Our world is usually a cold and cruel place relating to body image and our relationship with food. Many of us have each good and bad habits that we learned from childhood about food. In today’s society, the pressure to be thin and look perfect is overwhelming. Young women coping with eating disorders are also a danger to our daughters.
So, how will we ensure our daughters don’t have a negative relationship with food? Here are some tricks to show you how to teach your child about food and easy methods to develop a healthy relationship with it.
1. Talk to your daughter about your personal experiences with food.
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Talk about your positive and negative experiences with food growing up. If you had negative experiences with people criticizing what you ate or made comments about your weight, acknowledge that. Acknowledging these thoughts, patterns, and beliefs will show you how to discover negative concepts you might pass on to your kids. If recognizing this stuff is simply too painful for you, consider in search of therapy to work through it after which talking to your kids.
2. Be nice to yourself, or don’t say anything in any respect.
The road to body acceptance is usually a long and rocky one. If you might be still attempting to make peace along with your own body image issues, be certain to not say anything bad about yourself in front of your kids. Saying things like, “I want to get this weight off so I can fit into my swimsuit,” “My enormous stomach makes me look pregnant,” or “I want to stop eating all this excessive sugar.” makes an impression in your child. These thoughts all link negative food and body relationships. Keep these thoughts to yourself and take a look at to present yourself some compassion and kindness.
3. Do a food audit.
Make an inventory of your favorite foods and foods that you are worried about. Think about foods that you just label “good” or “bad”? Talk to your partner about their beliefs about food, specifically high calories or energy, and whether or not they ought to be in the home. Were they forbidden at home or only used for rewards? Discuss the food patterns you each carry from childhood and make sure you aren’t unintentionally passing them on to your kids. Look at the best way you shop and plan meals and see if the beliefs you grew up with still hold true. Gender-specific portions also play into this. Look at the way you dealt out portions and regarded certain foods forbidden, and see in case your pondering changes.
4. Make all foods a part of your food plan.
Choose one or two nights every week to have those “forbidden foods” you grew up with. This way, it takes away their power. Allow your kids to have dessert a few times every week. By nestling forbidden foods in with a healthy food plan, your kids know what to anticipate.
5. Eat dinner together.
There are many advantages to eating together as a family. For children, they will discuss their day and anything that’s bothering them. As a parent, you get to role model healthy eating behaviors. Having this low-pressure opportunity to attach with their families around food helps teens avoid high-risk behaviors and elevates high self-esteem in children.
6. Exercise for fun.
Don’t exercise to burn calories or eat more food later. Instead, make it fun for the entire family.
7. Don’t reprimand your kids for what they eat.
If you have got a teen that may be a junk food junkie or eats less nutritious food than you want to, don’t reprimand them, irrespective of how much you disagree.
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8. Don’t use food as rewards or punishments.
Saying things like, “If you eat your vegetables, you’ll be able to have a bit of cake,” isn’t helpful.
9. Expose your kids to plenty of different foods.
Serve different foods, including fruits and veggies often, but don’t require your kids to eat them.
10. Be a job model with recent foods.
Be sure to try lots of recent foods yourself.
11. Create recent, positive food themes.
Make eating together fun by having themed dinner nights like Taco Tuesday, Meatless Monday, Fish Fry Friday, and Souper Saturday.
12. Take your daughter shopping.
Take your kids with you to the food market and teach them about healthy foods and eating the foods they love but aren’t the very best for them moderately. Pick a food or two they haven’t tried before and refer to them about it at the shop. What it’s, what it tastes like, what its textures are, and things like that. Encourage their acceptance of recent and diverse foods.
13. Cook along with your daughter.
Teach your daughter easy methods to cook with fresh, healthy ingredients. Introduce her to different ingredients she’s never tried before. Make it a fun experience.
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14. Teach your daughter that food is fuel.
Teach them that food will help fuel their day and help them grow big and robust. This eliminates the misperception that one sort of food won’t cause them to be healthy or unhealthy.
15. Ask her questions.
Kids know after they are hungry or full, so don’t force them to eat greater than they need. Ask them questions on the food they’re eating, like in the event that they prefer it or not, the way it makes them feel, and in the event that they are still hungry.
16. Respect their hunger levels.
Sometimes kids are hungry, and sometimes they aren’t. I used to see this in daycare on a regular basis. I had good eaters, kids that ate little, and picky eaters. These are okay. Don’t make your kids clean their plates; this causes them to disregard after they are naturally full and might influence eating habits later in life.
17. Encourage body neutrality.
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Instead of specializing in body positivity, concentrate on body neutrality, which is the concept of teaching that our bodies are amazing and based solely on their functions. Our bodies allow us to play sports, engage in our favourite hobbies, and hug our family members. Ensure your kids know they’re greater than just their body, but avoid talking about weight.
18. Teach your daughter easy methods to bake using healthier ingredients.
We all have a sweet tooth from time to time, a few of us greater than others. Homemade baked goods are higher for us to an extent because we all know what goes in them in comparison with what we buy in stores. Even though we’d like to eat sweets moderately, we are able to make them healthier through the use of substitutes like applesauce for the oil in our recipes, sugar substitutes, and on the lookout for low-carb and sugar-free dessert recipes.
19. Give less food than what you think that she is going to eat.
Serve your child less food than you think that she is going to eat, and let her ask for more food if she is hungry.
20. Serve food on small plates.
If you serve meals on smaller plates, you’ll be able to subconsciously instill portion control without talking about it.
21. Consider team work.
If your daughter is having a tough time developing a healthy relationship with food, it could be crucial to go the additional mile and consider a team approach. You may have to think about a registered dietitian, a mental health provider, and plenty of support from family and friends.
Having a positive relationship with food is a lifelong journey for most individuals. Using the guidelines above, we may also help be sure that our daughters have a positive relationship with food starting in childhood.
Related: How to Help Your Kids Have a Healthy Relationship with Food
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