Kids Eat Right: 3 Simple Steps To Success

As you may have heard, August is Kids Eat Right Month™.  Yes, today is also #NationalChocolateChipCookieDay and I’ll be sure to explain how these two can actually co-exist!

Kids Eat Right is a year-round member-driven campaign established in 2010 to educate families, communities and policymakers about the importance of quality nutrition to promote optimal health of kids and their families.  I’m proud to say that I’ve been involved since the inception!  Now, and for the past 3 years, volunteer members pull together and heavily promote the Campaign during August – AKA Kids Eat Right Month™.  This is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Academy Foundation's chance to highlight the fight for our children's healthy future. Kids Eat Right Month™ emphasizes what makes Kids Eat Right such an important program, focusing on smart shopping, healthy eating and active lifestyles for every age group from infant to teens.
 
A few weeks ago, fellow Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Spokesperson, Sara Haas, had the genius idea to pull together Registered Dietitians who could commit to posting and sharing actionable information to promote optimal health of kids and their families EVERY DAY in August.  Because I have always supported this campaign, and personally began to experience the value and importance when introducing my daughter to foods, today is my day to contribute! 

​Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, teacher or friend – our responsibility, as an adult, is to feed kids nutritious meals and give them proper tools to make healthful eating choices, which will benefit them now and as they grow into adults themselves.  “Kids Eat Right” divides their information and resources into three focus areas and organizes it based on your role with kids so you can focus on what is right for you, right now.   Just like adults – the foods that kids choose to eat and what foods are ‘right’ will not look the same for everyone and may change over time.  Three Focus Areas:

• ​SHOP SMART: whether shopping is at a food pantry, an online grocer or a convenience store.
• COOK HEALTHY: whether cooking is heating up packaged foods or a gourmet meal from scratch.
• EAT RIGHT: whether it’s eating to fuel a day of play or eating to prevent an allergic response.

SHOP SMART

​Research shows that kids who are involved in the first two focus areas, shopping smart and cooking healthy, are more likely to follow-through with the third area of eating right.

Learning to shop & walk

Exhausted from all the learning

Needed a snack break this time

Think about your current shopping and cooking routine….you do have some sort of routine for this, right ;)?  Now – what are some ways that you can involve your kids?  Remember – it will take a little longer and a LOT more patience but the ROI - from the laughs & memories to a lifetime of good eating habits – is WELL worth the investment.  Ok, back to your routine.  To start, I recommend changing your focus regarding the grocery trip or meal prep.  If your current focus is to get the groceries as quickly as possible and escape the store without any embarrassing public displays by your kids, I can see why you may be hesitant to involve your kids in the process.  However, the grocery store is a natural classroom and when you engage your children, they are excited to be a part of the process. 

​If you have ever run into me buying bell peppers with Luciana,
​you would hear me saying things like:

• “Can you point to something red?” 
• “Do you know what that is called?” 
• “Can you help me count out three red peppers?”
• “Is a red pepper a fruit or a vegetable”
• “Do you know why vegetables are good for you?”
•  “When we eat these, do you want them cut into sticks or squares?”

 
Clearly this will make your trip a little longer and I highly recommend planning the experience when you know your kids are set up for success (i.e. not exhausted and not starving) and the store isn’t packed. 

Tip: We all know snacks help pass the time and I don’t like to use food as a reward or a distraction – but I do love to encourage new foods.  Can you pay for something before you begin and snack on it along the way?  Does your store offer free fruit or cheese to kids?  Don’t go right for the food, but incorporate it when it’s needed and make it part of the learning experience.

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COOK HEALTHY

Fast forward through the challenging time of getting out of the store without something shiny that caught their eye to when all of the groceries are put away and you are ready to cook.

Started early with play kitchen!

LOVES to shuck corn

Trail Mix in the making

If possible, I like to get a head start on the prep while Luciana sleeps – it gives me time to get my game plan together and figure out what jobs I need to do and how she can help.  In our house, if Luciana is awake and I head to my ‘prep station’ she will come running and drag her stool along with her because she knows it’s time to cook and “Lucci help”.
 
Let’s bring back our red peppers from the grocery store – while I’m doing things that are best left for an adult (i.e. using sharp knives, portioning raw meat, etc) I may ask Luciana to:

• Peel the sticker off of the red pepper 
• Dry the pepper with a paper towel
• “Paint” the pepper with olive oil (if it's going to be grilled or roasted)
• Ask her if she still wants the pepper cut in strips, not squares
• Place 4 strips of pepper in each container for our lunches that week
• Taste it!

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EAT RIGHT

I touched on how to include kids in shopping smart and cooking healthy, don’t forget to include them in the meal and conversation. Encourage kids to talk about what they did to help prepare the meal with the rest of the family. 

Bite for baby, bite for Lucci

She really wanted more salmon

Good thing Pop likes to share

​So, you get the importance of the Kids Eat Right Campaign and you want to promote quality nutrition for kids?  Fantastic!  But, don’t forget – kids are always watching….are you modeling the behavior you want to see in your kids?  If so, you’ll be celebrating #NationalChocolateChipCookieDay by having just one small cookie, sharing a cookie with your kids, trying an allergen-friendly recipe, or making a recipe that uses less sugar and more whole grains than a traditional cookie, like these from the mastermind behind our month-long challenge.  After all, it’s called “Kids Eat Right,” not “Kids Eat Unrealistically”

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​August is Kids Eat Right Month™, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Academy Foundation's chance to highlight the fight for our children's healthy future. Find out how you can get involved!

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