Georgia parents have biggie-sized their kids, and that’s no joke. Almost 50% of the kids in Georgia are overweight & obese. Fifty percent. That means half of our kids are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, psychological problems, bullying and more.
As I’ve mentioned before, the effort to fight childhood obesity begins at home. Parents have enormous influence over their children’s lifestyles by the example they set and the decisions they make. By modeling healthy eating and physically active lifestyles, we can set our children on the road to a lifetime of good habits.
No one agrees with this more than me, and this week’s Channel 2 news special did a pretty awesome job of focusing on the role parents play, BUT I do have one tiny issue with what one of the experts said. Bear with me because I’m not tech-wizzard, but fast-forward this video to 16:50, and take a look for yourself (sorry for the commercial!):
While giving ideas for how to get your kids to eat more vegetables, she said we should mix veggies in with our kids’ favorite foods – like adding broccoli into macaroni & cheese. I was eating dinner while watching the report, and this comment made me spontaneously laugh (and therefore snort water up my nose).
The only people who give advice like that are (1) people who don’t have little kids and (2) people who had kids so long ago that they’ve forgotten what happens when you mess with a kid’s mac & cheese by introducing green stuff into it.
I’m all for getting kids to eat more vegetables. In fact, I spend an inordinate amount of my day trying to maneuver them into my kids’ mouths without inciting a mutiny at the kitchen table. However, I have learned that you actually can’t force kids to eat something that they don’t want. And even if you can…you should not.
According to Ellyn Satter (She’s a rockstar childhood feeding expert), parents are responsible for what, when, and where kids eat; the child is responsible for how much they eat and whether they eat something. She goes on to give this list of job responsibilities for parents:
- Choose and prepare the food
- Provide regular meals and snacks
- Make eating times pleasant
- Show children what they have to learn about food and mealtime behavior
- Not let children graze for food or beverages between meal and snack times
- Let children grow up to get bodies that are right for them
Doing your job well, as a parent, requires you to shut up, move out of the way, and trust kids to do their job:
- Children will eat
- They will eat the amount they need
- They will learn to eat the food their parents eat
- They will grow predictably
- They will learn to behave well at the table
In my household, these fundamentals manifest themselves in me providing an array of healthy foods, presented consistently, with no pressure or expectation that my kids will or will not eat any of it on a given day. It does not, however, lead to me booby-trapping their favorite foods in an effort to force them to eat what I know they should be having.
Now don’t get me wrong…
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t put broccoli in your kid’s mac & cheese. If they will eat it…more power to ya! I’m just saying that they probably won’t. In fact, if your kids are anything like mine, they will be seriously peeved. And as I recently heard a school nutrition director say, “A healthy garbage can will not do your kids any good.”
Offer lots of fruits & veggies…every day…at every meal. Sometimes they will eat what you serve and sometimes they won’t. It’s okay. Keep doing it. Over and over and over again. As she said in the clip, it sometimes takes TWENTY EXPOSURES. Just don’t give up. It will work. I promise.
