Return to story

Teach children to eat well

January 11, 2009 12:36 am

IF YOU'VE EVER WORRIED that your picky preschooler will starve herself and stunt her growth, a new Web site may calm your nerves.

The MyPyramid for Preschoolers Web site is full of helpful tools, including interactive growth charts you can discuss with your pediatrician, calculators to figure out how much your child needs to eat to grow and sample meals. Best of all, it has parenting tips based on sound child psychology and nutrition.

These psychological tips--focusing on phrases parents should and shouldn't use at mealtimes--apply to older children, too.

You can sample the site online through the government's mypyramid.gov site. Just click on the new MyPyramid for Preschoolers link, and you'll get tons of info about nourishing kids ages 2 to 5 (mypyramid.gov already has a special section for children ages 6-11 that older children and their parents can check out).

The new site for preschoolers is full of tips to make family meals enjoyable, cope with picky eaters, introduce new foods and get young children to help in the kitchen. The site also includes behavioral milestones related to eating.

There are strategies for making food fun to eat, such as transforming half of a small baked potato into a "potato pal" smiley face with peas for eyes, a cherry-tomato nose and a cheese-wedge smile. Another clever trick is the "bagel snake"--check the site for details on how to transform a mini bagel into a snake with only two cuts of a knife and some colorful toppings.

WORDS OF WISDOM

My very favorite part of the site, though, is more psychological.

"This is where the rubber meets the road," raved Brian Wansink, the head of the federal Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, at the American Dietetic Association's packed convention in Chicago last fall. "It tells me what phrases I've been saying wrong with my little girls all these years. It's changed what I do every day with my little preschooler girls."

The feature Wansink was so excited about is a Web page called "Phrases that Help and Hinder" (see the box on the front of Healthy Living for the Web address).

I agree that this is the gem of the entire site. It shows parents how to gently take action without creating power struggles.

The advice, Wansink said, is based on research done at the University of Idaho and by other experts in child psychology, nutrition and obesity. It advises against telling a child "Eat that for me" or "If you do not eat one more bite, I will be mad."

These words "teach your child to eat for your approval and love. This can lead your child to have unhealthy behaviors, attitudes and beliefs about food and about themselves."

Instead, try helpful phrases such as: "This is kiwi fruit; it's sweet like a strawberry" or "These radishes are very crunchy!" Talking about tastes and textures encourage your child to try new foods with less pressure.

'ONE MORE BITE'

Another phrase that hinders is pressuring a child to eat by saying something like "You have to take one more bite before you leave the table."

The site explains: "Phrases like these teach your child to ignore fullness. It is better for kids to stop eating when full or satisfied than when all of the food has been eaten."

As a dietitian, I teach that one key to preventing children from becoming overweight is paying attention to their bodies rather than blindly cleaning the plate.

The site suggests saying something like "Is your stomach telling you that you're full? Has your tummy had enough?"

Other great ideas include avoiding saying "No dessert until you eat your vegetables." Instead, try: "We can try these vegetables again another time. Next time would you like to try them raw instead of cooked?"

It may sound backward coming from a dietitian who is trying to get kids to eat their vegetables, but I wholly agree with this approach. Holding dessert hostage with a vegetable ransom just teaches kids that vegetables are a punishment. I do think it's important, though, to limit the serving size of desserts reasonably.

Back to the Web site-- I appreciate that it also broaches rewards. Just as it's not good to use vegetables as punishment, don't use food as a reward, either. For example, saying "Stop crying and I will give you a cookie" teaches upset children to calm themselves with food. That can lead to overeating later on.

Instead, consider saying: "I am sorry you are sad. Come here and let me give you a big hug," the site advises. Love is more powerful than cookies anyway.

If you are cringing about all the times you've bribed a child with ice cream, relax. It's never too late to shift gears and start talking about food differently.

MORE TOOLS

This month, the site is supposed to launch a "cost of raising a child calculator," Wansink said.

"It will tell you how much money the nutritional gatekeeper needs to set aside at the beginning of the month so there will be healthy food for the child to eat," Wansink said. "So they won't be eating hot dogs at the end of the month because that's all that's left."

Already, the site addresses exercise for tots, listing age-appropriate activities families can do inside and out. "We all know preschoolers are not going to do 30 minutes on the treadmill," Wansink said.

Preschoolers are full of energy and fun, and so is this colorful site. Parents may be happily surprised with how much easier it can be to convince children to eat well by changing a few phrases.

Jennifer Motl welcomes reader questions via her Web site, brighteat ing.com, or mailed to Nutrition, The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.