How to Promote Healthy Eating as a Parent by Lisa Carroll, MS, RD, LDN
As a registered dietitian and a mother of three I can attest to the great challenges that come with feeding our children. I can also share many accounts of the rewards of a healthy eating environment in the home. It’s important to keep in mind that as parents we are not expected to be perfect and neither are our children. This also means we do not have to be perfect with food! What we can do is strive to setup a healthy eating foundation that can promote mental, emotional and physical wellness for ourselves and for our children. Here is my dietitian and parent how-to!
Family Meals are Key!
Family meals are SO, SO, SO important! There is an overwhelming amount of research that praises the benefits of eating together. Eating together encourages healthier eating habits, can help prevent mental health disorders, has a direct correlation with reduced odds of weight issues later in life, assists with self-esteem and communication skills and provides a space for the family to connect. This is linked to assisting with bullying and has also been shown to be a great way to supplement family therapy. Whew! Those are a lot of benefits! But how do we make this work with busy schedules and the overall chaos that can come with life in general?
Eating together does not have to look any one way. The importance is eating together and not necessarily what is served or where the meal takes place. Eating together can be going out to eat or picking up food. Eating together can be heating up leftovers or throwing in a frozen pizza and it can also be home-cooked meal with all the bells and whistles. There is room here for flexibility! This is also a time to turn off electronics and to sit down and focus on providing your bodies with nutrition and connecting with one another.
Take Off the Pressure
Parent feeding practices and child eating behavior lays the foundation for eating habits and overall health outcomes later in life. This link can put a lot of pressure on the parent (and child) at meal time! I oftentimes see a struggle in the parent-child relationship at the dinner table partly due to having too high of expectations for the child eating behaviors. Normal child eating behaviors can include food refusal, playing with food and fluctuations in the amount consumed. I know as a parent there have been many occasions where I have offered a food to my child and he/she will have seconds and thirds and times when the same food is offered and is completely refused. This is normal! Your role as a parent is to provide the food. This is an opportunity to present mindful and wholesome food selections to your child. Your child’s role is to decide what and how much to eat. Step away from coercive feeding practices such as force-feeding, rewarding or punishing with food or restricting food. These all tend to end disastrously and can interfere with our children’s natural intuitive eating skills and development.
Be Mindful of Your Own Eating
Another common parenting behavior that I oftentimes see negatively impact the child is the parent’s own eating struggles. Parents who diet and restrict are more likely to struggle with self-esteem, health and weight. This means that the children of parents who diet and restrict are also more likely to mimic these struggles. There is a major difference between health and weight. Unfortunately, the two are often seen as synonymous. They are not!
Focusing on health does not have to mean focusing on weight!
I encourage parents to provide foods to nourish our bodies as well as our souls. There is a place at the dinner table for both broccoli and chocolate! When fun and functional foods are both allowed with mindful approaches children tend to have a much more well-rounded approach to food and eating and are less likely to binge or overeat. As a parent it is important to not only steer clear of directly encouraging our children to diet but to also be aware that our own dieting can promote a diet-led mentality among our children.
If you have stepped away from the above guides that is okay! There is always a chance to regain the role of being a positive influence on our children’s eating habits. Take on change one step at a time and commit to consistency. I also highly encourage any families who feel the struggles of eating behaviors and family meal times to seek out help. A registered dietitian can assist in making practical and realistic changes that can lead to long-term success in the overall eating profile for parents and kids!
To learn more or connect with someone from our team please reach out to Lotus Therapy Group at 708-552-7330.
