| HOW DO I GET MY KIDS TO EAT PROPERLY?
Kids are notoriously fussy eaters, and usually have a preference for the very foods that offer the least nutrition. Given ½ a chance most children will choose highly refined, sugary foods and drinks over fruit and vegetables.
I constantly have parents asking me – how do I get my kids to eat healthy? Most of them are quite stressed about it because they are finding they are losing the battle.
- 40% of West Australia children don’t eat any fruit. 95% don’t eat a balanced diet of 4 fruits and 5 vegetables a day.
Why is it important that my children eat properly?
- Food is the only source of nutrition for the normal growth and development of the child. It has everything to do with how they end up as healthy and well-adjusted adults. Their immune system, their physical growth, their mental capacity all rely on these nutrients, found in natural foods.
- There are good foods that give you the nutrients and there are bad foods that rob you of these life and energy nutrients.
There are no bad children only bad diets:
The responsibility of parents is huge. Not only do they have to provide love and security but also they have to feed them properly and healthy foods are the ones the kids don’t want to eat.
However it’s usually the parents who have created the problem initially by giving them these foods that change the child’s taste buds to only want sugar and salt tastes.
- Often it’s easier to follow our modern society’s way of quick and easy foods and give them junk.
Key # 1
- Start feeding your child healthily from before conception right through.
The younger the children the easier to train them on what are the right foods to eat.
- However it’s never too late, no matter the age.
- Most young mothers are afraid to take a strong stand on sound family nutrition. Many are afraid their children will not love them if they do not give them the sweet foods. The foods much advertised on TV to get them hooked on the sugary, fatty and salty flavors. Once the child is used to these tastes it becomes very hard to get them off it.
- Parents individually and corporately have to fight back against the onslaught of processed and refined foods that are robbing our children of there right to optimal health and the full recognition of their natural potential.
Key #2
Both parents must understand the importance of eating healthy and work together. If a single parent, try and get help from family and friends.
Key #3
Set a plan and work to it. The parents who try and change his or her families eating habits overnight will most likely meet loud and vigorous opposition.
Step by step - one food or hurdle at a time.
Key #4
- Communication and motivation.
It rarely works if you tell a teenager to quit junk food because it will make them healthy and better at school.
- But I tell the boys that the footballers all eat healthy because it increase their performance and pick the team they barrack for and give examples.
- The girls I tell them its stops acne and help their hair and nails and skin to look better.
* Find the individual Childs motivational trigger
MY - Sugar Story
My children love the story I tell at my lectures. In it, I compared every spoonful of sugar we eat to allowing a platoon of enemy soldiers to infiltrate behind our natural defenses. This continual “guerrilla warfare” deep inside our home territory eventually weakens our army, aka our immune system and metabolism. Day in, day out the sugar reinforcements build up as we indulge more and more. Every spoonful allows more of the enemy to infiltrate, until one organ at a time is overrun and if we don’t change, ill health symptoms will manifest showing the extent of loss in the battle.
·Quite often, people will say, “But I don't eat any sugar!” Yet, when we look closely at their diet, considerable amounts of hidden sugar reveals itself.
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·Never blame a child for being fat. After all who buys their food? Change may have to start with the parents.
# 5
When a child is already addicted to the sugar taste – substitute all sugar with unprocessed honey or better still the 100% natural sugar Xylitol or the herbal sweetener stevia, and even if you have to add it to your carrots etc. then over a period of time reduce slowly the amount until they can go without any.
# 6
Let the children eat regularly. If they eat regularly then it’s easier to keep them away from the junk.
#7
Sit down to a family meal. Make these meals full of vegetables. Find key vegetables they do like.
#8
Make in between snacks interesting. Ice blocks made with 100% fruit juice, banana and yogurt plus strawberries. Most kids like fresh peas in their pods, a raw baby carrot, celery dipped in yogurt or cottage cheese. You may have to enroll in a vegetarian cooking class to make the vegetables taste yummy.
#9
Remember brown rice is vastly more nutritious than white rice. Try rye or pita breads. Even these 2 changes can help.
Also fish as much as possible and eggs and lean meats are good protein.
#10
Peer-group pressure is important and hard to combat. Try and get schoolteachers and sports coaches to encourage good eating. Feed them, as best you can at home is a major help.
** The Norwegian government provides cheese and fish to each student as a morning snack. -Feed Your Kids Right Dr. L Smith. P.282.
#11
Make sure the fruit you buy is of good quality and ripe. They won’t eat sour and old second-rate fruits. Some parents have success by chopping the fruit up making it visually and easily assessable plates.
#12
Get the children to carry the fashionable water bottle to encourage drinking more water. No cordial.
#13
Give your children vitamins and minerals to take. Mix it into their food if they won’t take it. Be inventive.
What is good nutrition?
All vitamins are nutrients – absorbable components of food- but all nutrients aren’t vitamins. Vitamins are just one of the 6 classes of nutrients; - carbohydrates, protein, fats, minerals, vitamins and water. All are necessary in the diet and work together to make a healthy child.
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