How to Ensure Good Eating Habits in Children
Given a chance, children will eat junk food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Though they may have been taught the benefits of eating healthy food, they pay no heed to it (just like us adults who ignore this advice as well)!
It, thus, becomes the responsibility of parents to ensure that children eat a well balanced diet in a healthy environment. In order to achieve this, certain criteria for eating must be laid down.
Remain Seated while Eating
Children (especially toddlers) are accustomed to running around the house and being chased by a parent/caretaker with the food. A bite here and a bite there is how their meal is eaten. Unless a child is seated and pays attention to what’s on his/her plate, he/she will be completely disinterested in the meal. It is imperative that a child is seated during the meal as he/she will see what he/she is eating rather than it just being spooned into his/her mouth by someone else.
No Eating in Front of the Television
Television is very distractive as children get mesmerized by it and their attention is diverted from the food, and a meal takes hours to be finished. However, in some cases, and only as an exception, if a stubborn child eats his/her vegetables while watching television, then it may just be worthwhile allowing the television for one meal.
No Eating while Reading
Very often, children will carry a book to the table and keep reading through their meal. This is a distraction similar to the television as attention is diverted from the meal itself. Due to the entertainment on the side, the child takes longer to finish the meal. Also, parents should not read a child stories during the meal but should instead start a general conversation that the parent and child can partake in, e.g., how the day was, activities in school, funny incidents in the day, etc.
