How to Teach Children About Healthy Eating, Without Food Shaming

[elleng]

THE GIST

Modeling healthy eating habits can help shape your kids’ eating behaviors and relationships with food.
Involve your children in food shopping and cooking from an early age to expose them to fruits and vegetables.
Having positive conversations about different eating lifestyles — like veganism, gluten-free or others — can teach kids not to feel shame around food.
Avoid using food as a reward, bribe or punishment.
Don’t focus on weight or dieting during conversations about healthy eating.
Occasionally incorporating less-than-healthy foods into meal plans is O.K. Don’t stress if your kids won’t eat certain things.

https://parenting.nytimes.com/feeding/healthy-eating-habits?action=click&login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock

P.S. Since having grandkids, I've 'enrolled' them in a monthly 'fruit of the month' club, so they receive prime fruits monthly around the year, and they LOVE it!

[MontanaMama]

1. Great OP elleng. So true!

Healthy eating is a lifestyle and a gift we can give our kids that lasts forever.

When my kiddo was a baby, I made all his baby food myself. Partly because we didn’t have two nickels to rub together at the time and baby food is SO expensive...but also I thought it was important to really know what he was eating and you don’t always know what’s in those little jars. I basically ground up whatever we were eating ourselves with a couple of exceptions. His first solid food was avocado and to this day, he will open up an avocado and eat if with a spoon with chili powder on it. Little weirdo! One of the side benefits is that he isn’t a picky eater. He was eating fruits, veggies and lean proteins from the get go. While we have a few “less than healthy” snacks around, I’ve found that if it doesn’t come in the house, we don’t eat it. Doesn’t mean we don’t go to a baseball game and eat a hotdog or some nachos here and there kid has been raised with good food around and it’s part of his routine. He’s traveling with his dad at the moment and he’s been texting me pics of his meals and there’s always something green on the plate. Warms my heart.

Which fruit of the month club did you choose for your grandkids? That’s a great idea.

[elleng]

2. Great work you did!

I send them Harry & David's Fruit of the Month. This month: Bing Cherries. I send the 'light' size, and will graduate to 'regular' when they grow; they're 5-6, 3-4, and 3 weeks old now!

[MontanaMama]

3. I'm going to borrow that idea...

I’m thinking what a fun thing it would be for when my son goes to college! He’s going into high school this fall so that’s only 4 years from now. 😳

[elleng]

4. Good idea!