Of the many challenges in raising children today, one of the most difficult ones can be to get kids to eat right.  Commercials, billboards and signage all lure our children into wanting fast foods, desserts and unhealthy snacks, making it almost impossible to avoid the worst parts of our nutritional culture.  However, there are a few good tips you can use to encourage healthy eating and limit your ‘food-fights’ with your children.

1.                  Remember you kids learn best by watching you.  Make certain you role-model healthy eating habits.  Prepare sit-down meals with your children and encourage your children to try new flavors.  Remember, however, that children have more intensity in their senses of taste, so keep flavors milder. 

2.                  Never force children to clean their plates.  This mentality leads to compulsive over-eating.  If kids are not very hungry at meal-time, give them smaller portions to avoid a lot of wastage.  Offer a food at least ten times in different ways before give up on your child’s taste.  Be creative with your food preparation to make healthy foods more interesting.

3.                  Don’t tell a child he or she is fat or needs to lose weight, and don’t tie the child’s self-worth to weight.  Sometimes other people are cruel, usually unintentionally so, and there is a lot of prejudice against people who are overweight.  Make certain the child knows you love them unconditionally.   

4.                  Keep healthy snacks available for the child, and avoid bringing unhealthy snack and food into the house.  As in the first tip, remember, if you want the child to eat healthier, so must you.

5.                  Encourage your children to exercise.  If they do not like to participate in sports, the best solution is to do something active with them.  Children hunger for their parents attention, and what better use of time with your children than to get out and do something physical!   You’ll both be healthier!  Doctors recommend at least 1 hour of exercise each day.

6.                  Limit t.v, video games and computer time.  Multiple studies have linked t.v. watching with obesity.  Doctors recommend that children should be limited to 2 hours total ‘screen’ time (that includes games, television and computers) a day.

7.                  Start early.  Fat babies turn into fat children, who turn into fat adults.  Ask your doctor for recommendations for introduction of foods into the diet, and quantities of food that should be consumed.  Follow your child’s growth chart so that changes can be made early.  Ask to see where your child’s BMI plots on the growth curve.

8.                  If your child is overweight, it is best to try to maintain that weight rather than lose weight.  As the child grows, the fat will become height.

9.                  Make your meals and snack time a social event.  Teach your child social skills and manners, but make it a fun time for the whole family.  Encourage your child to eat slowly and enjoy the food as well as the fun!

10.              Breast feed your infant, if at all possible.  Studies have shown that breast fed babies are less likely to grow into obese children or adults.