Getting Your Tween to Eat Healthy Foods

As we wrap up our conversations discussing tween nutrition this month, it might be a great time to look at OHealthy’s article “Teaching Your Kids to Choose Good Foods.” Here’s an excerpt:

According to Joel Steinberg, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and supervisor of a weight-guidance clinic at the school, it’s up to parents to ensure that today’s children don’t turn into tomorrow’s artery-clogged, diabetic, obese adults.

And parents can start as soon as infants are ready for solid food, such as beans, peas and carrots, in baby-food form.

“When you move to table foods, offer those same foods — and don’t doctor them up with ketchup, butter, salt or cheese,” he says.

All is not lost if a preschooler or grade-schooler has already had a taste of chicken nuggets and won’t eat a baked chicken breast as a result. Dr. Steinberg advises parents to place healthy foods on children’s plates during mealtimes anyway.

“Don’t force them to eat the food,” he adds. “Even if they don’t eat it right away, they’re curious and will eventually try it.”

Also resist the temptation to prepare separate meals for children.

“Everyone eats the same, or they don’t eat,” says Dr. Steinberg. “In other words, if your 6-year-old doesn’t eat his vegetables, he goes without.  When he gets hungry enough he gets another chance to eat his vegetables.”

Do as I do

You should also look at your own diet if you want your children to be healthy eaters. Kids follow their parents’ lead. It’s not fair, for example, to tell them they need to eat vegetables while you chow down on a pizza. If you eat a well-balanced diet, your kids also are likely to eat well.

Encouraging healthy eating means more than serving healthy foods — it means lifestyle changes, as well. Dr. Steinberg recommends that all meals, including snacks, be eaten at the table with the television off.

The television — and computer — should be kept off at other times during the day as well, in order to encourage a less sedentary lifestyle.

“It’s amazing,” says Dr. Steinberg. “People walk their dogs every day, but they don’t walk with their children every day.”

So next time Fido is leashed up, take the children, too.

Dr. Steinberg acknowledges that adults have little influence over children’s eating habits once the youngsters reach middle school.

“But if you bring them up in a home where they eat the right food, their diets tend to be easier to maintain and they tend to make the right choices,” he says.

Visit OHealthy to read the entire article.

How do you inspire your tween to choose the right food?