How to stop passing unhealthy food habits to kids?

First of all, parenting is a brutal business, so don't spend too much time in regret.

I have struggled with my weight most of my life, but I raised two children of normal weight and with healthy attitudes towards food.

I posted the Canada Food Guide on the refrigerator and worked to follow it most of the time.

Healthy options were always available.

I taught my children and my grandchild to cook, and home cooking is a recreation we all enjoy.

I didn't banish any foods.

Even though I tried cooking from scratch most of the time, my children listed their top favourite foods to be KFC and Kraft dinner. They got over it.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Despite my various issues with weight, I was never overweight into well into adulthood and what I think helped and makes it easy for me now is that we always ate pretty sensibly -- balanced meals, vegetables, dinners out or pizza as a special treat not an every day thing. Soda wasn't an every day kind of drink, desserts were appropriately sized (or a special occasion thing). I also learned to cook some as a kid, although I really learned when out on my own in my 20s, but it wasn't a scary or new thing to me.

I would have thought this was commonplace, but from many posts on MFP it seems it's maybe not, so I think just modeling what a sensible meal contains, in a bunch of different ways, and without seeming neurotic about it (going overboard in being restrictive or eating only stuff you think of as super healthy, etc.).

I would be as casual as possible about the weighing and just say that it helps you understand serving sizes, if asked, and I definitely wouldn't act stressed about eating food you couldn't weigh. I weigh stuff when I'm cooking or plating in the kitchen, so depending on the set up it might not even be super noticeable although I wouldn't hide it.

This, except I wouldn't be vague. I would explain to them the reason you use a scale is to teach yourself correct portion sizes and that it's a kitchen tool just like a measuring spoon or cup. And definitely teach them to cook!

I have 3 little boys; 7, 5 and 2 years old. All of my kids are normal weight, all are active.

What I tell them is that they need to listen to their bodies and stop when they feel full. The leftovers are usually given to the animals. I like giving our chickens leftovers because it doesn't feel wasted, they turn it into eggs for us.

We have no restricted foods but we do have limited foods. They can have one cookie, not five. They can have a half a cup of ice cream, not a cup and a half. They get lots of treats in small portions (really what I consider proportionate to their body size). They've never snuck food and never binged when faced with a buffet style situation like at a party.

My parents, especially my mother, had weird unhealthy attitudes toward food so I am pretty easy breezy with my kids about it. I don't engage in food battles. If I serve something that they reject there's always the option of a PB sandwich or PB and apples or something. I keep reintroducing stuff though even though they may claim to not like it. If they don't eat it, fine. Maybe next time.

My 7 year old does taekwondo and is actually pretty interested in sports nutrition. He likes the idea of eating to fuel his body. I've told him what macronutrients are and what they do, he's always asking what things are made of. "Mom is this salami just protein or protein and fat?" etc.

All three of them love to help me cook and bake and follow recipes. It's important to me that they learn how to cook.

I was raised as a member of the clean plate club. I've been trying to teach my children to listen to their bodies and stop eating when they are satisfied, not when their plates are clean.

We've never restricted foods, but we do control portions. Healthy snacks are always abundantly available whenever the kids are hungry. Less-nutritious snacks are also often available, but in moderation.

Most cooking is done from scratch with fresh ingredients and everyone eats the same meal together. We have never allowed our children to be picky eaters and have always regularly reintroduced foods that they have rejected. If there is a vegetable served at a meal that a particular child does not want, they are required to take one small bite. There are always vegetables/fruits served at each meal that I know everyone likes, as well. I have also accepted that there are just some foods they will never like (we all have those foods), and they don't have to eat them.

lakshva wrote: »

I didn't mean restricting kids from having any food. But how do you think we can teach kids to have a healthy relationship with food? At times I wonder if watching me measuring each and every food can have a reverse impact on kids!! What are those habits which you feel you could have learned bit earlier?

What I have done is discuss nutrition with my dd. There are books and web sites for kids on this topic. We have discussed what kinds of foods our bodies need and why. We don't call food junk or unhealthy.
I don't force dd to eat foods she hates. I ask her to try things and provide a variety of foods but we aren't going to battle over food. I encourage dd to think about her choices and try to have a balance of foods. If she is skipping whole food groups in favor of one kind of food I might remind her to choose a food with some protein or something else now.
We keep fruit out on the counter and put other food away.
We don't buy a bunch of drinks.
We eat food prepared at home most of the time. We've discussed the cost of food we prepare from ingredients vs pre-made or restaurant meals. We do eat out sometimes but it isn't cheaper.
I encourage dd not to eat out of containers but portion food out. I think being aware of reasonable portion sizes is good. I don't think seeing a parent weigh and measure food is going to negatively impact kids unless the parent is negative about doing it. I would think younger kids might find it interesting or fun to see how much food weighs.
Recently we've talked more about how people of different sizes and activity levels need a different amount of calories and not judging others by what is on their plate or in their cart.

IMO it doesn't matter. Kids that can eat whatever they want when they want might end up fat (like me). Kids whose parents insist on healthier snacks might end up binging when they move out and get fat... It's a crapshoot. Do the best you can...

She still eats really healthy stuff. If it was up to her, she would eat 100 bananas, apples and pears all day every day. I'm not too worried about it yet, she's still really thin. We just will forget that she has a tiny stomach sometimes, I think

I like Ellen Sattler's division of responsibility...also raising healthy eaters is a great blog for parents!

Raised by the empty plate club, too. When I was six I refused to eat the peas. Canned peas. Boiled long enough to be sterile. And the color of army green. And shrivelled. Mom recalls I won that argument. All I can remember is spending an eternity sitting in the kitchen alone with those peas.

Kimegatron wrote: »

The clean plate club is the reason I HAD TO FINISH everything on my plate in any setting. I have eaten until I could be sick my entire life. It's something my parents regret, I think, and I'm not going to do that to my kid. Sometimes she will eat her fruit first, and only want a few bites of her sandwich.

Well, it depends. I make my kids finish their plates, but I don't give them much food, and they say that they are hungry and want dessert 30 minutes later, so... you bet they're going to finish their plates first...

As I said though, we all blame our parents - either they restricted too much, or they let you eat everything you wanted like mine... I'm starting to think that it just depends on the kids in the end - some kids will naturally stop eating when they're not hungry, some won't stop until they're stuffed because they just really love food. My kids say no to dessert or don't finish it sometimes - that would have NEVER happened with me. I was talking to my mom about how my kids get crazy sometimes when we eat out and she said that never happened to us because we loved eating too much.

So IMO it really mostly depends on the kids, so again, it's really a crapshoot.