Passing on Healthy Habits to Your Children
Part of your responsibility as a parent is to teach your children how to lead healthy lives. The best time to start teaching these lessons to children is when they’re young, before unhealthy choices become lifelong bad habits. When you want to pass on healthy habits to your kids, it’s important to practice what you preach. Just telling your kids what to do won’t necessarily work—they need to see you choosing healthy behaviors too.
The following are some ways to help your kids avoid unhealthy behaviors.
The following are some ways to help your kids avoid unhealthy behaviors.
Poor nutrition and lack of physical activity
Children in the United States are gaining more weight than ever before. They’re eating too much high-fat, high-sugar food and are spending less time being physically active. Weight problems that develop during childhood can lead to weight-related illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
What can I do?
- Pay attention to the kinds of food you buy. Limit the amount of "junk food" your kids eat. Have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables available. Be aware even "low-fat" foods may include unwanted ingredients such as added sugar.
- Serve a variety of healthy foods and use appropriate portion sizes. Use the label on the package to determine what a portion is for a particular food.
- Encourage your child to drink plenty of water or milk instead of fruit juice, sugar-sweetened fruit drinks, regular-calorie soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened or flavored milk, sweetened iced tea.
- Limit the amount of time your children spend watching television, using the computer or playing video games to a maximum of 2 hours per day. Encourage physical activity, such as a sport your child enjoys, instead.
- Eat meals and snacks together, as a family, at the table and not in front of the television.
- Make physical activity part of your family’s routine. Take a walk, visit the community pool or go for a bike ride together. Encourage your children to participate in extracurricular activities. Team sports and martial arts, while helpful to develop a child’s growth and self esteem, do not provide enough aerobic activity to lose weight, so find other activities to add to their day.
