Eating behavior of children, adolescents

Teaching children to eat healthy/24 February 2022

A child cannot learn to eat on his own. The habit doesn’t happen overnight. It must be developed. To follow the formation of diet in children should begin at the age of 1,5-2 years. I know many people will not like this answer, but the final formation of the microbiota ends before the age of 6 years. This is where the basic, good foundation of healthy eating behavior in adolescents and later in adulthood comes in.

A healthy environment in a child from the first year of life exists if:

• there is a clear understanding on the part of the parent as to what is in the child’s complementary foods
• whether he or she is distracted by a gadget/cartoon during mealtimes
• whether he/she has these shared meals with the family
• is there a variety! of healthy foods at breakfast/lunch/dinner together that he can look at, take from mom’s plate, share

There is a good exercise that is directed to all moms of toddlers to properly form a relationship with food: one shared meal a day - slow, with some integration. The child tends to focus, to taste, to pick. He understands: tasty/not tasty, juicy/soft. It is very important to introduce such practices as early in life as possible.

Over time, teenagers are bound to have periods in their lives when they go into overdrive with mindless and irresponsible consumption of different foods, but they always return to a normal diet if good, healthy habits were laid down before as children:

• when food was not the enemy
• when there were no endless sweet snacks
• when there was a rhythm to meals
• when you sometimes cooked with your mom
• when there were tasks: go buy, help pick, clean
• when there was a dialog about preferences: "what do you like?", "is it crunchy?", "is it sour?"

If such an example to lay the foundation, then a person will take care of himself even through cola and teenage years. Be with your kids, but don’t get angry: a little planning and discipline. Form a complete breakfast, lunch and dinner first, don’t reinvent the wheel.

Habits are formative.

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