1. Feeding Your Kids: Best Practice Guidelines and Strategies to Promote a Lifetime of Healthy Eating Habits
Carrie Schroeder McConnell, MA, RD
MomTime at Montview
October 18, 2013

2. A little about Carrie Schroeder McConnell…
BS in Nutrition from Colorado State University and Dietetic Internship completed at University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic
Worked as diabetes educator at a diabetes center - type 1, 2 and gestational diabetes and health educator for worksite wellness company
Master’s of Arts in Family Counseling from UCDenver
Child Nutrition Experience:
The Children’s Hospital - Eating Disorders Clinic, Obesity Clinic and Clinical Trial for Obese Adolescents
Head Start (Federally funded preschool for low income families) – Provided nutrition trainings to staff and counseling/classes to families
Local Health Department – Provided training to child care centers, preschools and afterschool programs to promote healthy eating and physical activity
Taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver for 12 years
Doctoral Coursework completed (except dissertation) at UCDenver in Health and Behavioral Sciences. Area of research – Feeding Strategies of Parents of Preschool-Aged Children
Currently in process of earning certificate of training in Child and Adolescent Weight Management

3. Approaches to Nutrition
Therapeutic:
Treatment of a condition, illness or disease state
Best addressed individually because more precise and individualized recommendations are necessary
Preventive:
Prevent development of chronic diseases and promote general health and well-being
Addressed well in the group setting because it “norms” behavior and applies to a larger percentage of the population
Diane Moyer –

4. Preventive healthy eating should:
Make your life easier not more complicated
Not be confusing
Fit into your lifestyle including schedule and budget
Be flexible
Not need to be perfect
Be long-term

5. Preventive healthy eating does:
Require some advanced thought and planning – at least initially

6. Feeding Your Kids: Best Practice Guidelines
Considered gold standard based on research
Can be something your family can works towards
Best practices for feeding kids were developed because parental feeding practices are strongly associated with healthy food choices throughout childhood

7. Division of Feeding Responsibility
Parents are responsible for:
Deciding what foods are offered
Deciding how and where food is offered
Deciding when food is offered
Kids are responsible for:
Deciding what and how much they eat

8. Parent’s responsibility: Deciding what food is offered
Food can be divided into five food groups
Aim for a variety and balance of nutrient-dense foods at meals and snack time
ChooseMyPlate.gov recommends
½ plate fruit and vegetables
½ plate grains and protein
Serving of dairy
General guideline –
groups per meal
2 groups per snack

9. Parent’s responsibility: Deciding what food is offered
Regular exposure helps kids learn to like healthy and unfamiliar foods
Serving foods regularly
Including kids in grocery shopping and/or cooking activities
Books/games related to healthy foods

10. Example of exposure

11. Parent’s responsibility: Deciding what food is offered
Consider your approach to sweets/treats “moderation”
Frequency
Portion
Quality

12. Parent’s responsibility: Deciding what food is offered
Think of all beverages besides water as “food”

13. Parent’s responsibility: Deciding when food is offered:
Develop meal and snack structure
Plan enough time to eat
½ hour – 45 minutes for meals
minutes for snacks
Plan enough time between meals and snacks such as 2 hours

14. Parent’s responsibility: Deciding how and where food is offered:
Eat meals as a family
Opportunities for modeling healthy eating
Positive feelings about food
Serve family-style meals
Create eating environment free from distractions and conducive to a good appetite and safe eating

15. Kid’s responsibility: Deciding what and how much they eat
This means no:
“Take three more bites and you are done”
“Have a no thank you helping”
“Eat your sandwich”
This should make mealtimes much easier so why can this be hard?

16. Tips to make this easier
Offer all foods at once
Only offer foods you feel comfortable with them eating and in appropriate portions
Avoid attaching eating conditions to dessert
Can set some limits

17. Get your child’s school involved in healthy feeding practices
Kids eat 1 – 2 meals/snacks at school each day
School setting is GREAT opportunity for norming healthy eating
Ask about school’s practices and policies about nutrition best practices
Exposure to healthy foods and to nutrient-poor foods
Availability of and rewarding with low nutrient foods
Respect for division of responsibility