Leading by example – feeding your kids

Some ways in which you can be an excellent role model for your children are:

• Add variety to the children’s plate of food early on to develop wide range of food preferences
• Focus on what is good and important to eat, rather than on what should be avoided. If the wrong food is simply not available it will cease to be tempting. Being healthy becomes a happy intention for the family.
• Be careful about insisting that your child eats everything on the plate. I remember being raised like that, and to this day I tend to eat more than I need, or even want, as I can’t bear to leave food on the plate and therefore be wasteful. Make the servings smaller and say that seconds are available if needed. The child then learns to read the satiety signals from the brain i.e. the message that enough has been eaten so please stop! This is a big factor in healthy lifelong weight management.
• Don’t use food as a reward system or as a way of showing affection, or alleviating parental guilt feelings. Children should not learn to use food to calm negative emotions. Hugs, and attention and praise and time together are far better options.
• Snacks should be given in limited portions, not to be eaten while distracted e.g. in front of the tv where it become a mindless intake of empty calories very easily. In fact, TV screen time should be carefully monitored and ‘rationed’ as it is as addictive as snacky foods are designed to be!

And as your kids grow older, start engaging them in a discussion of the importance of staying strong and healthy, and how our food supports our health. So you might talk about – 

• building strong bones, teeth and muscles,
• keeping their minds sharp and alert so that they can learn well,
• having a healthy body mass,
• having all the energy they need to live their active lives, and
• preventing illness.

So kids need to learn that fruits and vegetables are very important as they provide lots of nutrients: vitamins, minerals, fibre and phytonutrients for example. They also need to learn that variety is important – this can be achieved by encouraging a variety of colours on the plate. Other essential nutrients are proteins, whole grains and good fats. And processed foods and very sugary foods need to be kept at a minimum.

In addition, you can start engaging them in the process of deciding on what to eat, buying the ingredients and preparing the meals alongside you. A whole lot of teaching happens in this way (even budgeting, for older kids) and it’s also a great way to bond with your kids in a meaningful way while doing stuff that actually has to be done.

As I write this I can feel myself feeling overburdened with responsibility, so I am guessing many of you are as well! We are so busy, and are juggling so many balls, that this being a perfect mother as well seems a very big ask. And it is! So my best suggestion is that it’s something to aspire to, and if you fall short it’s not something to beat yourself up about. We do the best we can and more than that is essentially impossible.

BUT, this is where I do want to introduce the importance of suitable supplementation for kids and teens.

There are 2 separate blogs addressing the nutritional health and well-being of kids and teens:

Happy, healthy kids – http://www.positiveoptions.co.za/happy-healthy-kids-2/

The teenage years – http://www.positiveoptions.co.za/the-teenage-years/

Contact me if you would like to talk about some supplementation to help boost your health.

084 506 3643

andre.positiveoptions@gmail.com