One family, one meal

By: Maria McConville, MS, RDN, CPT

Many military families find it difficult to make and serve healthy meals, especially if they have young children. As a nutritionist who works with Service Members and their families, I often hear them say, “It’s too time-consuming to cook meals at home because I have to cook one meal for the adults and another meal for the kids.”

Eating out can be a challenge too. If you look at just about any restaurant menu, you will invariably find a kids’ menu. The kids’ menu is typically full of processed foods such as fried chicken pieces, hot dogs, French fries, and pizza. It’s rare to see fruits or vegetables. Children can develop a taste for the food marketed and sold as “kids’ food.” Many grown-ups even believe these are the foods that kids want and should eat.

Most nutritionists disagree about that belief. Children—even from a young age­—can and should eat the same healthy foods as their parents. Newborns are exclusively breast or formula-fed for the first 4-6 months. However, the introduction of solid foods has changed over the past decade. Instead of parents feeding their infants largely cereal-based and pureed foods from a spoon, the trend now includes letting the infant experiment with feeding themselves. This popular method is called “baby-led weaning” or “baby-led feeding.” Baby-led weaning puts the infant in charge of mealtime. Instead of parents buying or making pureed baby food, the baby self-feeds many of the same foods that the rest of the family eats—with some minor changes in size and texture.

Check with your pediatrician to be sure your child has the developmental skills to start solid foods, and consult reputable sites such as CDC’s article on introducing solid foods.

 How can you get your infant to eat healthy foods? 

• Consider baby-led feeding to expose children to a wider variety of foods in different forms, textures, and flavors.
• Encourage—but don’t force—your child to eat nutritious food.
• Offer a variety of healthy foods one at a time.
• Avoid foods that contain added sugars and artificial sweeteners.

If you have older children who are picky eaters (or who have fallen into the “kids’ menu” food trap), you can guide them to adopt healthier eating habits that are more in line with yours. To help your child eat what you eat (and so you only need to cook one family meal), try these tips.

• Introduce healthier foods often and in different forms. For example, your child might not like raw carrots but will eat cooked carrots mixed with whole-wheat pasta. Or your child might like the taste of blueberries better when they’re blended into a smoothie.
• Give kids choices. Ask, “Would you like a banana or some strawberries?” or “Do you want your broccoli with butter or shredded cheese?”
• Enlist your kids to help plan meals.When your children help plan the meals, they take ownership of what they eat. Use meal planning ideas to build healthy menus and take them grocery shopping (if possible) to help select fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods.
• Don’t use food as a reward or punishment.If you use food as a bribe or reward, it can lead to unhealthy eating practices and frustrating power struggles.
• Be creative with how you incorporatehealthy foods. Try baking bread with zucchini, carrots, or raisins. Sprinkle ground flax seed into pancake batter. You can use spinach or kale in smoothies.
• Practice patience. Kids who have developed less than healthy habits might resist changes at first, but reasonable perseverance will pay off.
• Be a good role model. Remember the old adage, “Do as I do, not as I say.” If your children see you eating healthy food, they will be more likely to emulate these habits.

When you plan meals ahead of time and prepare nutritious meals together with your children, you can promote healthy eating habits, minimize pickiness, and reduce your workload.

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* The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of USU or DoD. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not reflect the views, opinions, or policies of The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. Mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The author has no financial interests or relationships to disclose.

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