Childhood Obesity Articles

Teaching Your Child Proper Nutrition

By Jill Gonzalez

It is easy enough to feed your kids prepackaged foods that are simple to prepare and serve, but how healthy are they?

With childhood obesity on the rise in the United States, it is more important than ever for parents to take an active interest in educating their children about proper nutritional habits. In order for children to be healthy, they need to be active. They also need to learn healthy eating habits. As your child’s primary role model from a very early age, it is your responsibility as a parent to ensure that your child is equipped with the knowledge that he or she needs to remain healthy.

Set a Good Example

As a parent, you owe it to your children to see to it that they eat healthy meals and snacks. If you make a regular habit of picking up fast food for your family’s meals, you are teaching your children that it is acceptable to eat those foods.

You can get your kids on the right track by setting a healthy example at home. Prepare meals made with lots of protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and avoid restaurant fare as much as possible. When you do eat at restaurants, regardless of the type, encourage your children to make food choices that are as healthy as possible. If you choose more healthful options, the odds are that you will be successful in getting your children to follow suit.

Pack healthy lunches for school. Instead of allowing your children to eat whatever is being served in the cafeteria, send them off to school with a healthy lunch and snacks for the day. Once you get them in the habit of eating foods such as vegetable sticks, fruits, nuts and whole grains, you will be surprised at how easy it is to keep them on the right track.

Get Your Children Involved

If you let your children help choose foods at the grocery store, they will be far more likely to take an active interest in meal preparation, and they will also become more enthusiastic about eating the dishes they have helped to prepare. Your children can help out with small tasks in the kitchen even when they are quite young, so don’t be afraid to let them help you out at meal time.

As you make selections at the store, try to explain to your kids why certain foods are healthier than others. Even if your children are too young to fully understand, they will eventually start to grasp what you are saying and later, they will automatically gravitate toward healthier choices.

If your children hate certain fruits or vegetables, don’t force the issue. Over time, try to reintroduce those foods to your children one bite at a time to see if their tastes have changed. One of the worst things you can do is force children to eat foods they don’t want. Doing so will not only have a negative impact on them emotionally, but it will probably cause them to develop an even deeper dislike of the food in question.

Teach Them Healthy Living Practices

One of the best ways to encourage a healthy lifestyle is to get your children involved with regular physical activity at an early age. If children grow up participating in sports or exercise programs, they will be far more likely to continue those good habits into adulthood.

One of the contributing factors to childhood obesity today is that we now have an entire generation of children who are growing up leading sedentary lives. Television, computers and video games have all contributed to the increasing inactivity of children. With most parents away at work during the day, many children have the freedom to come home from school and do whatever they want. Unfortunately, their choices have become lazier by the year.

Children, for the most part, do not think about going outside to play or exercising, and as a result the incidences of childhood obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a host of digestive problems are now appearing at shockingly early ages. Children as young as 4 years of age are being diagnosed with these serious medical conditions, and the epidemic appears to be getting worse rather than improving.

If you lead a healthy lifestyle, your children will be far more likely to follow the same path. Teach them early on to exercise, eat healthy foods and skip the junk food and you will be a great success at keeping them healthy.