As an advocate for the health of the children of Rowan County, I want to help give parents the tools they need to help their children live a life in wellness.I want to encourage parenting with responsibility. Let’s look at the state of our youth’s nutrition today. Our children are more obese than ever, prone to more chronic disease and relatively unaware of the poor quality of life that awaits them.
Whose fault is this? Corporate fast food? Our work schedules? School vending machines/lunches? I think not, although maybe partly. The fault lies with our collective inability to make healthy choices and to educate our children to do the same.
Simply, we do not parent effectively.
How does one effect change? I have been fighting this battle in my head and at Salisbury Pediatrics for nine years. Parenting requires love and commitment and serious mental fortitude. We all know of the child who looks at the dinner plate, sees a green bean at nine months and eats it with vigor. Yet, miraculously at 18 months that same bean is now a source of parent-induced poisoning that leaves the child screaming while throwing that bean across the room toward the family dog, who graciously laps it up.What happened? Did the taste of the bean change? What happened is the great refined carbohydrate/fat complex. Our children taste potatoes, rice, bread, meat and snack foods and realize that green beans just are not good enough to pass the lips. Somehow we accept this phenomenon and pray that they will still eat carrots or squash tomorrow. However, slowly but surely, their diet narrows to mac and cheese, bread, some meat type and rice.
Still we believe that at least they are eating something and will hence survive. I cannot tell you how many times a parent tells me that their child just will not eat anything but mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I then think of the children in Japan who eat sushi at 2.
We as Americans indulge our children far too much on many levels.
How then do we change current philosophy? I use a NASCAR analogy often with my children. If you had a racecar and wanted to win every race, would you put high octane gasoline or generic 87 octane gas in your engine? Obviously, you would choose the former, which then leads to the question: why do you not consider your body or your child’s body as valuable as a racecar?I value my children more than anything and I will do everything in my power to provide for their success. That goal starts with a strong healthy mind and body. We want our kids on high octane food and we should fight for it.
Start in your home. Demand that your children eat well. This occurs when you lead by example by eating vegetables, whole grains and fruits multiple times a day. Offer meals that contain vegetables, whole grains and fruits in them. I know your next question: What if they refuse?My answer to that is old school: leave that plate out until they get hungry enough to eat properly. Refuse their request for snacks, sugar type beverages or non-healthy choices in the interim. Over time, they will get the message that they must eat what is presented or go hungry. (For children with metabolic diseases, diabetes or other chronic disease, this may need to be modified somewhat.)This is called parenting. I often hear people say that this sounds cruel. I counter with the cruelty of allowing our children to consciously eat unhealthy food that will be the direct cause of disease morbidity later on.Parenting also means packing a paper bag lunch for school if the menu that they feed our children is not healthy. It means holding back money if your child chooses fast food daily after school. It means not drinking soda at home if you do not want your child to drink it daily and gain 5 pounds a year from a beverage.It means telling your child you love them and that is why they can’t eat at a doughnut shop every week. It means providing a healthy snack at birthday parties at school if everyone else is giving cupcakes for the 30th time this year. It means sitting around the dinner table EVERY DAY and asking your child about her day while you influence what she eats.It means asking for help with behavior if you are struggling. It means asking any caregiver of your child to respect your rules. It means not trying to force your child to eat, but letting them choose what HEALTHY food they are going to eat from the prepared table. It means not making separate meals for each child which will exhaust a mother’s will and desire. It means planning ahead for sports night so as to avoid the obligatory fast food trip on the go.
No one is perfect. But if every person made an effort towards these goals our children would more fit, physically and mentally, and we would feel prouder of our parenting and our children’s life outlook. Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs we endure in life, yet also the most rewarding. Love them and then love them some more.Dr. Christopher Magryta is a pediatrician with Salisbury Pediatric Associates. He has a special interest in allergy/immunology diseases, alternative medicine and nutrition.