Promoting Good Nutrition in Kids: Dos and Dont's

In the April issue of Today’s Diet & Nutrition, Joanna Dolgoff, MD, author of Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right, offered tips for helping parents talk about weight with their children and teach them about good nutrition and weight management. Here, Dolgoff offers more dos and don’ts for parents:

1. Do breast-feed. Of all the strategies for preventing childhood obesity, the only one with scientific evidence of efficacy is breast-feeding. The odds of becoming overweight are 20% to 30% lower in children who are breast-fed. Interestingly, these effects are delayed, as they are best seen in preadolescents and adolescents.

2. Don’t introduce solids until the age of 6 months. There is a common misconception that cereal helps a baby sleep through the night, but there is no evidence of this.

3. Do let your child watch you enjoying healthy foods. Children always like to eat what others are eating.

4. Do not worry if your child doesn’t eat three well-balanced meals with foods from all the food groups each day. Some days will be better than others. As long is it all balances out over the course of a week or two, your child likely has a healthy diet.

5. Do try experimenting with healthy versions of your child’s favorite foods, such as baked chicken nuggets, homemade pizza with low-fat cheese, or baked frozen French fries. You will be surprised that many children don’t notice the difference.

6. Do serve a variety of foods. Allow your child to develop a taste for more than just chicken nuggets and French fries.

7. Do not give your child a liquid nutritional supplement, such as Pediasure, without consulting your pediatrician. These supplements fill your child’s stomach with liquid calories, leaving no room for solids. Your child gets full from the Pediasure and develops even less interest in eating solid foods.

8. Do let your child assist with food preparation in whatever ways possible. Your child can accompany you to the supermarket where you can discuss all the fruits and vegetables. Point out the ones that you particularly like and ask your child which he likes. Give your child choices: Should we buy peas or carrots? Apples or mangos? Make a fuss out of picking a new fruit or vegetable of the week for the family to try. Let your child help cook dinner or sit with you while you cook. A child is much more likely to eat a healthy food that she has helped to prepare.

9. Do pay attention to food presentation. You want to make the meal seem like fun. Arrange vegetables into the shape of a face on the plate. Make pancakes in the shape of a snowman or even Spongebob Squarepants. Cut sandwiches into different shapes like hearts or diamonds.

10. Do serve a fruit or a vegetable with each meal. Encourage your child to take at least two bites so they get used to eating these foods.

11. Do encourage your children to eat slowly since it takes time to realize that you are full.

12. Don’t make negative or critical comments. Especially with teens, if you watch too closely or criticize too often, they will likely eat more simply to prove that they are in control.

13. Do give daily praise for your child’s healthy choices.

14. Do not force your child to eat a particular food because the more you push, the more they will resist.

15. Do not forbid any foods because that only makes them more desirable.

16. Do not use food as a bribe. It makes children resistant to foods of which they have a neutral opinion.

17. Do use low-fat cooking methods that require little or no fat (eg, broiling, steaming, roasting).

18. Do trim all fat from meat before cooking.

19. Do add fruit and vegetables to recipes whenever possible, for example, mix applesauce into waffle batter or mix blueberries or bananas into pancakes. You can also add chopped vegetables into ground meat.

20. Do serve main dishes that emphasize healthy complex carbs such as brown rice and whole wheat pasta.

21. Do not serve children whole milk unless they are between the ages of 1 and 2. Children aged 2 to 3 should drink low-fat milk, and children over the age of 3 should only drink skim milk.

22. Do not encourage your child to drink juice. Serve water as often as possible and introduce Crystal Light as another alternative.