Lou Hampers: How To Ensure Good Eating Habits In Your Children
Whether you’re a parent or not, you must understand the importance of good eating habits for your child. You must ensure that your children develop healthy eating habits – otherwise, it can leave them at risk for developing serious health problems like diabetes and heart disease later in life.
Good eating habits start with making sure that kids eat proper portions at each meal time as well as snacks throughout the day. Keep reading so that you can learn from pediatrician Lou Hampers how you can ensure good and healthy eating habits for your child.
Be A Healthy Example To Your Child
First of all, if you want your child to have good and healthy eating habits early on, then you must be a good and healthy example as a parent.
If they see you eating junk food and drinking alcohol in front of them, they will think it’s okay for them to eat and drink the same things, too. In addition, if you smoke cigarettes or marijuana around your children, this can lead to them starting these habits early as well.
Give Your Kids A Wide Variety Of Healthy Foods
As your child grows, they must develop good and healthy eating habits. You want them to be able to make healthy choices for themselves and others, but this does not happen overnight.
In this case, the best way for you to encourage healthy and good eating habits in your children is by providing them with a wide variety of healthy foods and letting them try new foods that are good for them.
Also, you shouldn’t force your children to eat something they don’t like or make food into a reward or punishment system. If they are against certain foods because they don’t like the taste, keep trying until they find a food that works better than others do.
Learn To Cook New Healthy Foods
While it’s important to get your kids involved in cooking and eating healthy food, it can be difficult for many parents to teach their children how to cook. If you don’t know how to cook, you can ask a friend or family member who does know how to cook healthy foods for help.
Other than that, you can take cooking classes at your local community college or online to learn healthy food preparation. Lastly, you may hire someone who already knows how to cook healthy foods and has experience teaching others how.
Don’t Expect Perfection In Healthy Eating, But Ensure Improvement In Your Child’s Diet
To ensure that your children eat a healthy and well-rounded diet, you should be patient with them at all times. They are learning to eat new foods all the time, so don’t expect perfection from them. Instead, focus on improvement instead of perfection.
If you find yourself getting frustrated by your child’s lack of progress in learning to eat a healthier diet or if they seem unwilling to try new foods, Lou Hampers recommends that you take a step back and think about what might be causing this problem.
Upon doing so, talk about these healthy eating issues with your children and try coming up with ways for everyone involved (including yourself) to have better eating habits together as a family unit, rather than just focusing on one person’s basic needs at any given time.
