What Should We Pay Attention to When Feeding Children?
What is healthy eating?
Healthy eating means children get all their nutrients by eating a variety of foods (for example, protein, carbohydrate, fat, minerals and vitamins are all needed for their growth). Your child is well nourished when they eat from a range of basic foods.
How much food is best for your child?
Children and babies generally eat healthy foods, and as long as they're eating healthy foods, you can leave the right amount up to them. Babies cry to tell you they're hungry, and you should stop feeding them when they're full. Around age 2–3 things get more complex — as they begin tasting certain foods they may start to dislike others, and many such changeable factors emerge around hunger. But even then, you can usually let them eat healthy foods and decide how much to eat.
Seeing how little your child eats at a meal may worry you. Yet if children are allowed to decide how much to eat, they tend to eat about the same amount each day — though their calorie intake can vary day to day. A child may eat a lot at breakfast and lunch and little at dinner one day, and the reverse another day. You shouldn't expect your child to eat the same amount of food or snacks every day.
How can you help your children eat well and stay healthy?
Many parents worry that their children eat too little or too much. Perhaps your child only wants one type of food (a peanut butter sandwich, a burger, and so on). One way to ease your worries about your child eating well is to understand your responsibilities and theirs. Some experts call this the division of responsibility. If your child only wants to eat one type of food, you decide what that food will be. In the division of responsibility, deciding what the food will be is the parents' job.
The division of responsibility can be summarised like this:
- Your job is to offer nutritious food choices at meal and snack times. This decision covers what the food is, and when and where it's eaten.
- Your child's job is to decide how much of what you serve they'll eat.
If this idea is new to you, it may take a little time for you and your child to adjust. But once you start applying it, over time you'll see your child learn how much of which food to choose at meals and snacks — which encourages them to trust their own sense of hunger.
A few suggestions to help support your child's healthy eating habits:
- Eat together as a whole family whenever possible. Keep family meals pleasant and positive. Avoid commenting on how much your child eats — pressure reduces your child's willingness to accept new and different foods.
- Take care to choose healthy foods for your family; children may model your choices.
- Be as predictable as you can with mealtimes, and try to eat even snacks at roughly the same times each day, at the table.
- Feed your child often enough that they don't get overly hungry (for example, every 3 hours).
- Don't keep junk food at home for eating between meals, so they're hungrier at the next meal — being hungry at mealtimes helps them accept foods they don't usually like more easily.
- During meals, prevent talking, watching television or other enjoyable distractions.
Some ways you can help your child stay healthy
- Limit your child's daily computer and television time. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children spend less than two hours a day looking at a TV or computer screen. Sit with your child and plan together how to use this time; many expert doctors don't recommend TV for children under 2.
- Make physical activity a part of your family's daily life. Some ways to do this: pick your child up from school and walk, and teach them to dance, skip rope and ride a bike.
- Take a walk together after meals.
What causes poor eating habits?
Poor eating habits can lead to unhealthy children. Babies are born loving sweet things. But as they learn to eat a wide range of basic foods, they'll start to enjoy other tastes too, because many nutritious foods aren't sweet.
If sweets and soft drinks are always within reach, many children will choose them over nutritious foods. But banning these foods leads children to want them even more. You can help your child enjoy their meals by including a little of the nutritious foods in what they eat. At the same time, if your child takes on the responsibility of deciding how much to eat at a meal, they can have a portion of dessert — and as long as the amount isn't overdone, dessert won't be a problem. Which foods are offered, and where and when, is your responsibility as a parent. Try to keep the choices of nutritious, appealing foods varied.
Healthy, child-friendly snacks include:
- A slice of cheese
- Whole-grain crackers with peanut butter
- Low-fat microwave popcorn
- Juices made with 100% real fruit
- Fruit and dried fruit
- Baby carrots with hummus or beans
- Fresh fruit with low-fat yogurt
Please note!
Power struggles between a parent and child can affect eating behaviour. If there's pressure for a child to eat a particular food, they're more likely to refuse it — even if it's something enjoyable. Remember, your responsibility is to provide a variety of nutritious food. Your child's job is to decide how much and how to eat from the options.
Emotions: Sadness, anxiety or a family crisis can cause a child to eat too little or too much. If you think emotions are influencing your child's eating behaviour, focus on solving the underlying emotional issue rather than the eating itself.
Even when your child eats healthy, nutritious foods, they may still seem to eat very little to you — they may simply need fewer calories than other children. Some children may seem to eat more than others of the same age and height, because every child's calorie needs are different.
In rare cases, a child may eat less or more than they should because of medical issues. If your child has a medical condition affecting how they eat, speak with their doctor so you can support their nutrition correctly.
What are the risks of poor nutrition?
Children with poor eating habits may grow into poorly nourished adults, meaning they don't get the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Over time it can lead to being overweight or obese. Poorly nourished children tend to have weaker immune systems, so they can fall ill more easily. Poor nutrition can also raise children's later risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.
What are poor eating habits?
- Eating too few types of food
- Not eating from all food groups
- Eating a lot of low-quality foods like crisps, pastries and soft drinks
- Large serving portions, finishing everything on the plate, or trying to make them clear their plate
Merve Tığlı, Dietitian