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Our main message in this section
is to tell families that the best advice when it comes to nutrition
is to be sure that their children eat healthy. Advising healthy
eating habits and eating healthy foods is what matters and what
the child carries throughout his life.
In plain language, the family
needs to be sure that their child has adequate nutrition to grow
and not to be concerned about telling the child what NOT to eat,
but rather to spare that advice and show the child what is GOOD
to eat.
Healthy eating starts with what
you bring home. If your refrigerator is stuffed with greens,
fruits, and healthy snacks your child will pick from that. As
an example, as your child eats healthy you can reinforce this
behavior by saying, "Great! You ate all of your salad today!"
This will reinforce the healthy aspect of eating.
Please avoid starting children
on diets. We don't recommend diets. Anytime eliminating certain
things from diets we find that it starts a conflict between the
child and the parents. When the child is under stress he eats
more of the wrong things. For example, if you make it a big deal
that every time your child eats a desert that he should not be
eating it, there will be a counter-will. When you are not there,
and sometimes when you are there and he wants to get even with
you for not getting attention, or he is angry at you, etc...
he will make it a point of eating more of that.
Our emphasis is therefore not
to make food an area for struggle or conflict. Rather, it should
be an area where parents provide or bring home healthy foods
appropriate for the child's age, and eat healthy with the child.
If they notice the child is eating more of the not-healthy foods
such as dessert and less fruits and vegetables, they should not
try to keep the child from eating dessert. Rather, they should
encourage him to eat healthy foods. For example, the mom can
tell the dad, "You should be proud of John, he ate his whole
apple today." The parents should not mention that the child
ate dessert. Ignoring that fact works better.
You will find that throughout
our discussion that we are concerned with providing children
with heart conditions and without heart conditions with advice
that will ensure that they get good nutrition.
As time goes by we will also
provide specific hints that corresponds with this philosophy. |
