Thursday, February 11, 2010

Creating Nutritional Autonomy for Your Children


We sometimes get angry , frustated and a little depressed when it comes to trying to train our children to eat right. We often take a page out of our own up bringing when our parents would put food out on the table in mass quantities and with super dense calories and stand literally over us and demand that we "clean" our plates!

Now , think for a moment and contemplate what effect this one scenario alone has on the typical child's mind? If you are trying to establish good eating habits and develop your childs "ego" to have some autonomy, self-esteem and confidence about decision making, you may have just reduced those attempts if not destroyed it altogether!

'Granted" , conditioning behavior is the job of good parenting , but not at the sake of sacrificing the self-confidence of the child's ability to choose correctly and feel good about their decision. Choice is vital for a child's self- respect and dignity at home at the dinner table and at the school lunch table, so that this confidence will be resistant enough to deny unhealthy nutritional temptations later when they are not in your sight.

Today, there are too many distractions that compete with a parents ability to influence their child into healthy nutritional choices. There is television with its all too tempting adds and commercials of snack foods, cereals and hydrogenated filled chips. If that's not enough kids are "assaulted" mentally by numerous advertisement "hits" after school and now they have television channels dedicated soley to them. How can a working parent compete against this? Children now are influenced by what they see on computers, and what they hear on their Ipods,CDs and radios. But the biggest influence overall to a parent when it comes to proper nutrtional conditioning is peer pressure. To maintain social status and prevent from being an outsider, children will copy their peers eating pattern to be or stay popular.

The esteem of a child is being molded from birth onward and you are teaching your child how to have a relationship with food by certain attitudes about foods and even non-verbal cues to foods that they learn and are shown by you to them. So, if you do not choose or cook vegetables and fruit and eat mostly foods with processed high starch and extremely high trans fats -guess what? They later on will develop a certain proclivity to chose them, too.

Back to that dinner table and that "crippling" scenario of the parent demanding the child to clean up everything on the plate and let's examine the ramifications of this much further, because we've been on either side of the "plate" in this case. Children as early as age 2 or three will begin to develop a taste and appreciation for healthy foods because that's what you put on their plate and as their intellect grows you can begin to verbalize the healthier message to them. Even before they begin to sit at the "big" table with the grown-ups they should have a basic fundamental understanding of simple food groups and what they provide.

First, allow them to select their owns foods more often from those you've pre-selected and bought . If they are hungry they can select another helping. But, remember you have already stacked the deck by putting the foods you want eaten already so that they can now chose which ones to eat with confidence and to your liking.So, in essence simple reverse psychology puts you really in command and control of the situation always. Do not start off with stories of children in developing countries who are starving and do not get the opportunity to eat all the piles of food you have put on their plate and that they should be ever so grateful. Kids are far more sophisticated and can become complicated by these put offs. Also do not put in overly religious connotations or guilt trips on them for not finishing what you think what is a normal amount of food.

Third do not hold their dessert "hostage" by either not permitting them a favorite after dinner treat if they do not finish eating all of what's on their plate. You are conditioning them to overeat for something that most likely has more calories anyway.

BUDGETS
Get your child in the habit of watching television and the commercials with you. Explain to them what you think is healthy on the commercials as well. Then, let them create a shopping list or even a budget of food items you think will be good for not just them , but one they think the entire family can benefit from. Then take them grocery shopping to pick and chose. Teach them how to read food labels like yourself. Explain why an item isn't chosen for the list and explain what are trans fats, saturated fats, high fructose corn syrup and dextrose even.

The earlier a child gets an appreciation for fruits, fruit shakes, fruit smoothies , fruit pop-sickles , carob and not chocolate , xylitol and stevia instead of sugar andbegin to prefer veggie burgers, and soy; the chances are that they will probably chose them independently of their peers as well and later in life. Also reward them for healthy choices , not only with other foods but with books, toys, activities such as going to the gym or a trip to a museum. Get them to attach healthy rewards with fun and tastey things that make them feel good.

Also get them accustomed to enjoying leisure fun activities such as swimming, walking, jogging, T-ball, dodge ball and dance. Include yourself in these activities and play along with them in physical games. When was the last time you played a good game of tag ? Now is your chance, but this time with your kids.

Parents , try not to take away the "power" , esteem and self-confidence from the developing mind of your kids when they try to make autonomous decisions about food. This might make them very self-concious about doing that later with peers and when faced again with independent decision-making the fear of being "negated" may cause them to fall as easy prey to external factors that are negative.

It is not too late to teach the kids about a vitamin, mineral, enzyme , or herbs. Let them begin to understand that these Nano-Nutrition are part of a smart balanced healthy lifestyle and can help prevent chronic diseases. Teach them where these fit in a healthy diet for "supplementing" your heatlh.

Childhood obesity has risen anywhere from 22-30 percent depending on your sources in some areas due to poor nutritional habits and choices. Childhood diabetes, fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, d even from school lunches not just junk foods and soda. Depression, eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia along with body dysmorphia are rising and are all related to poor food habits in a child's lifestyle. Prevention through educating your child and "arming" them with healthy behaviors that promote healthy choices through nutrition and activity will give them the advantage to live a higher quality life with a higher quantity of life!

Dr. Marcus Wells, MD, MPH is a past Clinical Associate from the National Institutes of Health at the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute(NIH/NIHLBI). He has a Master's in Public Health from Emory University. He has also served in the Health & Human Services(HHS) and Public Health Service(PHS) and the Commssioned Corp. Dr. Wells also holds a Master's degree in Public Health from Emory University.

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