Healthy Habits In The Under 5s
Posted 25 October 2009 at 20:07:17 by
Vanessa May
Posted in
Change4Life
Part of our responsibility as parents is to teach our children how to lead healthy lives. The best time to start teaching these lessons is when they're very young and before unhealthy choices can become lifelong bad habits.
Children in this country are gaining more weight than ever before. Many are eating too much high-fat, high-sugar food and are spending less time being physically active. As we all know, weight problems that develop during childhood can lead to weight-related illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes so it is important that you encourage your children to enjoy healthy food when they are young.
Aim for ‘5 a day’ and offer healthy snacks, rather sugary or salty ones, which small bodies have difficulty processing. Be aware that even "low-fat" foods may include unwanted ingredients such as added sugar. Use appropriate portion sizes and encourage your child to drink plenty of water from a young age.
As a parent of young children, bear in mind that this is a time when you will have the most control over what they eat. Once they start High School, they are likely to be passing sweet shops or the chip shop on their way home from school and will become increasingly influenced by their peers - so start the good habits now while you have the chance!
5 Great Nutritional Tips
- Make dinnertime a family time as often as possible. When everyone sits down together to eat, there’s less chance of children eating the wrong foods. Homemade family meals are likely to be more balanced and nutritious than typical ‘children’s’ food.
- Get them involved with shopping. Ask them to find things and put them in the trolley and if they are older, let them feel that they are making some of the choices – obviously this could be less dangerous in a health food shop than a supermarket!
- Find recipes online and then let them choose out of a few that you’ve already found that are healthy and appetising – again it allows them to feel they have some choice.
Let them cook with you sometimes. Let them peel carrots that they can nibble on or mash some puree for a younger child. If they are older, they are often more prepared to eat something they’ve actually helped to make.
‘Smart Food for Smart Kids’ by Patrick Holford and Fiona Joyce McDonald is a book I often recommend for the children I see in my Nutritional Therapy practice and the Annabel Karmel books are good too. Also, visit the change4life website.
- Try not to have any food in the house that you don’t want them to eat (or at least keep hidden out of reach at the back of a cupboard!)
- Remember healthy foods are rarely advertised, but unhealthy ones constantly are, and can try to lead you to believe they actually are healthy. Sugar laden cereals are a good example of this. Whole Earth cereals are a better breakfast choice, or alternatively a homemade smoothie or scrambled egg on wholemeal toast.
Avoid foods which contain modified starch, nitrates, salt, sodium, monosodium glutamate, emulsifiers, preservatives, colourings, flavourings, hydrogenated fats, E numbers and probably anything you don’t recognise!
Avoid tinned soups and some tinned foods aimed at children eg. pasta shapes in tomato sauce, as these can contain a whole day’s salt intake.
Use either unsalted butter or Pure spread – avoid other margarines which can contain hydrogenated fat.
Exercise Is Essential For Children
Like adults, kids need exercise. Regular exercise helps children:
- Feel less stressed
- Feel better about themselves
- Feel more ready to learn in school
- Keep a healthy weight
- Build and keep healthy bones, muscles and joints
- Sleep better at night
- Helps improve co ordination
- Helps improve confidence
- Helps improve stamina and coping strategies
- Helps to develop relationships outside the home
5 Great Exercise Tips
- When taking children to School or Nursery leave enough time to make the walk pleasurable and observe what’s around them so they associate walking with having fun.
- Make physical activity part of your family’s routine. Take a walk through the park ending up at the playground, go swimming regularly or get a trampoline for the garden.
- On a wet afternoon when you can’t be outside, put on a CD and dance, or do a family ThinQ Fitness workout. This will be even more fun if Dad joins in and you can laugh at his dancing!
- Encourage your children to participate in extracurricular activities such as short tennis or baby ballet which can be started from around age three. Let them experiment with different activities until each finds something that he or she really loves doing. They’ll stick with it longer if they love it.
- Don’t underestimate how a day out to somewhere such as the Science museum or Legoland can count as exercise.
5 Great Holistic Tips
- Be a positive role model. If you’re practicing healthy habits, it’s a lot easier to convince children to do the same.
- Studies show fewer families are eating dinner together. This is not only important for good eating habits (see above) but can be a good way of communicating with each other in an effective manner which helps maintains the mental health of a family.
- Children learn different things at different stages, e.g. walking, talking, fine motor skills etc. It is tempting, especially with your first child, to compare your child’s development with other children, but try not to as your child can pick up on your concerns.
- Focus on the positive, not the negative. Celebrate successes and help children develop a good self-image (sticker charts can be useful – see below). Tell them how big and strong they will grow when they eat their vegetables!
- Giving children a healthy balanced diet will have an impact not only on their growth, energy levels and immune system, but on their brains and therefore their mental and emotional health too, including behaviour.
5 Great Discipline Tips
- Praise and discipline should go hand in hand. Acknowledge that one day they will be adults and to get them there you have to teach them what they need to know by example. Just telling your kids what to do may not work – you need to lead by example.
- Limit the amount of time your children spend watching television, using the computer or playing video games. Instead encourage physical activity, such as a sport or a dance or drama class.
- Avoid extremes, screaming at them over something minor, or indeed, over praising for something minor can be confusing for young children. Be consistent.
- Children need clearly defined boundaries. If you take a privilege away from your child for a certain length of time, don't give in to appeals to shorten it.
- Its good to have a reward system in place that is not food related. Perhaps a daily one, such as a game with Dad before bed, then a weekly one, such as a book or comic on Saturday, and then a bigger one at the end of the month– this needs to be something like a toy they really want. Sticker charts are good for younger kids but often older ones too.
Article by Vanessa May, BSc Nut Med, NTC and BANT reg.
www.wellbeingandnutrition.co.uk
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