How to Raise a Healthy Eater
Almost every family has a picky eater – kids often reject foods that adults enjoy because their taste buds are still developing so they don’t have acquired tastes yet. However, there is something you can do to instill healthy eating habits in your kids from a young age. The earlier you start, the more likely your child will develop into a healthy eater. Here are some tips you can follow:
- Have a variety of foods available
When grocery shopping for your family, it’s crucial to have a variety of different foods available in the pantry. But leave out the chips, cookies, soda, and other unhealthy snacks. Fresh and colorful produce should be your kids’ go-to snacks. When shopping, think of the food pyramid and make sure to pick up low-fat dairy products, lean meats and whole grains.
- Learn when baby is full
As you’re feeding your baby, it’s important to learn how to tell when baby is full. If baby pulls away from the bottle, you shouldn’t force baby to keep drinking until the bottle is finished. As your child grows older, encourage them to eat more slowly so they can learn to tell when they are full.
- Wait 15 minutes before getting a second helping
If your child has just eaten and asks for a snack or a second helping, give them some water to drink and ask them to wait 15 minutes. If they still feel hungry after those 15 minutes are up, then go ahead and give them a little more food. Your brain takes time to register when you are full so even though you may still feel hungry, if you wait it out you will probably find that feeling of hunger has passed.
- No more night feedings
At about 11 pounds, your baby should no longer need to feed all throughout the night. Instead of interrupting their sleep to feed them when they might not even be really hungry, let them sleep uninterrupted at night and make sure they eat well during the day so they keep full at night.
- Avoid calming a fussy baby with food
Sometimes when baby is crying and you don’t know what to do to soothe her, you immediately hand over a snack or a bottle. Your baby may not be hungry at all so this is just teaching her that food is soothing and fixes the problem. Instead, try playing with baby or gently rocking her to soothe her cries.
- Don’t compare your child to others
If you’re worried about how much your child weighs compared to other babies her age, consult with her pediatrician before taking action. You may think your child is not gaining enough weight as she should be and start to give her extra feedings or reduce feedings if you think she is gaining more than what is healthy. Without speaking to a doctor to find out what is healthy and what isn’t, you shouldn’t be making these guesses on your own.
Also read: 6 Ways to Sneak Veggies into Kids’ Food by Stephanie Parker
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Written by Stephanie Parker from SleepingBaby.com, inventors of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
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