As a parent or caregiver, you can play an important role in helping your children develop healthy eating habits. The family environment you create around meals, and the types of foods you offer your children can have a big impact on their future relationship with food. Creating positive experiences with food early on may help your children build healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.

How does family influence food habits?

Parents have a key role to play in their children's eating habits, both through the genes they pass down and the environment they provide. By making some foods more available than others, and by behaving in a certain way around food, parents can shape their children's developing preferences and eating habits.

As a parent, your diet can influence the amount of junk food you provide your children in a typical week. In turn, this can influence your child's preference for sugar, fat, and salt. Regularly providing junk food to children aged three to five can influence their preferences for the same tastes and make them less willing to eat vegetables. On the other hand, parents who have a lower preference for such food items and who are open to developing self-control tend to limit the amount of junk food they provide to their children.

How to create a positive eating environment

When it comes to feeding their children, it is important for parents to adopt a positive parenting approach. This set of specific styles and behaviors allows parents to get their children to eat healthily in a calm and relaxed environment. Creating a positive eating environment in your home can be done in a few ways:

#1 Have a consistent meal schedule

It's important to have regular meal and snack times throughout the day to create a healthy routine. If children snack right before meals or drink milk or other beverages instead of waiting until mealtime, they may not be hungry when it's time to eat. This can impact the foods they choose to eat at mealtime. Try to offer a meal or snack every 2 to 3 hours during the day. If your child says they are hungry before the scheduled meal or snack, offer nutritious foods like cut-up veggies or fruit, yogurt, smoothies, and soups.

#2 Eat together whenever possible

Mealtime with family can provide an opportunity to gather and enjoy nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It’s also a time to relax, build relationships, and develop skills. Studies have shown that children who eat with their families tend to make healthier food choices and have healthier body weights. Family meals also offer many other benefits, like increased vocabulary in young children and decreased risk for substance abuse in teenagers. With busy schedules, it can be difficult to plan family meals. Try planning a few family meals each week, like on weekends, when you have more time.

#3 Don’t use food to punish or reward

Encouraging children to eat healthy foods should not be tied with rewards or punishments. When children feel like they are being coerced into eating certain foods, it can lead to them developing unhealthy eating habits. Instead, offer a variety of healthy foods at meal times and let them serve themselves. It's also important not to label certain foods as "good" or "bad." This can create stigmatization around certain foods that can influence a child's relationship with food.

#4 Teach them portion control

As parents, we know that our kids need to follow a balanced diet that includes all major food groups. However, portion size is just as important as having a variety of healthy foods. If we're not careful, our kids can end up over-eating. Unhealthy portion sizes are closely linked to childhood obesity and a number of other health-related problems. Eating nutritious foods in moderation may help lower the risk of our children having these health complications in the future.

#5 Make healthy snacks the “normal”

Model healthy eating habits for your children by enjoying nutritious foods daily, such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and protein-rich items like beans, nuts, seeds, tofu, eggs, fish, lean meats, yogurt, and milk. Your kids are more likely to follow your lead when it comes to meals if they see you enjoying these healthy items.

According to experts, by exploring your own beliefs about self-control and making some adjustments where necessary, you can help improve your children’s diets in a way that benefits their overall health. Making small changes in your own eating habits can set a good example for your children and encourage them to develop healthy eating habits of their own. Ultimately, by creating a positive eating environment, you can have a lasting impact on your children’s health.

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