Learned Behaviors
Kids don't start out life gorging on junk food or ignoring hunger and satiety cues. Like every other behavior in life, kids' nutrition and eating patterns are shaped by their culture, role models, and environment. Learning about those influences and how they affect your child's perception of food is important in building new and healthier habits.
Parental Guidance
Children who see Mom trying to lose weight on a steady diet of protein shakes or who witness Dad eating an entire pepperoni pizza as he watches a football game are getting the signal that eating healthy is not a priority for the family. You simply can't expect your children to eat nutritiously if you aren't setting a good example for them to follow. If you aren't doing so already, start to model the healthy eating behaviors you want your child to adapt. Play by the same rules as well. Parents who forbid eating in front of the television but then park themselves in front of their favorite primetime show with a snack tray are telling their kids that the rules they expect them to follow aren't important enough to be observed by all.
Media Messages
From television and movies to magazines and even food packaging, the media feeds children a steady diet of information on food, weight, and culture that is often contradictory. Commercials and advertising bombard children daily, pushing nutrient-barren snacks and implying that social status is somehow tied to the sugary beverage you drink. At the same time, the message is commonplace in films and television shows that fat kids are funny and lacking in willpower while thin equals beauty and popularity. Kids are set up for failure if they buy into the product push and also invest themselves in the media image of the overweight child.
In early 2004, an American Psychological Association (APA) task force (on advertising and children) issued a report calling for restrictions in commercials for children aged eight and younger. Children in this age group believe commercials are completely factual and don't understand the concept of persuasive intent. The APA task force cited the prominence of youth-targeted junk-food commercials as one reason that an eight-and-under ban should be put into place.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average American child sees more than 40,000 television commercials a year, and the majority of those are marketing food. By acting as gatekeepers, parents can control some of a child's exposure to the more negative messages. But as your children grow older, you need to ensure they have been taught to view commercial and cultural media messages with a critical eye. That includes teaching them healthy eating habits, but it's also important to remind them frequently from an early age that the only purpose of a television commercial is to sell a product.
It can also be helpful to point out commercials that are flat out wrong or that misrepresent a product. It is definitely a disappointing experience for a child to discover that a toy is nowhere near as large as the picture on the box, or that a doll breaks when you try to play with it the way the little girl did on television. However, these are also excellent learning opportunities to show children that advertising isn't always accurate or in their best interests.
Packaged foods marketed on the basis of their entertainment value, such as jellied fruit-like snacks in character shapes, color-changing beverages and condiments, and cereals with surprises inside, also drive home the message that food is for fun, not for fuel.
