Helping You to Help Your Children

10 Top Quick Tips Healthy Eating (download below):

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1.   Be a good role model – eat healthily
2.   Limit snacking and choose healthy snacks
3.   Water with meals and always carry a water bottle
4.   Portion control
5.   'Five-a-day’ for all the family
6.   Avoid the ‘bad’ stuff – saturated fats and additives
7.   Encourage children to cook with you
8.   ‘Food is Fuel’
9.   Treats in moderation
10. Make meal times an event

1.  Be a good role model – your children copy you so eat healthily.

2.  Limit snacking and choose healthy snacks such as raisins,
fruit, yogurt or cereal bars and try to limit snacks to one in between
meals.

3.  Drink water with meals and always carry a water bottle. Some
sensibly diluted squash drinks are fine (read the label) but fizzy drinks
are only a treat (see point 10).

4.  Encourage portion control.  Some children eat more food and some children eat less.  Encourage simple wholesome foods and understanding when you are hungry and when you are full.  Consult your doctor if you are concerned.  Ideas on achieving the correct portion are in the links below.

5.  Promote ‘five-a-day’ for all the family – Run a 'five-a-day' chart for all the family.

6.  Avoid the ‘bad’ stuff – saturated fats and additives.  Swap saturated fats for unsaturated fats wherever possible.  A 230g portion of fries contains around 20g of ‘bad’ saturated fats but the same portion of potato wedges baked in olive oil has around 7g of ‘good’ unsaturated fat (thanks to She Magazine).  Be wary of foods with hyper-activity inducing additives or excessive salt (recommended salt intake for children is around 4-5g per day - Food Standards Agency).   Some fizzy drinks can bring on hyper-activity in some children. 

7.  Encourage children to cook with you – teaching them simple new dishes, perhaps with eggs, pasta...  Try to give them responsibility but teach about dangers in the kitchen such as knives, boiling water and hot hobs.   Perhaps try holiday cooking courses for children. Look online for your local area.

8.  Promote concept of ‘Food is Fuel’.  In addition to the usual mix of protein, carbs, fats and fibre, growing children need adequate minerals and vitamins and especially calcium for growing bones.  Encourage exercise in line with healthy eating.  Exercise create healthy hunger levels and a positive appreciation of food as fuel not for gorging or comfort.

9.  Allow treats in moderation. Allow treats – a little bit of what you like is good for you but in moderation and cherish the taste.  Banning everything may result in a backlash later.  For example, you may choose to allow a little sweetie or chocolate bar after dinner and a couple of fizzy drinks at the weekends.

10. Make meal times an event.  Make meals an enjoyable event.  Encourage a build up perhaps by asking the children about what they would like for dinner, ask them to help with food preparation, laying the table and make  mealtime discussions fun.

Useful Links:

Portion sizes for children:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/children/yrchild/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2308711_set-food-portion-sizes-young.html
http://www.kidsandnutrition.co.uk/correct-food-portion-sizes-for-kids.html

Five-a-day chart:
http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Documents/pdf/292140_C4L_wallchart_acc.pdf

Saturated versus unsaturated fats:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/teens/goodfatsbad/

Hyperactivity inducing additives:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/foodintolerance/foodintolerancetypes/foodadditiv/#cat520810

FAQs regarding salt, fizzy drinks, lactose etc:
http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/asksam/agesandstages/childrenandbabies/