Jessi Thompson’s comment aptly demonstrates the way it should be done. And from Charlotte: “Before my five-year-old eats something he always asks me, “Will this help me grow?” I try to keep the focus positive though – on all the good stuff we can eat – rather than on the negative – what we can’t have. The last thing I want to do is pass on my eating disorder to my kids!” Right on.

The more people–especially little ‘uns–learn the difference between “junk” and “food,” the better. You know, make healthy foods and healthy attitudes toward food the norm in society.

Be a healthy eater yourself (good example).
Put healthy food in front of them at each meal.

Most other things are just tinkering. Will they trade lunches? Sure. Will they buy Oreo’s with their money when they walk home from school? Yep. Will they be excited about dijon chicken and green beans almondine for dinner tonight. Surprisingly, yes. In fact, they will make a special point of being home on nights we make this “healthy” dinner. Hopefully they burn off some of what they ate by walking home from school and sometimes they complain that we’re running low on fruit which means that they are in fact eating it at lunch.

Another up side is that both of them can cook pretty well. Once kids start cooking they almost inevitably start to discover vegetables, nuts, spices, herbs along with color, texture and presentation in addition to taste which goes a long way towards getting them away from tater tots and grilled cheese sandwiches. Good luck.

Before my five-year-old eats something he always asks me, “Will this help me grow?” I try to keep the focus positive though – on all the good stuff we can eat – rather than on the negative – what we can’t have. The last thing I want to do is pass on my eating disorder to my kids!

On the other front (at home), we work very hard at providing healthy choices and being good teachers. We are competitive triathletes and our 4 year old daughter has grown to associate exercise as part of the daily routine. She loves to participate too!

As for food, she’ll try pretty much anything and loves vegetables. She eats better than 95% of the adults I know. How do we do it? Through teaching from a very young age about choices and also showing her the effects on her body.

We try to use everything as a teaching opportunity (granted some of it is quite simplified). Everything from talking about how dark yellow pee means you’re not drinking enough water… how if it hurts to poop, you likely need to eat more vegetables. Relating energy/speed/strength for exercise and sports to food and sleep… you name it. These lessons also include the belly aches that come after birthday parties (too much sugar?) My four year old will choose water over juice not because I make her but because she knows that one is ‘better for her body’. And occasionally when she does choose juice, I never make a big deal out of it. Just like I don’t want to have someone make an issue when I decide to have a glass of wine or cold beer.

Winning parent moment for me is when my four year old is looking at choices to eat and asks me, “Mommy, which one is the best for my body?”

Otherwise, all good advice. I must say that one of the reasons we are planning on homeschooling is because of the awful quality of most school lunches and the peer pressure surrounding food in schools. (That’s not our primary reason, but it certainly factors in.) And I’m shocked at how often I see parents letting their kids drink sodas. My sons have had soda exactly one time between them, and that was just a case of very bad planning.

It’s a reason, too, that I’m thankful I live far away from my mom – while she was here for a week’s visit, all she wanted to do was give my boys sugar, sugar and more sugar. I think she thinks we’re depriving them by never taking them to McDonald’s or BK.