well-being. This should be the desire of all parents so that together we can bring up young and vibrant healthy society now and in the future.
Healthy lifestyle training for our children: Keeping children away from the dangers of food addiction
http://www.awaremednetwork.com/
