Feeding children with nutritious food and inculcating healthy eating habits in them is the top most priority for almost all parents. However, parents are finding promoting healthy eating with their children a big challenge. Many a times parents have to helplessly watch their child being pulled towards unhealthy eating options, which include their all-time favorite varieties of junk foods, processed foods, eatables and drinks containing high sugar content to enlist a few. No wonder, health experts fear obesity as a new-gen epidemic.
With an intention to serve parents by spreading awareness around the core issues concerning healthy eating, importance of role-modeling in inculcating good food habits and physical fitness in children, Parentune, organized Parenting workshop - on "Right nutrition and diet for your child" - on this Parent's day. This workshop was conducted by Parentune Nutrition+ Wellness expert Mrs.Tanuja Sodhi and Parentune Parenting expert Mrs. Bhavna Awasthy.
Those parents who missed the action may go through this blog to grab their chunk of healthy food for thought ;) I mean some handy tips to make your kids pick healthy food as a choice.
The experts started by sharing the common food issues that parents are grappling vis-a-vis their children (of ages 1 to 12). They referred to various 'Parent Talks' (parent's queries on Parentune's website) about parents' struggle with their kids over healthy eating.
To add some zing to the show, experts called for parent volunteers for two tasks :
Task 1: Role-play - 2 parents were asked to enact the roles of a mom and a 4 year old. The parents wonderfully portrayed the mom and a 4 year old, fussy eater. Mother tries several healthy food options to feed the child but the child shows least interest in eating and does everything to resist food.Parent's reflections - Many parents could identify themselves with the enacted situation and echoed the common concern that meal time is struggle time as kids don't wish to have regular food. They sometimes either resist food all together or many a times fancy the (not so healthy) food items marketed through the media. A parent summed up, "my 2 year old child refuses food at the very sight of it and no reasoning works after that, I just choose to force feed as I can't think of any better option."
Nutrition and Parenting Expert's take - Experts endorsed that urban parents are facing feeding issues with their children so much so that it is causing a lot of stress to parents. In many cases force feeding is adopted to make sure that kids get some nutrition. However, it complicates the problem further as many children associate negative experiences around eating and choose to resist food altogether.
Task 2: Making a diet plan - A group of 4 parents were asked to make a diet plan of a 3 year old child keeping in mind the child's activity level and age. They were provided with a list of food items as options. Parents made a well calculated diet plan which included various healthy food items meeting the nutritional demands decently.
Parents' take - Parents acknowledged that, while they want to feed their children healthy and nutritious food however, it's easier said than done because of various reasons like lack of time, knowledge and creative ideas around healthy feeding.
Nutrition and Parenting Expert's take - Experts explained the nutritive value of each food choice in terms of calories and components like protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. They elaborated on the core issue of right diet.
With an intention to serve parents by spreading awareness around the core issues concerning healthy eating, importance of role-modeling in inculcating good food habits and physical fitness in children, Parentune, organized Parenting workshop - on "Right nutrition and diet for your child" - on this Parent's day. This workshop was conducted by Parentune Nutrition+ Wellness expert Mrs.Tanuja Sodhi and Parentune Parenting expert Mrs. Bhavna Awasthy.
Those parents who missed the action may go through this blog to grab their chunk of healthy food for thought ;) I mean some handy tips to make your kids pick healthy food as a choice.
The experts started by sharing the common food issues that parents are grappling vis-a-vis their children (of ages 1 to 12). They referred to various 'Parent Talks' (parent's queries on Parentune's website) about parents' struggle with their kids over healthy eating.
To add some zing to the show, experts called for parent volunteers for two tasks :
Task 1: Role-play - 2 parents were asked to enact the roles of a mom and a 4 year old. The parents wonderfully portrayed the mom and a 4 year old, fussy eater. Mother tries several healthy food options to feed the child but the child shows least interest in eating and does everything to resist food.Parent's reflections - Many parents could identify themselves with the enacted situation and echoed the common concern that meal time is struggle time as kids don't wish to have regular food. They sometimes either resist food all together or many a times fancy the (not so healthy) food items marketed through the media. A parent summed up, "my 2 year old child refuses food at the very sight of it and no reasoning works after that, I just choose to force feed as I can't think of any better option."
Nutrition and Parenting Expert's take - Experts endorsed that urban parents are facing feeding issues with their children so much so that it is causing a lot of stress to parents. In many cases force feeding is adopted to make sure that kids get some nutrition. However, it complicates the problem further as many children associate negative experiences around eating and choose to resist food altogether.
Task 2: Making a diet plan - A group of 4 parents were asked to make a diet plan of a 3 year old child keeping in mind the child's activity level and age. They were provided with a list of food items as options. Parents made a well calculated diet plan which included various healthy food items meeting the nutritional demands decently.
Parents' take - Parents acknowledged that, while they want to feed their children healthy and nutritious food however, it's easier said than done because of various reasons like lack of time, knowledge and creative ideas around healthy feeding.
Nutrition and Parenting Expert's take - Experts explained the nutritive value of each food choice in terms of calories and components like protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. They elaborated on the core issue of right diet.
