Kids Eat Right Month: Tips to Communicate to Parents
August marks the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ 6th Annual Kids Eat Right Month–a movement encouraging dietitians to share healthful eating messages geared towards helping families adopt nutritious eating habits.1 With the rate of childhood obesity now reaching 18.5% in the United States, these efforts are now more important than ever.2
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In recognition of Kids Eat Right Month, Nutrition411 spoke with Kristen Smith, RD, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, who named several strategies dietitians can share with parents when it comes to family meals, picky eating, and helping children form a healthy relationship with food.
1. Family meals are important. Eating meals together as a family can typically result in healthier food choices and can help encourage children to try new foods, says Smith. Research indicates that when families eats together, the food served is typically more nutrient-dense.3 Family meals can also help reduce children’s risk for overweight, obesity, and eating disorders.3
Other benefits of serving meals family-style is its ability to help children outgrow picky eating habits and teach them how to understand and regulate hunger cues, Smith explained.
2. Children should not be forced to try new foods, Smith emphasized. “Dietitians should remind parents to take control of the what, the when, and the where of the meal, but to let their children determine whether they will eat the food served and the amount that they want to consume,” she said.
Although hesitance towards trying new foods can vary from child to child, vegetables are typically among the food groups that children tend to avoid the most. When it comes to vegetables, it is important to involve children in the preparation method and to excite them about vegetables and their health benefits, Smith explained.
3. Picky eating is a phase that can be overcome. Typically, repeat exposures and creative offerings can be helpful in overcoming children’s picky eating habits. Creative offerings, according to Smith, can include adding a healthful dipping sauce, cutting food into fun shapes, and presenting foods on an exciting dish.
Because it can take anywhere from months to years to help children overcome picky eating habits, it is important for dietitians to remind parents to be persistent and not to feel discouraged, because picky eating is very common. Persistence, mindfulness of each child’s behaviors, and continuing to offer fruits and vegetables are all helpful strategies, said Smith.
4. The use of food as a reward should be avoided, but it is also important not to restrict or avoid food groups such as dessert, Smith said. “A lot of parents ask about whether to avoid offering their kids dessert or other less nutritious foods, and I like remind them that this practice is not very helpful in teaching kids that all foods can fit into a balanced diet,” she explained.
Perhaps parents may not want to serve dessert on a daily basis, but it is important to remind them to avoid restricting food groups in order to help children form a healthy relationship with food for the long haul, said Smith.
—Christina Vogt
References:
1. In August: Academy celebrates sixth annual Kids Eat Right Month™ (press release). Chicago, IL. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. July 17, 2019. https://www.eatrightpro.org/media/press-releases/kids-eat-right-month/sixth-annual-kids-eat-right-month. Accessed August 19, 2019.
2. Childhood obesity facts. Overweight & obesity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html. Updated June 24, 2019. Accessed August 19, 2019.
3. Hammons AH, Fiese BH. Is frequency of shared family meals related to the nutritional health of children and adolescents? Pediatrics. 2011;127(6). doi:10.1542/peds.2010-1440.