| Childhood Obesity Project |
Developing Healthy Eating Habits/Feeding RelationshipPenny Roth, MS, RD, LDN, Acting Chief, Bureau of Family Nutrition.
Can you remember the first time you ate spinach or broccoli as a kid? Imagine the first time a child is offered a new food they don’t want. Their arms are folded tightly across their chest, their lips are sealed as tight as they can go, and they shake their head “no” repeatedly until you finally give up. Sometimes it can take between 5-10 nonconsecutive times of seeing, smelling, handling, preparing, and tasting food over and over for a child to achieve food acceptance. Some parents may view offering new foods that are unwanted as wasteful, however, the food can be offered in small amounts. The repeated exposures can lead to curiosity and eventually a taste preference.
Try something new Ways to introduce or encourage new foods can start with setting up a taste test or a crunch test. Dip apples into caramel, peanut butter, or yogurt to see which one your child likes the best, or try three different kinds of vegetables to see which has the loudest crunch! You could also play "what can we make with this?" Talk about what fruits or vegetables do for our skin, growth and strength in simple language using puppets or other favorite characters. Preparing a snack or meal with your child using fruits or vegetables is a good way to reinforce this message. Another great idea is making a healthy snack with familiar and new foods. Trail mix is a yummy snack that can have dried fruits, a variety of nuts, different types of popcorn, and a candy treat. Make sure to give your child food that is age appropriate to assure that they don’t choke.
Where does my food come from? Grocery shopping can be fun for children. Allow your child to pick out a new healthy food he/she would like to try. Counting, weighing, measuring, cooking, or baking what they chose might encourage them to try a new food or meal. You could visit a farm to explore where foods come from and how they grow. Planting a garden is a great way to teach children about fruits and vegetables.
Children may go through phases and refuse to eat one food, but then consider it their favorite the next day. If your frustration is running high, try to take a deep breath and remember to look at what your child is eating throughout the week. Try to offer fruit and vegetables as often as you can, but don’t worry if they don’t eat a fruit or vegetable at each meal.
Stay Fit It is important for children to participate in physical activity every day. Try to sign your child up for an after-school sport such as karate or hockey. Children will have more opportunities to be active when they have friends over. You could talk to other mom’s about setting up play-dates. When the whole family is involved everyone benefits. Try to plan at least four active play family activities each month like going for a walk together in the snow, or visit your local ice skating rink. For indoor activities, visit your local YMCA and go swimming together.
For further information visit www.mypramid.gov or http://www.nal.usda.gov/wicworks/
Recipes for health: Fruit French Toast (Yield 8 Slices)
Ingredients:
Directions: In a bowl, beat eggs and milk together. Dip the bread into the egg mixture so the bread is thoroughly soaked. Coat your frying pan with 1 teaspoon canola oil and place over medium heat. Put 2 bread slices in the pan and heat until lightly browned. Turn the slices over and heat until browned. Repeat until all bread slices have been browned. (Use 1 teaspoon of canola oil for every 2 slices of bread). Mix fruit spread with finely cut fresh fruit to dallop over the top of the French toast. Sprinkle mixture of cinnamon, powdered sugar and nutmeg on top of toast and fruit spread. |
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