It is a good practice to maintain a healthy weight. When it comes to children, the parents are supposed to instill good food habits in their children so that weight never becomes a problem. If your child has a normal weight now, you should continue teaching your child the importance of good food habits because you never know when the overweight problem triggers. Therefore, it is always better to be on a safer side, as they say prevention is better than cure. Likewise, if your child has put on weight, you need to reconsider the diet pattern that you give your child. You can teach children to make healthy choices, which eventually leads to a healthy weight. Following are some ways through which parents can help their children maintain a normal weight and live a healthy life:
Make your child eat with family
Parents should encourage children to have their meals with the entire family rather than sitting alone in a room and eating while watching TV. To go by studies, family meals are healthier and have a low rate of obesity, which is in sheer contrast to the meals that children have on their own. Family or social meals are healthy because they keep us involved mentally. When children sit in front of a TV while having a meal, their mind does not pay attention to the hunger level and children tend to overeat and become obese.
Do not let your child be too choosy
It is completely in the hands of parents to influence the food habits of their children. Children should be taught from while they are young that they are supposed to eat vegetables and pulses. Not pushing good food habits will result in a possibility that the children will have fussy food habits. If the child is choosy and fussy about foods, it becomes very difficult for a parent to give them nutritious diet. Therefore, parents should not allow their children to decide what they want to eat and not, in fact be firm and let your child know that they have no choice but to eat whatever you serve them because it is for their good.
Reduce sedentary time
Too much of sedentary time is a big factor that makes children obese. Parents have to set boundaries for their children, as to how much time they can watch TV, play a video game, or surf the internet. These activities require a child to sit back and kind of relax but too much of sitting is bad for their body weight. Parents should encourage children to indulge in outdoor activities like playing or exercising. Physical activity along with healthy food choices is a very effective measure to maintain a healthy weight.
Control the supply lines
Some parents complain that their kids only love to eat junk food, sweets, and like aerated drinks. It is a lame excuse because children are not the ones who buy food supplies for home. Parents have full authority to stock only healthy and nutritious foods at home. If you do not stack your cupboards and fridge with unhealthy foods, the children will not have them. Although once in a while, get your children stuff they love to eat.
Kids imitate parents
As everybody knows that parents are role models for their children, they tend to copy a great deal of behavior and habits of parents. Therefore, parents must choose healthy snacks, eat on table with everybody, should not be choosy, and should not skip meals. This way, your children will automatically choose healthy habits and weight will not be a problem for them.