Getting your child to eat healthy is hard in that the way in which it needs to be accomplished is completely and utterly the opposite way in which a majority of humans were brought up and continued to eat.

How many of you learned that you needed to clear you plate because "there is starving kids in Africa"? As far as I've ever seen back as far as my parents time to today, it is extremely uncommon for a mother not to tell her child that the child must clear his or her plate. In some cases, a reward is offered, such as dessert. In others, children aren't even allowed to be "excused" from the table until they have finished.

This probably stems back from the depression or World War II when people simply did not have enough food. Now that there is enough available, it has continued to go through generations that children are lucky to have food on the table- therefore they should finish it. Food should not go uneaten. Not giving a child a choice is also common- they are simply fortunate to have the food.

Also, parents most likely feel that if they have cooked a meal pulling in the right portions from the right food groups, they are assuring that their children consume the correct nutrition. It is hard to blame a parent for trying to do what they assume to be so good. Again, this is another reason not to offer children choices- parent's "know what's best".

Upon taking a closer look, teaching a child to clear his or her plate and demanding that they eat whatever is cooked is the complete wrong way to go about teaching a child to eat healthy. In the future this will translate into, "I must eat whatever is in front me whether I like it or not" and, it also will teach the child to grow into an adult who is not able to eat only until they are full, they have not be trained to learn when they are full, instead they eat until they are finished. This is a common problem in America today.

So what can be done to teach a child to eat healthy? It is said that children are born intuitively knowing what they need to eat and how much of it. Therefore, when children are refusing food, don't force it on them- it means that they really are, in fact, full. By using this method children will growing up knowing their bodies, and only eating when they are hungry, and stopping when they are full.

Also- if a child refuses a certain type of food, it probably means that their body does not need that specific food right now. If they are asking for meat, they may need protein, if they are asking for fish, they may need omega-3s, if they are asking for broccoli, they may need fiber. If the child asks for a cookie, don't hold the cookie back. Keep in mind, he or she will only eat what he or she wants, when he or she wants it- and no more.

Children are born with healthy eating skills, it is the skills we are taught that make us become unhealthy eaters. Instead of forcing your child to eat things he or she doesn't want in large amounts, let your child eat what he or she wants to his or her satisfaction, he might be surprised just how healthy your child's eating habits become!

Learn more about this author, Meagan Ratcliff.
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