By Elizabeth Beaumont
TIC Food Technology
Healthy eating habits are developed in childhood and consolidated in adolescence. Developing a healthy relationship with food can provide enjoyment, social experiences and long term benefits to overall health.
Some simple things you can do to help your child develop a healthy relationship with food are listed below:
- Model a healthy relationship with food yourself. Talk about food in a positive way as children quickly pick up negative attitudes around food.
- Try to eat a wide range of foods and promote consumption of seasonal foods through family meals.
- Promote healthy food choices over less healthy foods eg: Home cooked food instead of takeaways
- Teach your child conscious control, this involves making decisions about food for a genuine reason such as hunger, energy requirements, health reasons, environmental reasons.
- No food is BAD, it is just the proportions or frequency that we consume them that can impact negatively. Discuss the value of nutritious food in providing the building material for growth, repair of cells and energy to move.
- Provide plenty of opportunities for your child to make healthy choices – have vegetables and fruit available, buy ingredients to make lunches and snacks, provide containers to take leftovers to school to heat up or eat cold.
- Not feeling hungry or feeling ravenous are normal for children, adolescents and adults at various times. If it is impacting on your child’s mental or physical health seek professional support as it could be a sign of something more complex.