Creating a Healthy Relationship Between Food and Your Child

This blog post was written by Nathan Haltman who is a nutrition student at Miami University.

Body dysmorphia and body image are two very prevalent ideas that have become very prevalent among younger generations of people. Body dysmorphia is diagnosed as a mental health illness that results in an obsessive focus on the flaws of one’s body and body image is the way that we think and feel about our own bodies. With the rise of social media and celebrities and influencers, these issues have become much more common as we tend to compare ourselves to other people and how their bodies look instead of focusing on the positivity that we can have about our own bodies. Today I am going to be sharing different thoughts, ideas, and practices that can be implemented to potentially lessen the risk of body image issues or body dysmorphia as well as how we can create a healthy relationship with food.

Too often we can demonize foods and consider them bad. We want to immediately rule all chocolate out of our diet because it has sugars and fats when there truly do not need to be any foods that are ruled out of our diet simply because they have more fats and sugars. All food is good food and no food is bad food. What is bad is our perception and understanding of foods and how necessary they are for a healthy life. Food is the building block of all energy in our bodies and without food we would not be able to perform our normal daily functions. From walking and running to lifting heavy things and doing normal activities such as work, none of it would be possible without the energy that we draw from food. So, how do we help both ourselves and our children to see how important food is? Does it mean just letting children eat whatever they want when they want? Of course not, it means teaching children how to have a balanced meal and a balanced diet by introducing new foods from all categories of foods in order to help them fall in love with food. The more we teach children to love food rather than be scared of it, the more we can help them build a healthy relationship with food.

So, first what is a healthy relationship with food? A healthy relationship with food is one where we are not scared of any foods but can enjoy any and all foods in moderation. It means that we are able to understand our hunger cues, to eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we are full. It also means that we are not putting foods on a higher pedestal than others. But how can we help our children to have this healthy relationship with food?

Don’t force your child to eat something they do not enjoy

Children latch onto the memories of foods they are eating and according to a research study conducted by the University of Michigan, forcing children to eat foods they do not enjoy can damage the parent-child relationship.

Let your child decide when they are full/hungry

Satiety signals are an important aspect of healthy living and being able to understand when our body is sending us these signals is so important. If your body is telling you that you’re not hungry you shouldn’t eat. If your body is telling you that it needs food, you should eat. As a parent it is important to listen to and respect your child when they say they are or are not hungry. It is often easy to force a child to join the family for a meal because it is prepared but forcing a child to eat can often develop problems in understanding hunger cues

Choose your words carefully when talking about food

The words we use when referring to food are easily picked up by our children. When we refer to a food as a ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’ food, our children will associate these words with these foods whenever they hear them. Instead of saying “I’m going to treat myself to this food tonight” it is better to just say “I’m going to have some of this tonight because I enjoy it.” Showing children that it is okay to eat all foods through our words is so important for how they will view foods as they get older. Another phrase to avoid is “you won’t enjoy this” when your child asks for a food you may be eating. This phrase will quickly create a bias in the child’s mind that they aren’t meant to enjoy or eat this food, instead let them experience it on their own and decide what they think about the food.

Don’t use food as a reward or a pick-me-up

Using food in these ways can create negative habits in children and adults, as the child ages they will turn to food when they accomplish something or when something goes wrong they will turn to food as a coping mechanism. This can lead to unstable weight changes and worsened dietary habits among children and adults because the normal eating cycle is thrown off by the introduction of these celebration or coping foods.

And these are just a few ideas for how to help you and your child develop a healthy relationship with food.