In a conversation with Pooja Makhija, celebrity nutritionist, AKANKSHA SONI learns what methods parents can adopt to keep junk food at bay and the habits needed to inculcate healthy living among teens
Raising a family isn’t always easy. You are busy, and so are your children. There is a lot to do in little time. But the stakes are high. Today, many kids are overweight or obese. We as parents are responsible for what our child eats, but at the young grow our control over them decreases drastically. The best thing to do hence is make sure that our kids make healthy choices in their nutritional needs by themselves. The training they require for that starts at an exceptionally young age. Yet however, there are many things that an average Indian household has been making for generations and that have to stop. Some of these ageold traditions are:
Spoon feeding is a big NO-NO: The first introduction that your child receives to solid food should not be you pushing a spoonful of food in their face. Mealtimes for most children include opening their mouth chewing-swallowing and opening it again, this method is used by parents to regulate how much and what food their child intakes and is done in good faith. However a healthier option would be to lay the food in before your child for them to examine and eat, while you keep watch. This will enable the child to form a habit of knowing and actively taking part in what they are eating.
Focus on satiety over waste management: All Indian households have the concept of not wasting your food, and finishing everything on your plate. Children are taught to do that since the beginning of their food eating days. This long standing habit is the one of the leading causes of childhood obesity; do not force your child to eat after they are full. In most cases children stop giving heed to when their stomach is full because they are taught to stop eating when there plate is empty and not when their body is full. Only feed your child as much as their stomach can take, any more and you are pushing unhealthy dietary habits at them.
Nap-times are crucial: Another long standing tradition that stands in Indian households is of getting up early in the morning. And with schools starting even for pre scholars at 7-8 am getting up early is a necessity. However the completion of your child sleep schedule is of the utmost importance. Children from six-13 need nine-11 hours a sleep a day, in order for their bodies to release the right amount of hormones for their growth as well as regulatory functions. Hence the easiest thing you can do for your child is promote naps during the afternoon, in order for them to fulfill their sleep quota.
Do NOT promote picky eating: After the age of two a child can eat the food that is served to everyone else in the household, with the obvious exceptions of food with too much oil, salt or spices in it. It is important however to start feeding your child the food that everyone else eats, in order to cultivate the habit of not being choosy when it comes to his food, as no special food will be made for him since the time he starts comprehending social situations.
Change starts with you: A child will look up to his parents for every aspect of his well being, and hence his relationship with food will depend directly on your relationship with food. Hence, it is important to not promote your likes and dislikes of certain foods to strongly in front of your child, and encourage them to try and experiment with all flavors and variety of food.
Be careful of what you say: Parents should be careful of their wordings when it comes to a child’s mentality on food habits. “No desert till you eat your vegetables,” tells the innocent child that desert is a reward and vegetable are bad. This mentality will stick with the child into his adulthood, where again the same emotion will be passed onto his offspring. Instead of rewarding a child for eating his vegetable parents should find a way to make his vegetable appealing to him from the start, such as introducing new flavors to him or finding a way to communicate the importance of vegetable in a way that gels with the child.
Do NOT pin emotion to food: Phrases such as “If you finish your homework I’ll give you a chocolate” or “Stop crying and I will give you a chocolate” enables the child to turn to chocolate in times of distress, or in order to celebrate a victory for the rest of his life. If you look around there are many adults that inculcate this habit to this day. This makes an unhealthy relationship of the child with sugar and may in extreme situations lead to obesity and diabetes. You need to tell your child that food is just that, food. Food is a substance required for bodily survival not an emotional supplement.
Focus on your meal: Many households have the habit of bonding at dinner through watching TV together, as interesting as that is it distracts you and your child from knowing when your body has had enough food. Hence, distractions while meals will lead to overeating. You may also be missing a crucial time your family can bond without such distractions. Making mealtimes a stress free environment will also go a long way in the child’s nutritional development.
Everything in moderation: Forcing your child to stay away from unhealthy food, when his peers seem to enjoy fizzy drinks and pizza’s so much will tear apart the little influence you can have over your child steering away from junk food. The important thing is to let him win some battles for you to win the war. If he goes to a birthday party, let your child have sodas and cake and burgers. let him taste and experience everything. The important thing is that he learns to eat everything in moderation. Junk food every once in a few days will keep your child's craving for it under control as children always want what is denied to them. So do not deny him junk food, and he will not make junk food a priority in his palate.
Do NOT micro-manage: Many schools have a policy of providing lunch to the student’s themselves, in this case parents tend to get over infused in their children’s lives, tending to make them feel uncomfortable or conscious of their dietary choices. The best thing for parents to do is discuss the healthiest food options available to their children and their onwards, trust them to make their own decisions. The same goes for what children tend to buy from the pocket money allocated to them, since that is their money they are free to indulge in street food, or sugary snacks. The healthiest thing to do would be to motivate them to save up for something non-edible and hence promote the habit of saving.
If you have done any of the above, as undoubtedly many people have, there is no cause to worry. Children’s habits can adhere to change fairly easily. The important thing is to promote healthy nutritional habits in such a way that it doesn’t seem to be an imposition on your child, to which they will not respond well. “As a parent you are not only responsible for the kind of people your children turn out to be, but also what they eat on a day to day basis,” says celebrity nutritionist and author, Pooja Makhija at the unveiling of her second book Eat Delete Junior that is now available in the market. It also revolves around the do’s and don’ts for parents when it comes to their child’s nutrition for a more comprehensive review of the matter.