This past weekend I spoke to my Dad's parenting class at his church about setting your kids up for good health. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist and we have spoke together several times in the past. It's a lot of fun.
I thought I would share with you all my tips. There is no guarantee, unfortunately, that your kids will be healthy eaters, be healthy in general, and make the choices you want them to make. But I do believe there are some cultural things you can do in your home to set them up for success.
The first, and maybe most important, key is to expose your kids to healthy foods. Notice I did not say, make your kids eat healthy food or never have bad food in house. Those two things, just don't work.
No, I believe the parent's roll is to expose (over and over and over again) their kids to healthy foods. By creating repetition of positive memories surrounding healthy foods, the goal is that one day the child will naturally choose those foods for themself.
I think of this exposure principle like a fenced-in playground. The fence keeps everyone safe in side but kids can choose what type of play they want to participate in. The same is true for our homes. If we offer several choices, but they are all ultimately healthy choices, then it's a win-win situation for everyone.
How does this play out in the practical ins and outs of the day? I think of it as "it's just what we do as a family."
For instance, there is always at least one fruit or vegetable at meals. Why? "It's just the way we eat as a family."
Why do we choose whole grain brown bread? It's what our family feels is important.
Why are we visiting a farm together? Because our family feels it's important to know where our food comes from.
Why do we not drink a lot of soda? Because our family feels water is the best thing you can drink.
Pick the messages that are important in your home and run with them. You don't have to some complicated science based reason for your kids. These messages are creating a culture in your home and giving the message of how the child can participate in this culture. Hopefully they will adopt this culture for themselves one day.
Now sometimes you may have the opportunity to implant some nugget of nutrition wisdom on your child about why you really are choosing to eat healthy (nutrients, prevent disease, healthy weight, sports performance, less sickness, etc) and you should take full advantage of those opportunities. But for the most part, you are setting the stage for the culture of your home.
As a final note on exposure, keep your messages positive. I don't think it's good to have your "because our family..." statements based on a negatives like "doesn't want to get fat" or "thinks sugar is terrible for you." Instead, spin them as "eating this way keeps our family healthy" or "we enjoy sweets when it's appropriate, but not all the time."
This is just something for you to think about today. Let me know your thoughts.
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