Parenting is no mean feat, and imparting a healthy relationship with food upon your kids can be one of the biggest challenges.
Early years eating can have a big impact on both your child’s growth and their relationship with food over the long term, but it’s a factor that many parents struggle with.
Around 1 in 8 UK children aged between four and five are already obese, and a leading UK paediatric dietician has pointed the finger at the sheer volume of ultra-processed foods and low-quality baby food making it harder than ever to maintain a kid’s healthy diet.
Lucy Upton, the dietician in question, focuses on the challenges in her book, The Ultimate Guide to Children’s Nutrition, where she aims to demystify the difficulties of childhood eating without pinning blame and shame on parents.
"I felt strongly about writing a book that could sit alongside parents during these formative years… trustworthy, empathetic, and grounded in evidence," she told Mother&Baby.
In the book, Upton examines conventional wisdom around training kids to eat healthily, with one particularly major misconception that could be doing more harm than good.
“There are so many long-held beliefs that stick – things like ‘food before one is just for fun’ or ‘just let them go hungry, and they’ll eat.’ These sound simple, but don’t always reflect what’s going on developmentally," she said.
“Children have unique, evolving nutritional needs. Understanding their development helps reduce stress and helps parents stop blaming themselves when their child pushes back at dinner.
"Take the myth ‘food before one is just for fun,’ for example. While the first foods are great for introducing textures and flavours, they also play a big part in setting up a foundation for good nutrition. By the time they’re 12 months old, children need proper nutrients for growth, and snacks just won’t cut it.”
During a child’s first five years, their diet has a major impact upon their brain development, gut health, immune systems, long-term risks for diabetes and obesity, and their long-term attitudes to eating.
"The foundations for health, eating habits, and a positive, balanced approach to food can be laid in this early window,” said Upton, highlighting the need to take that first year’s nutrition seriously. “Nutrition plays a key role in gut health, brain health, and immune health."
A significant impediment to getting kids to eat healthy foods is pickiness. Around a quarter of children will develop some form of fussiness when it comes to food, and overcoming food refusal could be a significant breakthrough for some parents.
“Focus on the mealtime environment first, and ease up on the pressure… The more attention you give to a child’s eating habits, the less they’ll eat, and the more pushback you’ll get,” Upton suggested.
With that in mind, Upton offered these four tips for encouraging a healthy relationship with food from an early age:
- Don’t pressurise the child with bribes, pleading, or asking for ‘just one more bite’
- Eat meals together whenever you can as if offers an opportunity to set an example
- When a child rejects food, re-introduce it in other meals without drawing attention to it
- Focus on having short, calm, and focused mealtimes
The sum idea is to create a relaxed and positive atmosphere around food that gives kids a sense of control whilst inspiring them to be curious about different foods. In concert, those four steps can help build trust around food and cut back on mealtime anxiety.
Featured Image Credit: Fertnig/Getty Images
Rachael Davis