Table of Contents
- Overview
- Prevention
- Images
TEACH HEALTHY EATING HABITS
Teaching healthy eating practices early will help children approach eating with the right attitude: that food should be enjoyed and is necessary for growth, development, and for energy to keep the body running. Offer your children healthy options, and allow them to choose what and how much they eat.
Do not place your child on a restrictive diet to lose weight, unless a doctor supervises one for medical reasons. Limiting what children eat may be harmful to their health and interfere with their growth and development.
Guide their choices rather than dictate foods. Make a wide variety of healthful foods available in the house. This practice will help your children learn how to make healthy food choices.
Parents should offer the whole family a wide variety of foods from each of the food groups.
Most of the foods in your diet should come from the grain products group (6-11 servings), the vegetable group (3-5 servings), and the fruit group (2-4 servings).
Your diet should include moderate amounts of foods from the milk group (2-3 servings) and the meat and beans group (2-3 servings).
Foods that provide few nutrients and are high in fat and sugars should be used sparingly. Fat should not be restricted in the diets of children younger than 2 years of age.
Serving sizes are for children and adults ages 2 years and older. A range of servings is given for each food group. The smaller number is for children who consume about 1,300 calories a day, such as 2-4 years of age. The larger number is for those who consume about 3,000 calories a day, such as boys 15-18 years of age.
CUT DOWN ON FAT
Reducing fat is a good way to cut calories without depriving your child of nutrients. Simple ways to cut the fat in your family's diet include eating lowfat or nonfat dairy products, poultry without skin and lean meats, and lowfat or fat-free breads and cereals.
Making small changes to the amount of fat in your family's diet is a good way to prevent excess weight gain in children: however, major efforts to change your child's diet should be supervised by a health professional.
In addition, fat should not be restricted in the diets of children younger than 2 years of age. After that age, children should gradually adopt a diet that contains no more than 30 percent of calories from fat by the time the child is about 5 years old.
Encourage your child to eat slowly. A child can detect hunger and fullness better when eating slowly.
Images
Review Date: 10/01/2009
Reviewed By: David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc., and Neil K.
Kaneshiro, MD, MHA, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics,
University of Washington School of Medicine.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
