Being a parent means influencing our children in almost every way, guiding them to be who they are is shaped by our own behaviours and habits—including how we eat. There’s more to it than passing on family recipes or making your child’s favorite birthday cake every year, it’s in your own food habits every moment of their lives. Being a healthy eater, in both what you eat and how you talk about food, will allow your kids to follow suit. Doing the best by your kids is doing the best by yourself.
Modeling Balanced Eating Habits
Whether you are new parents, or parents of young adults, at any age group your lifestyle choices are still examples of adult living to your children. Making healthy food for yourself and your kids throughout the day is a great start to just general health, but food habits are more than just what you eat. If your child sees you sporadically practicing general unhealthy habits, they will follow suit.
Leading by example also comes with your personal views on food, the common caricature of an ‘almond mom’ as seen on social media, is an example of how parental habits that encourage both undereating and overeating can be passed onto children no matter the intention.
Seeking Professional Support if Needed
If you find yourself trying to set out healthy eating habits for your children, but seem to be struggling, there is always help available. Although you may be doing all the parenting right, sometimes your children may be struggling with their relationship with food despite your best efforts. There’s no need to be wary of asking for help as children can have food issues regardless of their environment. If concerns about your child’s eating habits persist, consider reaching out to healthcare professionals who specialize in pediatric nutrition and honed their expertise through an online nurse practitioner school or related child-health degrees.
Avoiding Labels and Pressure
It’s a common habit to label specific foods as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Once your children start gaining autonomy over what they eat, the foods they grew up learning are good and bad might start to influence their relationship with food. For example, if your child grew up thinking that ice-creams are ‘bad’ because of their sugar content, if they decide to go out with friends or just want to enjoy a well-earned delicious snack on occasion, they may associate those foods with feelings of guilt and shame for eating something ‘bad’.
Another parental habit to kick is pressuring children to finish their food. Saying they are not allowed to leave the table until they’ve finished, or just generally creating an environment where they can’t listen to their body’s signals, will influence them very much in future. Many people who struggle with overeating can relate their inability to feel full all the way to their formative years as they were never taught to listen to their bodily cues.
Involving Children in Meal Prep
Many children may turn away meals you’ve worked so hard to make, which is always a blow to a parent’s heart, but a great way to deter this behaviour is through the benefits of inclusive cooking. Your child may not like the color green in their food, but if you show them the process, they might just eat all their broccoli because they were able to throw it in the pot.
This is an especially good practice if you’ve noticed your child sticks to only a few foods. If you get your kids cooking with you, they may slowly get curious about how the tomatoes they’re chopping taste. Because of how exciting trying new foods can be, making it a fun experience can not only make for a great activity, but can also encourage your children to seek out their own flavors, expanding their preferences on their own terms.
Encouraging Mindful Eating
Many adults still struggle with mindful eating, but introducing mental checklists for how we feel when eating at a young age can be a good way to build habits for life. Depending on the age of your child, you can gauge how they feel about food by asking them questions before, during and after a meal. If you are concerned about the pace in which your child is eating, instead of telling them to slow down, suggest that they should search for subtle flavours in the food and really take a second to enjoy the meal to slow their food intake. As children grow up, they need to understand their bodily cues telling them they’re hungry or full. With a clear understanding of what this means, they’ll have a great foundation for when they become more independent.
Parenting comes with a range of challenges, and helping your children build a healthy relationship with food is just one of them. You can’t guarantee that your efforts will be successful, all you can do is try—the strategies in this article are a great place to start.
