Healthy E.A.T.I.N.G. Habits for Children

For children who eat like cultured adults and not hairless chimpanzees, follow these 6 E.A.T.I.N.G habits:

Emphasize a good dining posture

Young children are full of energy and can never seem to keep still. Though this boundless stamina is enviable, be firm about their behaviour at mealtimes: they should sit upright on a proper chair and eat at a reasonable speed. Should they need to use the bathroom in the middle of dinner, they should ask to be excused from the table.

Maintaining this disciplined dining posture will also help your child digest his food better.

Absolutely NO gadgets!

No phones, tablets or TV should be allowed during mealtimes. Let your child know that it is important that he stay focused on his food (lest there be scary little bones hidden within the meat he could choke on) and interact with the people he is dining with.

Make sure that you adhere to the same principle, yourself – resist the urge to answer a call in the middle of dinner and instead excuse yourself from the table.

Table manners are to be practiced

Table manners are a lost art these days, so a child able to demonstrate good dining etiquette would be a real gem. Enforce rules like chewing with the mouth closed, not talking while eating, and using utensils the right way.

Introduce the food on the plate

Help expand your child’s vocabulary and general knowledge by introducing him to the food on his plate. Teach him about the health benefits of different foods, talk about their tastes and textures, and discuss the origins of different ingredients.

No snacks an hour before meals

This one is a no-brainer.

If your child is really starving before dinner, come to a compromise – offer him nothing more than a healthy, small treat (like some fruit or a muesli bar) instead of the chocolate bar he’s after and you might just find that he’s able to survive till dinner after all.

Get clean!

No child should appear at the dinner table with dirty hands, both for health and etiquette reasons. Older children should also be made to clean up whatever mess they made during the meal – be it spillages or crumbs – so that they learn the value of eating off their plates cleanly.

Consistency is key, so be sure to keep up with these rules on a daily basis!