Top tips on healthy eating for children
By Dr Emma Haycraft and Dr Gemma Witcomb,Loughborough University
As parents and caregivers, we know that we have an important role feeding children and we are often really keen to ensure that our little ones eat a healthy, balanced diet. Our children, however, may well have other ideas!
You are probably familiar with your child refusing to eat something which they’d previously enjoyed and with food ending up uneaten, often on the floor.
Most children go through a phase of fussy eating and this behaviour is totally normal. How this fussiness is managed can affect whether children grow out of it, or if it will continue as they get older, and this is why parents and caregivers are so important in helping children to develop healthy eating habits.
Here are our top ten tips for promoting healthy, happy mealtimes:
Offering children a variety of different tastes and textures when they are young will encourage them to enjoy a range of foods as they grow.
Toddlers can struggle to eat large amounts of food at one mealtime. Three small meals and three small snacks spaced equally throughout the day often works best.
Food is a necessity. It should NOT be used as a reward (e.g. for good behaviour or for eating another, lesser liked food), or taken away as a punishment.
Restricting foods can make them unintentionally desirable. Keeping foods in the house that children can see but aren’t allowed to eat, such as crisps or biscuits, makes those foods more appealing. Children are then more likely to overeat such foods on other occasions (e.g. at parties, where they are unrestricted).
If you must restrict, it’s better to restrict covertly. It’s harder to refuse a child when the temptation is in front of them. So, for example, avoid walking home past the sweetshop or a fast food restaurant and only keep healthy foods in your house. You’ll then avoid having to say “yes” or “no”, or bargaining.
It can take 15-20 exposures before a child accepts a new taste. Introduce foods gradually, over time. Encouraging children to touch, taste, lick or smell a food can all help the food to become more familiar, meaning children are then more likely to eat it.
Do not force feed children or pressure them to eat more than they want to. The "clean your plate” mantra is a thing of the past and could teach children to ignore the natural signs of feeling full, which could contribute to them becoming overweight.
Try to have at least some meals at the table each week and avoid giving children meals in front of the television as this can distract them from eating.
Praise children for trying new foods and for exhibiting appropriate behaviour at the table.
Children love to copy. If they see you enjoying your vegetables at the dinner table,they are likely to have a go themselves.
This article is by Dr Emma Haycraft and Dr Gemma Witcomb from Loughborough University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, part of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine East Midlands. It represents their views and they are not necessarily those of ITV News.