Nutrition and Kids: How to Encourage Healthy Eating Habits

With candy and junk food so prevalent, how can parents and guardians ensure healthy eating for their children? According to researchers at the Child Health and Behavior Lab (HABLAB), one key element is building healthy habits at a young age.

Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, leads the HABLAB. In this first of a two-part series, she discusses how to shape healthy habits and shares some effective strategies. Part two of this story will run in our July/August issue, and will feature insights from Dr. Anzman-Frasca and HABLAB Senior Research Support Specialist Juliana Goldsmith.

How can parents shape healthy eating habits in babies/toddlers? 

One evidence-based practice that can help establish healthy eating habits is repeated exposure —providing small tastes of a food over multiple occasions. The child doesn’t have to eat a large portion of the food — or even swallow the food! Just being able to see and taste it repeatedly can help support their liking and consumption of that food. Young children are notorious for being “picky eaters,” and this is normal; food neophobia, or fear of new foods, peaks in early childhood. During this period, it is normal for young children to reject anything new. They are open to a wider variety of foods in infancy, so that time period is a nice opportunity for repeated exposures to a variety of healthy foods. Then, those foods won’t be perceived as new in toddlerhood.

Repeated exposure continues to be useful as children grow. We have studies showing that this simple strategy can support the acceptance of new or previously disliked foods for many children during the preschool and elementary school years.

There has also been some interesting research on competing alternatives. If you’re serving a new vegetable, a child might be more willing to try it if it’s not “competing” with their favorite food. So, if you want to encourage a child to try something that is new, perhaps avoid serving it the night you’re serving their favorite main dish. Instead serve the new food when the main dish is less exciting or even as an appetizer. There is research to support the latter strategy — that children will eat more vegetables if they’re served as a “veggie appetizer” before the main dish.

How about middle school- or high school-aged kids? Is it too late for their habits to change? 

Clearly, teens are different from young children. Some of the principles we have discussed can still apply, though they may need to be implemented in a way that supports the child’s autonomy. For example, the child can put together their own snack after school, but the parent might stock the fridge and pantry with healthy choices. Some of the strategies that are recommended in early childhood can set up older kids for an openness to healthy foods later. Positive influences of peers or simply the passage of time can make a difference as well, resulting in kids suddenly taking an interest in nutritious food.

Are there strategies parents should avoid? Why?  

There is research showing that some well-intended feeding strategies like overtly restricting certain foods or pressuring a child to finish what is on their plate may have unintended consequences. Restricting foods has been linked to greater desire for those foods, while pressure to eat has been linked with less interest in the foods that the child is pressured to finish. It is understandable why a parent would use one of these strategies, and feeding children is challenging in the context of the modern food environment — where tasty but less-nutritious foods are so easily available and healthier foods can sometimes seem expensive and inaccessible. In addition to thinking about individual parent and child behaviors, some of our current research strategies are rethinking the broader food environment, so that it doesn’t feel like parents are constantly having to fight an uphill battle.

Learn more about the Child Health and Behavior Lab (HABLAB) here. And for more insights from Dr. Anzman-Frasca, listen to her interview on the Nourished Child podcast titled “Easy Ways to Shape Your Child’s Health and Habits.”