For the week of September 4 - 10, 2002

Help your child make the right food choices

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Helping your child makes the right choices is an ongoing job for all parents, whether it concerns their behavior or diet. The following are some tips on how parents can educate and encourage their children to eat well at school.

 

1. Be a good example by eating and snacking on nutritious foods Children will be more likely to choose healthy foods at school if you keep healthy foods around the house.

2. Take your child with you on a Nutrition Walk at one of the areas’ grocery stores. Nutrionist Daniella Chace does them at William’s and Atkinsons’ and Albertsons offers their own in-house tours. Sample the organic foods and find out together what good foods they’ll eat.

3. Don’t stop with the proverbial "What’d you do in school today?" Ask kids about lunch, too. What did they eat and how much? Did they like it? Was it enough?

4. If your child hates the cafeteria food, make the lunches yourself with help and involvement by your child. Always include a water bottle in the lunch sack.

5. Make sure your child gets a filling and nutritious breakfast to start the day.

6. Remind kids to limit what they eat from school vending machines (candy, fried chips and soft drinks) and not replace meals with items from vending machines.

7. Make sure kids have protein snacks, which will keep them from going into a low blood sugar condition during the day and begin craving sugar.

8. It’s never too early to start educating children about food, health and nutrition.

Here’s a few ideas from Chace on healthy snacks that kids can take to school:

Tasty options include raw carrots or celery sticks, yogurt, string cheese or cut up pieces of fresh fruit, buffalo jerky, protein bars — such as Bumble Bars, which are real whole foods and kids love 'em — small milk cartons, and tubes of organic yogurt

 

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