• Keep a stocked house... and keep it balanced

Create a healthy and balanced food environment by stocking your house with a variety of foods that your teen will eat. Certainly your teen won't have a healthy diet if only junk foods are available at home, but balance does not mean having only fruits and vegetables either. Research suggests that children who grow up in homes where treat foods were restricted overeat when they have access to these foods. The lesson is that moderation and balance are skills that need to be practiced at home.

Teens who are accustomed to eating junk food snacks at home usually do prefer these foods to healthier alternatives. Changing behaviors and norms takes time (see 'Weaning your teen off junk food'). "I sneak healthy things one at a time," shares Melanie T. from Shelton, CT. "I started using whole wheat lasgna noodles and my kids didn't even notice. I have made it with lean turkey, too, and didn't hear any complaints." She adds, "McDonalds was advertising yogurt parfaits, so I tried making these at home. Now my family eats yogurt, fruit, and granola for breakfast a few days a week."

• Be a role model of healthy eating and positive body image

"My parents make me eat vegetables with dinner, but my dad never has any," says 14-year-old Steve M. Eating well is beneficial for people of all ages and sizes, so expectations about eating habits should be consistent for all members of the family. Be cognizant of the remarks about eating and weight and avoid compliments based on appearance. No teen should believe that their value is tied in any way to their weight.

Reflect on your own relationship with food and your body. "Parents are the most important role models for their children in all areas, but particularly around food and body image concerns," comments Beth Mayer, Executive Director of Multi-Service Eating Disorders Association in Newton, MA. She adds, "we need to be comfortable with our own size and relationship with food."

Supporting weight loss goals without overemphasizing weight can be a challenge for parents of teens who need to lose weight for health reasons. Anne M. Fletcher, author of Weight Loss Confidential, a chronicle of 100 formerly obese teens, offers this advice: "Kids need to know that they're loved unconditionally, regardless of their weight. Both the parents and the teens also stress that the initiative for weight loss has to come from the teen-if the teen's not ready or isn't motivated, nagging, preaching, and complaining will only backfire. Once the teen makes a decision to slim down, parents need to provide lots of support and praise, no matter how small the changes are."

• Keep activity in balance, too

How much teens move their bodies has just as much to do with overall health as what they put in their bodies. An active lifestyle promotes optimal mental health, cardiovascular health, and bone health. Physical activity is also critical to healthy weight management during the teen years and into adulthood. Anne M. Fletcher agrees and says, "Exercise was the number one response when I asked the teens for their most important weight-loss strategies."

Physical inactivity has a substantial impact on the weights of teens, too. David Ludwig advises, "Turn off the TV, computer, and video games. These activities displace physical activities, TV commercials brainwash kids to eat the lowest quality products imaginable, and kids (and the rest of us) tend to eat unconsciously when watching."

• Involve your family doctor

If your teen is unresponsive to your attempts to create a healthy home or if you have serious concerns about your teen's habits, enroll a professional. Adolescent health care providers are accustomed to addressing food- and weight-related issues at visits, so take advantage of their expertise. "Your teen's pediatrician or nurse practitioner can discuss nutrition and weight in a way that parents can't and can talk about what's realistic," says Anne M. Fletcher. She suggests that you contact your teen's doctor before his or her appointment if you have concerns about your child's habits that you'd like discussed at the visit.

 

A Silver Lining

Long-term dietary patterns make the biggest difference in lifelong health, not the small detours we make from time to time. As such, temporary periods of "nutrition insanity" that may happen around the holidays, during vacation, at camp, etc. are probably not a cause for great concern. To a large extent, our bodies are able to make up for our shortcomings because we are in a constant flux between eating nutrients and using nutrients and know how to adapt if we come up a little short. the most important nutrition messages are the simplest: variety, balance, and moderation, so try to promote the basics. the goal of healthy eating is not perfection-it is balance.

About the author:

Kendrin Sonneville is a registered dietitian and clinical nutrition specialist at the Center for Young Women’s Health and the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, specializing in adolescent nutrition issues. Her areas of expertise include eating disorders, obesity, body image, polycystic ovary syndrome, media literacy, peer education, and motivational interviewing. She is a member of the ParentingTeensOnline advisory board.

• Previous Page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page

Issue: .