Getting Your 10-13 Year Old to Eat!

Children from aged tend to twelve are in a lot of danger of developing unhealthy eating habits. To prevent them from doing things like gulping food you need to make sure that the focus is on eating the meal.

Preteens have all of the feeding challenges and issues that younger play age children do including –
• Mindlessly eating in front of the television
• Skipping meals to socialize or because of emotional upsets
• Eating badly in school cafeterias
• Getting addicted to sugar

This is also an age at which your child might start to show signs of an eating disorder. It more affects teenagers but be wary of such behaviors as –
• Stopping eating and drinking
• Talking constantly about being skinny
• Developing strange eating habits like pushing the food around the plate and never consuming it
• Vomiting after eating
• Losing a great deal of weight

If you suspect your preteen girl is too obsessed with her weight get her help immediately. These disorders can result in everything from tooth loss to organ damage to brain damage if not treated early.
To persuade your teen to eat well you should –
• Discourage eating butter or the 'Golden Topping' found at movie theaters
• Take them grocery shopping with you to learn how to buy nutritional wholesome foods and stick to a grocery list
• Instill the 'never shop when you are hungry' rule
• Teach them how to read ingredient labels so they stay away from toxic
• Substituting teas, home-made lemonades and water for soft drinks
• Buying whole grains
• Eating more fish
• Keeping meats that are bought lean
• Encourage them to cook healthy foods like home made pizza and tacos
• Add more fruit to cereals
• Drink more smoothies full of vegetable or fruit combinations
• Make healthy cakes out of zucchini, chia and carrots

Finally, getting kids of this age to eat vegetables is all about access! If they can reach for a little bundle of celery and carrot sticks with a dip as easily as they can a bag of potato chips then you have won half the battle. Be sure to ready and easy for your child to consume at any time.

Instead of having the media work against you, you can use sources of information online to educate your preadocescent. Good sites for tweens between age ten and thirteen to explore are –

www.empowerme2B.com
This site helps motivate kids to be healthier by joining in polls and forums. It also offers practical tips for parents. It is run by the Alliance for a Healthier generation.

www.nourishinteractive.com
Run nurses and registered dietitians, this energetic site teems with online games for kids, plus blogs, newsletters, health-hint calendars, lesson plans, and worksheets for parents and educators.

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Understanding Preteen Eating Patterns

Preteens (kids aged ten to 13 years old) often display definite likes and dislikes when it comes to food. They can be quite tempted by junk food. thanks to being surrounded by messages from the media that make sugary, fatty or refined foods look delicious.

This age group also is hard to stop from snacking mindlessly between meals, especially while they are watching television.

One characteristic that your child might start to display at this age to a greater display is eating to comfort oneself. This is because a child this day may not know how to deal with approaching puberty, hormones and feelings about the opposite sex.

One pattern that could emerge is the one where your pre-teen eats to 'stuff down anger.' This is a hard-wired response to feeling anger that is satiated by the feeling of eating high calorie, salty foods.

Children from ages ten to 13 years old need to eat three sit-down square meals a day and at least three snacks a day to stay healthy. However some of these children may experience a big growth spurt that requires them to constantly be snacking. This is okay as long as the kid is not gaining a great deal of weight and as long as he or she is snacking on healthy foods.

Most preteens are happiest eating three meals a days. Studies have shown that kids who eat healthy meals at home are more likely to choose healthy snacks outside the home. That means saying ‘no’ to greasy chips and sugary candies.

You should also bag your child's lunch. Like play age kids, your preteen is vulnerable to the temptations at local fast food joints and has more expendable income of his own.

If your child must buy lunch then make sure he or she can make the right food choices. One way to control how your adolescent spends money on food is to give them a prepaid debit card; this will give you a good idea of how much they are eating and when they are eating.

Just as a brief recap preteens need to –
• Eat regularly
• Stay away from junk food
• Avoid excess salt and sugar
• Make sure they are getting enough calcium through food sources
• Make sure they are getting enough Vitamin D

The amount of food a child should eat from each food group on a daily basis is determined by his age, sex and physical activity level.

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