Who's Making Toddlers Fat?The Easter bunny's gone back to his burrow,
so who is making toddlers fat?
Easter's over and done with for another year and the dreaded bunny's gone back in his burrow, but how many kids still consume way too much sugar, salt and bad fats on a daily or weekly basis? How much is too much? How much should you worry about pre-school kids and what they eat?
Healthy eating is something that can be taught from a very early age and is learnt mainly in the home environment with the help of pre-school. Around 3 years old children can easily get the basics of what's good for them and what's not. But they need to be taught. They won't necessarily pick it up by themselves and if there are loads of snacks and treats in the house, and their parents are picking at bad food constantly, then of course that's what they want to do… Kids form life long habits very early on, so it's imperative they learn good habits and they learn them from mum and dad.
A recent report by SBS revealed that the childhood obesity epidemic is now affecting babies as young as one with one Sydney hospital (Westmead) treating toddlers twice the size they should be, which has also involved DoCs when toddlers who can't walk or wipe themselves due to their size is tantamount to abuse.
The fact is that even though they are growing and running about all day long (hopefully they are and not sitting in front of a TV) averagely active kids of pre-school age need between 1165 (1-3 years old female) and 1715 calories per day (4-6 year old male), depending on age and sex (boys need marginally higher than girls). And when you think that a child of 4-6 years old can devour adult size snacks quite easily, the calories outside of meal times can add up very quickly.
The other major issue facing children's diets is salt. It may not make them fat now, but it will increase their propensity to obesity and also cause a lot of other health problems. An adult is supposed to have less than 6g of salt per day, a pre-school child between 2g and 3g per day. To understand salt content in foods, look at sodium content in a portion of food on the nutrition label. 1000mg of sodium is equivalent to 2.5g salt. So, take the sodium content, multiply it by 2.5 - e.g. 9mg of sodium (in a 25g snack pack of Angas Park Apricots) = 9/1000 x 2.5 = 0.225g of salt; and a snack size bag of Tiny Teddies has 94mg = 94/1000 x 2.5 = 0.25g salt - one tenth of their daily intake allowance.
It's hard when there are so many treats and temptations, particularly when so called healthy snacks are also high in calories and salt and once they hit 3 and start on the endless play date and party circuit, well you're in BIG trouble to be perfectly honest!!! So catch them early. Get Smart around kids. Teach them what's healthy and what's not and make it fun and only give children processed foods and treats in small quantities. Everything in moderation but don't make giving treats part of their daily routine.
Below are a few pointers to help with healthy eating habits:
- Natural or non-processed is always best for kids because there are few hidden surprises.
- Kids tend to prefer raw veggies to cooked ones (something about the consistency of cooked ones) so try slicing raw veggies and let them play with their good snacks to make faces etc.
- Carrots, carrots and more carrots! If in doubt, there's hardly a toddler on the planet that won't accept their own bowl of raw carrots or apple slices!
- Don't let your adult conditioning of certain foods put off children!!! Kids are actually quite unbiased and adventurous when it comes to their taste buds which haven't been conditioned to think that some foods are horrid… it's the parents who teach them that!
- Don't deny them treats completely - you're only setting them up to rebel and binge on fast food and sweets at a later date. Denial can also mean that your child becomes alienated at parties and social outings or their friends' pre-school birthday celebrations. Allow treats, but in moderation and only if they've eaten "healthy" first.
- Eating Out - go for small portions of healthier adult options or mixed plate, interesting starters, not kids meals which tend to be nuggets and chips and are full of salt and bad fats.
- Portions - they're half your size so only give them a portion that's half of yours!
- Final Resort: Use the Stickman®! We've talked about before, but if you're really having trouble getting the healthy issue through to your toddler, this one's a sure winner… StickMan® Rules, Let's Do Healthy by Terry Hawkins and you can buy online at http://www.terryhawkins.com.au/product_details.php?productID=23.
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