| Even if you grew up learning eating habits and coping | | | | activity alternating with decreased appetite and |
| mechanisms that have lead to you being overweight, it | | | | increased sleeping followed by a growth spurt. |
| doesn't mean your children will grow up with weight | | | | Learning your child's unique growth patterns will help |
| problems. How we raise our children, what rules we | | | | you understand their body's need for food. |
| impose on them, and what values we teach them is a | | | | Babies grow at a phenomenal rate during their first |
| choice. | | | | year. Right around the time they turn one, their eating |
| Our parents, or other caregivers, did the best they | | | | habits change. For some babies it seems like an instant |
| knew how when they taught us our eating habits. | | | | change. Many first time parents get very anxious over |
| They may have cajoled us into eating everything by | | | | their child's decrease in appetite. This is where they |
| being a member of the "Clean Plate Club". Or they | | | | may start the pleading or guilt games in an effort to |
| may have used guilt by telling us to think of the | | | | coax their child to eat when they don't want to. |
| starving children in China or Ethiopia. Somehow, being | | | | Everyone is born with the innate ability to regulate the |
| grateful for having food to eat meant we had to stuff | | | | amount of food we should eat. We also operate a lot |
| our faces. How about the person who was given food | | | | on instincts. We instinctively know what kinds of foods |
| to help them "feel better" when hurt or upset? | | | | our bodies need at any given time. This is where |
| The reasons for a person's weight gain and difficulty in | | | | cravings come from. Young children also go through |
| losing it permanently is as individual as the person. | | | | phases when they only like certain foods. This could |
| Being raised with certain values about eating that | | | | be preference or nutritional needs. |
| weren't necessarily healthy is only a handful of the | | | | Understanding our children's developmental and |
| reasons people become overweight. But they are a | | | | nutritional needs is key to bringing up our children with |
| very strong presence in the minds of adults who have | | | | healthy attitudes about food and eating. As the |
| difficulty with being overweight. Those old tapes can | | | | parents, we are responsible for planning nutritious |
| play over and over in our heads influencing how we | | | | meals and offering our children a variety of healthy |
| teach our children to eat. | | | | foods. We are also responsible for accepting our |
| Child Development | | | | children's decisions on how much food he eats or |
| Children go through a series of growth spurts | | | | whether he will eat it or not. Learn to take the |
| throughout their developmental years. They are often | | | | emotional hooks out of food issues and your family will |
| characterized by cycles of increased appetite and | | | | grow up with healthy eating habits. |