When you first introduce solid food to your baby, you may not find it hard to feed them. They usually will take everything that is served into their mouth. Eventually, when they start to understand things, they tend to be picky and slowly create a bad eating habit.
Once it is in the mouth, it is hard to break the habits especially to working parents with a tight schedule.
Having enough nutrition is important for children to grow up healthily. Good eating habits ensure the children to get every vitamins and nutrition needed by the body.
Children with enough nutrition are more active as they have enough energy required for school and play. Their sharp mind will easily absorb every lesson in school and their mood level will be even, making them happy and cheerful little kids.
Most importantly, having good eating habits is important to maintain the health condition of a kid. Many toddlers and kids are obese resulted from bad eating habits.
As most people have already known, obesity may lead to many more disease such as sleeping disorder, hypertension and diabetes and this is not an exception to kids. They could have it too if there is no action taken to their diet. In this case, parents play a very important role in ensuring their children to get enough nutrition.
Signs of Bad Eating Habit
1. Eating when they are not hungry
Resulted from forced eating, some kids started to ignore their body signal and keep on eating even though when they are not hungry. Parents might get agitated to see the unfinished food on the plate, however, it is also important for parents to respect and understand that they are already full.
Forcing them to finish their meal when they are not hungry will only disturb their body signal and if it keeps on happening, they will start to ignore the signal and will never know when should they start or stop eating.
2. Refuse fruits and vegetables
Picky eater often refuses vegetables and fruits and often become malnutrition. Fruits and vegetables contain a lot of vitamins and minerals essentials for their development.
Consuming these two elements will not only help in maintaining their diet but also help in strengthening their immune system that is much needed for a little kid as they are easily exposed to many bacteria and virus around them.
3. Too much carbohydrate
Has it occurred to you when your child prefers to eat only rice or pasta and refuses any meat or poultry that is served together? Some parents might feel that it is okay as long as their child is eating. But it is not!
Meat and poultry contain a lot of protein to build their muscle and make them stronger while carbohydrate is an easily digested food which will make your child become hungry again shortly after their meal.
4. Too much snack
Snacking is good but too much of it will harm your child’s diet. They won’t ever feel hungry if they keep on nibbling their snacks. Instead of taking nutritious food to fill their tummy, it is now filled with easily digested and less nutrition food.
Continuous snacking will also make them hard to recognize their body signals. They won’t know if they are hungry or full, all they know is to keep on munching.
5. Too much sugar
Sugar is high on calorie and too much of it would be harmful to the body. Excess calories not only caused the weight gain but also lead to diabetes at a young age. Foods or drinks that are high in sugar will make your child full and refuse to eat.
Encouraging Good Eating Habit
1. Set an example
You are actually your children’s role model. They will follow almost everything that you do daily. Therefore, if you want your children to have a good eating habit, you might need to practice it now.
Children will always want what is in your plate. Start by stacking fruits and vegetables and show them how yummy those two are. Enjoy every bite of your food and they will learn to enjoy theirs too.
2. Eat together
Sometimes children will feel lonely when they are eating alone. That is when they refuse to eat. Eating together will create stronger bonds between family members. It is when the family is talking, laughing and joking.
Enjoying the moment will lighten the mood which would make the food taste more delicious. Your children might finish their food without knowing it while having a good time together.
3. Keep junk food off the table
One of the tricks to avoid your children from eating junk food is by not showing it to them. Do not introduce your children to junk food and keep it off-limits. However, bear in mind that your children might learn to take it from people around them or in school.
In that case, the best that you could do is to control the amount. Let them have their junk food only on a special occasion.
4. Reduce sugar and salt in your cooking
You might not be able to control their diet during school time or when dining out, but you can do so with home-cooked meals. Try to reduce sugar and salt on your cooking.
They might complain at first but slowly their tongue will adapt to the taste and start to enjoy the food. Sooner or later they will carry the habit of less sugar and salt when they are dining outside.
5. Do not force your children to eat
It is normal if your kid ate three plates in one sit yesterday but refuses to finish even half of their food today. It is frustrating, but not insisting her to finish their meal would be great for your child.
Forcing your child to finish their food when they are full will make them find it difficult to differentiate when they are hungry or when they are full.
As a result, your children will keep on eating without knowing when to stop that eventually will cause them overeating and obesity.
6. Follow Eating Schedule
Train your children to have a fixed time for meals. For example, lunch is always at 12pm while dinner is at 6pm. Allow your children to have an eating schedule. Having fix routine will teach them to recognize between hungry and full and avoid overeating.
Though it is hard to always monitor your children eating habits, as a parent, we need to do our best. Always serve high nutritious food for your children and teach them the importance of each of it. Your children might refuse at first but consistency pays. Good luck!
Stay tuned with Motherhood Story to get to know how you can create healthy and good eating habits in your children.