TIPS!
Healthy Eating Habits
01-C3
Quick Reference HEALTHY EATING HABITS – PARENT AND CHILD JOBS 01-C3a Parent Messages (see Experts pages 2, 4-5) Parents and children are responsible for developing healthy eating habits. Young children have an innate ability to regulate the amount of food they eat to meet their calorie or energy needs. Children’s ability to self-regulate their food intake is affected by the family’s eating patterns and habits.
Parent Skills
Provides a variety of health foods in age-appropriate amounts. Models eating health food. Provides meals and snacks at regularly scheduled times. Minimizes distractions and talks with child during family meal times. Allows child to take responsibility for whether or not to eat and how much to eat.
Parent Tip HEALTHY EATING HABITS – PARENT AND CHILD JOBS Parents, Eating habits started in toddlerhood last into adulthood. Children know when they are hungry or full. Both parent and children have important jobs to build healthy eating habits: The parent’s job is to: Serve a variety of healthy foods. Eat and talk about enjoying healthy food so your child learns by seeing. Schedule 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks each day. Let mealtime be family time. Turn off the TV and other distractions so your child can focus on the meal. The child’s job is to: Decide whether to eat something. Decide how much of it to eat. People naturally like sweet, salty, and fatty foods. If young children have a lot of this type of food, they will have a harder time learning to like healthy food. Serve mostly healthy food. Save treats for special times.
HÁBITOS SALUDABLES DE ALIMENTACIÓN – TRABAJO DE PADRES E HIJOS Padres, Los hábitos de alimentación empiezan desde la infancia hasta cuando se es adulto. Los niños saben cuando tienen hambre o cuando están llenos. Ambos padres e hijos tienen trabajos importantes para crear hábitos saludables de alimentación: El trabajo de los padres es: Servir una variedad de comida saludable. Mientras comen, hablar acerca de cómo disfrutar la comida saludable de esta manera su hijo aprende observando. Realizar 3 comidas y 2 o 3 refrigerios cada día. Hacer de la hora de comer una hora familiar. Apague la televisión y otras distracciones así su hijo puede concentrarse en la comida. El trabajo de los hijos es: Decidir si comen algo. Decidir cuánto comen. Las personas naturalmente les gusta comer dulce, salado y comida grasosa. Si los niños pequeños comen mucho de este tipo de alimentos, ellos van a tener dificultad en aprender a que les guste la comida sana. Sirvan en su mayoría alimentos sanos. Guarden golosinas para momentos especiales. 8/09
Page 12 of 19 Copyright © 2009 Patti Bokony – bokonypattia@uams.edu