Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

Kid Quotes from 3 of my boys:
What do you want on your taco: Just ketchup.
What do you want: Just sour cream
And you: I’ll just have the shell.
Getting kids to eat healthy is not my problem. I just need them to eat. Parents everywhere have this problem. I bought a nice kitchen table for our family that had four drawers – one for each son. I thought they would keep pencils and crayons there. I soon learned that my kids use those drawers to stash food. This week, I found a petrified hamburger, a hard slice of pizza, some green beans (hard) in another, and carrots, (shriveled) in another. Be a good Dad has identified three ways your child can refuse to eat. Science says we should stop trying so hard. The Framingham Children’s Study says that being too strict can make our kids fat.

Kids will eat the foods that are most readily available. So, for a long time, I banned all junk food. But, my sons turned into Tasmanian Devils during play dates whenever Tostitos and Juicy Juice bags were presented. So, moderation is the key here. I also make it a point to serve dessert every night.

Fussy eaters may be more complex, making it difficult for parents. Donice says for some children, a picky-eater may be testing limits, or they might object to foods that are untried or new — or worse, just decide they don’t like something they have liked before!

Tomorrow, I’ll look show you how we use the book Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day,to ease our kids into eating healthy. And I’ll also show you what the Framingham Children’s Study has to say about authoratative and authoritarian parenting styles and they affect children’s eating habits.