How To Instill Good Diet Habits in Your Children

Good Diet Habits Are Crucial

Getting your kids to eat a healthy diet is challenging enough if you’re simply forcing the decision on them at home. However, developing your children into the type of young adults that will make the right choices in their diet on their own is an even greater task. It’s also a much more important one. In other words, developing good diet habits is crucial. And the younger you start, the better.

After all, you can’t be there forever to guide your kids in making the right choices. They need to adopt good habits on their own and decide to use them even when they could get away with abandoning them altogether. This is why it is important to not only push your kids to eat healthily but also to get them to understand why eating healthy is important. City Dental Kids & Braces offers some tips here!

Promote Your Children to Live an Active Lifestyle

With videos games and television making it easy for kids to live a sedentary lifestyle, junk food makes its way in quite easily. It’s not hard to fill up on chips, sodas, and other unhealthy snacks when you’re not doing anything other than sitting there.

Ever witness your child request a soda instead of a healthy drink or water when they are sitting down in front of the tv? Send them outside for a run or a bike ride. Now offer them water. See how much more receptive they are to something good for them when they are active and engaged?

This works for food as well. Children are just more receptive to foods and drinks that actually give them energy or hydration when they are really putting their bodies to work, and that can include playing too! Guiding them into choosing good diet habits from a young age is actually easier than you might think. But it’s up to you. If you don’t make the effort, don’t expect them to magically know how to do it.

Have Your Kids Help Prepare Meals

When cooking a particularly healthy meal, have your child participate in the preparation of the meal. You may have a future chef in your house and not even know it! Kids love helping to prepare meals. It gives them a sense of responsibility and pride. It also is a great opportunity to teach them about how to eat healthy.

There are lots of resources for healthy meals you can prepare with your kids online. Adults also need to remember that foods that are fun to make can also be healthy to eat. Take advantage of every opportunity you can to teach your child how to be healthy.

Don’t Force Foods On Your Kids

This one is a tricky one because most of us have had an encounter with a picky eater in our lives, whether it be our own child or someone else’s. Picky eaters can be grown adults too! We all know how difficult it is to make a picky eater eat when they don’t want to eat. The fact is, however, you may be doing more harm than good by trying to force a child to eat something they don’t want to eat.

Why? If a child doesn’t like broccoli, you’re not going to make them like broccoli by forcing them to eat it or not letting them leave the table until they finish their plate. You’re only reinforcing their dislike of the food by making it an issue every time it is chosen for dinner time.

A better idea is to choose different vegetables your kids like within reason, or find other ways to prepare the same vegetables. This can be a cooking opportunity together as well!

Keep in mind that there are some kids who convince themselves they hate all vegetables and will not eat them simply out of spite. There obviously is a time and place to know when a child just doesn’t like a particular vegetable and when they are being unnecessarily difficult. You’ll know the difference!

Limit Television

Beyond just promoting an active lifestyle, limit your child’s exposure to television for other potential negative consequences. Besides the possibility of exposure to violence or unsavory content, as television contains plenty of that, you may be sparing them advertisements pushing unhealthy foods and drinks.

There have been many studies performed on how television advertisements impact children’s diets. In virtually every major study, television ads were shown to have a negative impact on the eating habits of children. This includes making kids eat more than they otherwise would and craving more unhealthy foods and snacks.

Always be mindful of what your children watch. Commercials for unhealthy foods that do not promote good diet habits are all over TV and YouTube videos. Trust us. It makes a difference and doing so can have a profound impact on their diets!

Keep Your Child’s Smile Shining Bright!

Welcome to City Dental Kids, your family’s favorite children’s dental office in West Covina, California. We’re a family-friendly dental office designed with kids in mind. At City Dental Kids & Braces, we make your child’s dental appointment a fun and inviting experience, all while providing the dental services your child needs to maintain a healthy smile!

Our pediatric dental staff is specially trained to treat infants, children, preteens, and teens. And of course, children with special needs are well-taken care of at our child-friendly dental practice. After all, everyone deserves the level of care that they deserve. We even offer Care Credit financing options and accept California Medi-Cal insurance.

End dental fears and break out the fun! City Dental Kids in West Covina is now accepting new patients and new appointments. If you’re ready for the best children’s dentist experience in Southern California, contact us. You can schedule your appointment on this site or call us at (626) 962-1700 to book your appointment. We can’t wait to show you just how smooth and enjoyable going to the dentist can be!