Some ideas on forming healthy habits
- Try new foods and new recipes.
- As a parent or carer eat good quality food. Children are likely to copy you.
- Eat meals as a family when you can.
- Enjoy an active lifestyle together with your child.
- Allow your child to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full.
- Try to stick with a good mealtime routine with regular meals e.g. breakfast, lunch and dinner and only small nutritious snacks in between that keep children from getting too hungry.
- Comfort children with attention, listening and hugs instead of food.
- Create a non-distracting environment, separate eating from other activities.
Portion Size
Portion sizes vary from age to age, so it is best to be guided by the child’s appetite. Specifying an exact portion size for a child is not necessarily helpful, because children’s appetites do vary. However, it can be helpful to have some kind of guide of where to start. The resources below will help to explain how appropriate portion sizes are linked to the growth and development of a child. With this as a starting point, Parents/Carers should be encouraged to support children to become competent eaters. A child who is a competent eater can eat the food they need in the right quantity, with an ability to tune into senses of hunger and fullness. Competent eaters have better nutrition and are more satisfied with what they weigh. They are also healthier emotionally and socially (Ellyn Satter Institute 2023).
It is often useful to focus in a positive way on the foods to eat more of, rather than the focus being around limiting portion sizes of other foods. Competent eating supports children who have a high BMI, who may have lost the ability to respond to internal cues of hunger and fullness, to manage their weight over time.
A child who eats a wide variety of food is more likely to meet their nutritional needs. The parent/carer is encouraged to provide a child with ‘everyday foods’ based on the four food groups (Dairy, Fruit and Vegetables, Protein, Carbohydrates). The ‘Highland Food Guide – Everyday Eating’ provides a visual assessment to discuss everyday foods. If any of the four groups are missing from the ‘everyday foods’ or not regularly consumed, then this can be an area for further discussion. Avoid labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Instead distinguish between them by saying one is a food to eat more of or less of; or use ‘everyday foods’ and ‘sometimes foods’. Also avoid referring to highly processed or sugary foods as a ‘treat’ as children may place extra value of them. Instead refer to them as those ‘sometimes’ foods which they get to have on occasion but not every day.
