Healthy Eating - Should You Change the Way Your Child Eats?

Your Care Instructions

Helping your child eat healthy foods is one of the most important things you can do for your child's health. This is true for many reasons. Healthy eating can help your child stay at a healthy weight. And it can help your child grow and have lots of energy for school and play. It can also help your child avoid serious health problems later on. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Healthy eating involves eating lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, nonfat and low-fat dairy products, and whole grains. It also means limiting sweet drinks such as soda, fruit juices, and sport drinks. And it means limiting fat, sugar, highly processed foods, and fast foods.

The goal is to try to eat a variety of healthy foods. But that doesn't mean that your child can't have desserts or treats now and then.

It can be hard to change eating habits. And this may not be the best time to think about making changes. That's okay. Maybe you can think about it again in the future. If you decide to make a change, your doctor can give you lots of information and support.

How can you begin to think about changing what your child eats?

• If this is not the right time to change what your family eats, think about when you might be able to try.
• Think about what could be different for your child and other family members if you started to make changes.
• Think about what worries you about making changes.
• Remember that you can control how fast you make any changes. You don't have to change everything at the same time. Making small changes over time will help your child make a habit of eating healthy foods.
• The decision to change and how you do it are up to you. You can find a way that works for your family.