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Parental Involvement – Setting the Healthy Tone
Healthy habits begin at home. Parents set the nutritional tone for a child’s lifestyle. And, it is important that these healthy patterns continue once you send them off to school. We encourage parents to stay involved with your children’s school activities. Make it a point to know what’s going on. Know what’s being served in the lunchroom, vending machines and during school events. Offer to volunteer for fundraising activities at school. The more involved you are, the in the know you’ll be!
Below are some suggestions from the American Obesity Association on how parents can establish a healthy home environment for everyone in the family:
Create an Active Environment:
- Make time for the entire family to participate in regular physical activities that everyone enjoys. Try walking, bicycling or rollerblading.
- Plan special active family-outings such as a hiking or ski trip.
- Start an active neighborhood program. Join together with other families for group activities like touch-football, basketball, tag or hide-and-seek.
- Assign active chores to every family member such as vacuuming, washing the car or mowing the lawn. Rotate the schedule of chores to avoid boredom from routine.
- Enroll your child in a structured activity that he or she enjoys, such as tennis, gymnastics, martial arts, etc.
- Instill an interest in your child to try a new sport by joining a team at school or in your community.
- Limit the amount of TV watching.
Create a Healthy Eating Environment:
- Implement the same healthy diet (rich in fruits, vegetables and grains) for your entire family, not just for select individuals.
- Plan times when you prepare foods together. Children enjoy participating and can learn about healthy cooking and food preparation.
- Eat meals together at the dinner table at regular times.
- Avoid rushing to finish meals. Eating too quickly does not allow enough time to digest and to feel a sense of fullness.
- Avoid other activities during mealtimes such as watching TV.
- Avoid foods that are high in calories, fat or sugar.
- Have snack foods available that are low-calorie and nutritious. Fruit, vegetables and yogurt are some examples.
- Avoid serving portions that are too large.
- Avoid forcing your child to eat if he/she is not hungry. If your child shows atypical signs of not eating, consult a healthcare professional.
- Limit the frequency of fast-food eating to no more than once per week.
- Avoid using food as a reward or the lack of food as punishment.
(Above information was provided by the American Obesity Association – www.obesity.org)
Useful Links for Parents:
(Above resources provided by Kid’s Nutrition.org - www.kidsnutrition.org)
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