Hot Topics: How do I get my kids to eat healthy?

            How many times have you been asked this question?  I’ve heard this question from parents with children who are overweight, I’ve heard this question from parents whose children are not developing according to some standard, I’ve heard this question from parents whose children at developing appropriately BUT who are hoping to encourage healthy eating habits.  I’ve even heard my own parents ask my pediatrician this exact question when I was a kid (I might have had a “cereal at every meal” phase followed by a “peanut butter and powdered sugar” phase followed by a plain pipes pasta (aka rigatoni) and italian dressing phase... I’m currently in the avocado phase).  Point being, everyone would like their children to eat healthier, but there are many obstacles getting in the way. Common advice/responses to this questions is to “Get creative!  Prepare the healthy foods with tasty, unique recipes” or “Continuously offer the healthy foods only, so that when they are hungry, healthy foods are their only option to satiate them.”  I’ve seen this sort of response everywhere, there’s lots of books with the celery stick with peanut butter and “ants” (raisins) recipe, or the TV dietitian making a smiley face as the eyes with a row of blueberries as the smile on top of a bowl of oatmeal. The other piece of advice is “have the children help with the preparation of the meal items.”  I like this advice because it gets the kids involved and hopefully they have a part in the decision making too.  These answers will have a beneficial effect, but they all still have the parent bearing most of the responsibility/decision-making.  In the future, I hope my children MAKE their own decision to eat grapes or side salads coming from their own motivation.  I discovered a tool that might help with this, during the 2010 FNCE conference, to encourage child driven decisions to eat healthier.  I can’t make any guarantees, but this tool is helping me eat healthier.

They are the Five-a-Day Tracker Bands produced by FoodPlay Productions. They are simply five brightly colored bracelets, but with some guidelines.  At the beginning of the day, all five bracelet start on the left wrist.  As you go about your day, for every one fruit or vegetable you consume, you move a bracelet over to the right wrist.  Your goal is to move all the bracelets over to your right hand by the end of the day.  If you want to throw in a twist... when you get down to your last bracelet, the challenge is to eat a fruit/vegetable with the final bracelet’s color (I try not to leave the blue bracelet until last).  Simple, do-able, self-motivating, and with no one being overbearing.  And it’s ok if you get only 3 or 4 bracelets on your right hand some days... at least you are more conscious of your habits.  I’ve been using these bracelets for a few weeks now, and it’s working.  I’m eating more fruits and vegetables.   Plus with children, Rewards CAN be used if desired (star on the board for everyday you reach 4-5 fruits/veggies, then a reward after 5 stars, etc).  If you are interested in learning more about the product... and the company FoodPlay, check out http://www.foodplay.com/store/