November 2012 A Family Affair

November Blog 2012

A Family Affair

Life is so much easier when the healthy lifestyle becomes a family affair.  How much easier would it be if everyone in the family was on the same page and chose to eat healthy and be more active?  This can start with you.  Someone needs to be the person who turns things around.  Whether you are the mother, father or child you can be the one to influence the other family members in a positive way.

I can’t tell you how many times I have had mothers come in and break down because they just can’t do it anymore.  They can’t make different meals for three- four different people.  They can’t deal with the fighting to get their kids to eat better.  I have even had parents who eat in a different room because they the stress at dinner time is just too much.  I can’t tell you how many parents wait to eat until the children have left the table.  Meal time should not be a stressful time of day. 

I wanted to use this blog to talk about getting your kids to eat healthy because this can make your life less stressful and easier to eat healthy yourself.  I have spent many, many years teaching parents and children to improve their diets.  I recently presented to a mother’s group in Norwood.  My topic was packing healthy lunches and getting your picky kids to eat better.  As I was presenting, I realized that many of the same suggestions for children can easily be used for adults. 

A big problem for both adults and children is not being open to a variety of foods and/or textures.  This problem for adults often begins in childhood.  Unfortunately, life is temporarily easier when you just give in to nightly requests of pasta, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets and hot dogs.  Unfortunately, I see many of these food habits continuing into adulthood.  I have many patients who describe themselves as “liking only kids’ foods.” It is never too late to change.  Here are some suggestions to get kids (and adults) to try new foods.

• Make food fun.  Put anything on a stick such as meats, fruits and/or vegetables.  Cut foods into shapes.  Make cute designs or encourage kids to create their own designs (like a flower) out of their foods.  If you are an adult with a band you need to be careful with this one and not take too big a bite.  Always better to eat with utensils with a band. 
• BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!!!!!!!
• Get cooking.  Teach kids to cook at any age.  They can start by washing foods, preparing foods and eventually cutting fruit & vegetables and cooking foods.  My 9 and 11 year old now have cooking competitions where they look up recipes on the internet, we go shopping and they buy their ingredients and then they have to compete for the best recipe!  This is a great rainy day activity for the older kids… and I don’t have to cook that day!!!!
• Pair the foods they do like with something new.  For example, if they will eat pasta, pair it with a new vegetable and/or source of protein. 
• BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!!!!!!!
• Add new foods in very small amounts and hopefully they’ll ask for more. 
• Offer new foods repeated times.  It takes at least 10 offerings before a child (or adult) will take to a new food.  My daughter refused salad for the longest time, but we continued to put a tiny salad in front of her while the rest of us had larger servings.  She eventually accepted the salad and eats as much as the rest of us do now. 
• DO NOT prepare alternative meals.  The kids will not starve.  They will eventually eat the healthier food that is offered. 
• Take the kids to the market and let them pick out a new and different fruit or vegetable each week.
• BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!!!!!!!
• Prepare a menu together with the kids for either a meal or a week if they have the patience.   Ask their input.  Look up recipes together.
• Let the kids help you with cooking.  This is more stress at first, but believe me that this will eventually be helpful for you. 
• BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!!!!!!!
• Teach your kids about nutrition.  Teach them the food groups.  My daughter often asks “what can I eat for my protein this morning?”  Teach them to read labels too.  I use to send my kids to the cereal aisle and tell them they can pick any cereal with 6 grams of sugar or less. 
• Ask kids to be creative and develop a new snack from a few suggested ingredients.
• BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!!!!!!!
• Don’t let kids fill up on snacks and drinks before a meal.  Keep your kids on a regular meal schedule 4-5 hours apart.  Healthy snacks are OK for kids because their stomachs are so small they can’t eat a lot at meal times.   Avoid caloric drinks.  Kids should drink milk with meals, but besides that, they should be drinking water.  Kids 1-2 years old need whole milk and after age two, they can cut back to fat free if they are growing adequately.  Kids should not drink beverages made with sugar substitutes.  If they like soda, try replacing with flavored seltzer (without sugar subs such as Polar)
• If your child is not a big veggie eater, put some veggies out on the table while preparing dinner.  They will nibble on this while you cook and they’ll get a good serving of veggies.
• BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL!!!!!!!!!  See the pattern here? 

Below is a guideline I shared with the mom’s group regarding the nutritional needs of children:

Nutrition Guidelines for Children

*Note: One cup of milk or fortified orange juice is 300 mg calcium, 1 cup of yogurt equals 200-250 mg and a slice of cheese equals about 150.  Dark green leafy veggies like kale & spinach and broccoli are great serving of calcium as well.  These are just a few examples. 

Have a great Thanksgiving!   Eat a balanced diet and keep up that exercise too!   Jane

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me, Jane Sylvestre,  at 508-668-4400 or e-mail me at janesylvestre@massweightloss.com.  If you need to learn more about nutrition yourself I will be offering a new 6-week nutrition class in January.  Details to follow.