by Kayla Griffin

Created on: January 30, 2009

Lets examine this statement for a moment, "how to teach a child to avoid junk food". In the dictionary the word avoid is defined as "to keep away from; keep clear of; shun: to avoid a person; to avoid taxes; to avoid danger." Taking this definition in for a moment, is this really what we want to teach our children about junk food.

Yes junk food is unhealthy for our children and as parents we want to keep them as healthy as possible. We also as parents want to teach our children other things such as setting goals, self restraint, healthy eating habits, and how to make good choices on their own. Junk food is unhealthy but it is not deadly. And it presents us with a perfect opportunity to teach our children all of these things.

With a young child we should absolutely limit the amount of junk food our children consume. At this age they are not able to make choices, and they don't know about these kinds of food, they prefer the food we offer. By limiting the amount of junk food they consume when they are very young, we then eliminate the want for those foods as they get older.

However as your child starts growing up and realizes that they really like these foods they will start to ask for them. This is when many parents create the problem by giving into their demands. Once children eat these foods more often, they want to eat healthy foods less and more junk foods. This is when junk food can become dangerous to your child's health, this is what we should be avoiding not the junk food itself.

By keeping healthy foods as choices for snacks, serving them at all meals, and not offering the junk food often (ex- only as a treat, or on special occasions) we are instilling healthy eating habits in our children. When they are young this is very easy for us to control. Most importantly it will greatly help us as they grow and become more independent and vocal about what they want to eat.

As are children get older, rather then teach our children to avoid junk food we can use junk food as a tool to teach our children about why we need to make healthy food choices. We can teach our children about different types of food, and their nutritional value. Why we need to eat more of some foods and less of others, and what the foods help with in our body. Why unhealthy foods are unhealthy and what they can do to our body. We can teach them that it is OK to enjoy junk food occasionally, but it offers no nutritional value so it can be dangerous if consumed often.

If we make junk food taboo in our households, when our children do become old enough and have more independence in their foods choices, they will choose the foods that they are not allowed to have at home. They wont understand why they cant have these foods, all they will understand is they taste good.

We don't need to teach our children to "avoid" junk food, we need to teach them to only eat it in moderation. We need to teach them this so they will be able to make these responsible choices on their own. We cannot always control our children's choices but we can give them the information and help they need to make a responsible choice on their own later in life.

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