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Tips for Healthy Eating at Home
Dr. Sarah Barlow and Dr. Ashley Kim share simple ways to encourage healthy eating habits for kids around the house.
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Barlow was an assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University from 1998 to 2007, where she established a weight management program. In 2007, she joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine as associate professor of pediatrics and was the director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Childhood Obesity. Dr. Barlow was an investigator on the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration project, a study sponsored by the CDC that examined healthcare, school, and early childhood education programs for obesity prevention and care in low-income neighborhoods. She was the site principal investigator for the NIDDK-sponsored NASH Clinical Research Network (2013-2016). She joined the pediatrics faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2016. In addition to caring for gastrointestinal conditions, Dr. Barlow oversees an integrated program in obesity care that spans community programs, primary healthcare and tertiary care.
Ashley Kim is a clinical dietitian for the Get Up & Go team at Children’s Health. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from The University of Texas at Austin and completed her Master of Science in Nutrition and dietetic training at Texas Woman’s University. Ashley specializes in pediatric weight management programs and disease prevention. She leads the Planting Healthy Habits and Family Cooking Program, incorporating hands-on classes to empower families to make lasting healthy lifestyle changes.
Sarah Barlow, MD | Ashley Kim, RD
Dr. Sarah Barlow is the Director of the Children’s Health Integrated Program in Childhood Obesity and Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She received her medical degree from UT Southwestern and completed her pediatric residency at Brown University. Dr. Barlow completed fellowship training in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at Tufts School of Medicine, Floating Hospital for Children in Boston, MA. She also earned a Master’s in Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health in 1996. She was board certified in pediatric gastroenterology by the American Board of Pediatrics in 1997.Dr. Barlow was an assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University from 1998 to 2007, where she established a weight management program. In 2007, she joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine as associate professor of pediatrics and was the director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Childhood Obesity. Dr. Barlow was an investigator on the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration project, a study sponsored by the CDC that examined healthcare, school, and early childhood education programs for obesity prevention and care in low-income neighborhoods. She was the site principal investigator for the NIDDK-sponsored NASH Clinical Research Network (2013-2016). She joined the pediatrics faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2016. In addition to caring for gastrointestinal conditions, Dr. Barlow oversees an integrated program in obesity care that spans community programs, primary healthcare and tertiary care.
Ashley Kim is a clinical dietitian for the Get Up & Go team at Children’s Health. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from The University of Texas at Austin and completed her Master of Science in Nutrition and dietetic training at Texas Woman’s University. Ashley specializes in pediatric weight management programs and disease prevention. She leads the Planting Healthy Habits and Family Cooking Program, incorporating hands-on classes to empower families to make lasting healthy lifestyle changes.
Transcription:
Tips for Healthy Eating at Home
Caitlin Whyte: You're listening to Children's Health Checkup. Welcome. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. Today. We are talking about establishing healthy eating habits at home. Something that was hard enough to do before the COVID-19 pandemic. So what are some tips to get fruits and veggies into our kids' bellies? And how do we stay healthy when we're stressed and stuck at home with the whole family? Joining us for this conversation today is Ashley Kim, a Registered Dietician with the Get Up and Go Program at Children's Health supported by Kohl's Cares. And Dr. Sarah Barlow, the Director of Children's Health Integrated Program and Childhood Obesity, and Professor at UT Southwestern. So Ashley, when children are at home all day and of course can become difficult to stick to a healthy diet. Can you talk about how sticking to a schedule may be one way to achieve this goal?
Ashley Kim: Sure. So when we are home all day, it can be very common for children as well as ourselves to just eat out of boredom or just because the food is readily available. We want children to avoid building any habits is just grazing on food all day, as this can easily interfere with their appetite at meal time, as well as just cause unnecessary overheating. So building a mealtime schedule can really combat and prevent random snacking throughout the day, as well as establish a sense of normalcy for our children while at home. So this can look like offering meals and snacks at predictable time each day, this way a child knows what to expect. And so still incorporate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at consistent times and offer one to two snacks each day for most children, as well as adolescents. These meals can be spaced three to four hours apart and healthy snacking can be incorporated to keep children fueled between meals, especially if they're more physically active. And with snacking, we want to focus on making healthy choices, the easy choice. So it's going to be a lot easier for you to say no to sweet treats or sodas when they're just not available in the house. So we can stock our pantry with nutrient dense snacks and keep fresh fruits and precut veggies at kids' eye level in the fridge to help children stick to a healthier diet. Even if we're home all day.
Host: Now, I know staying hydrated is also important. Dr. Barlow, what insight can you share with parents about the best way to keep kids hydrated and how much water should they be drinking throughout the day?
Dr. Barlow: I'm going to echo what Ashley said, which is make the healthy choice, the easy choice. So it's a lot easier to avoid the arguments about the soda or the juice if it's just not in the house. So just having water available is the first step. And then you can make it seem a little more appealing and interesting by, for instance, with little kids, special cups, you know, the little kids really love those cups with their characters on them. And if they have a cup that they love, that is only for water that will help make the water more appealing, and special straws can be kind of fun too. And then for older kids keeping that water available, putting some berries or fruits in a pitcher in the refrigerator, makes it again more appealing. Sparkling water is a great choice. In terms of getting enough, I think it's a great idea to put a glass with each meal and snack. So it becomes just part of consuming that meal or snack because the water is right there. And in terms of how much it's, you know, sometimes it seems a little intimidating, the number of ounces they set as a goal for all of us. But I think again, if there's a glass at each meal or snack, that means that the kids are going to get, you know, probably four to five good glasses each day. And that that should be a good amount for them.
Host: Another struggle besides drinking water is of course, getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies. Ashley, what are some of your tips on how to entice kids to eat their fruits and veggies throughout the day?
Ashley Kim: The great way to get kids just excited about fruits and vegetable is to offer a variety of options from an early age. And with these, we want to keep them familiar and kid friendly. For example, you can put peanut butter and raisins on celery sticks for ants on a log or mix in vegetables into a fruit smoothie or soup. So we don't want to stress too much over starting with the goal of having vegetables at every single meal. If your child doesn't like vegetables, start by offering fruit and build from there. And once you graduate, you can try preparing vegetables in different ways. Vegetables that are steamed or raw and baked can just taste very different depending on how they're prepared. And with that, get your children involved in the kitchen. Children are going to be more likely to try these new foods if they had a say in mealtime decisions. So for younger children, this can look like a veggie challenge and letting them choose one new vegetable from a grocery store each week to try. And lastly, as a parent, just recognize that you are the biggest role model when it comes to how and what your child will eat.
So, normalize having vegetables on the dinner plate and fruit at snack time, we want to be consistent and actively offering fruits and vegetables and practice the division of responsibility at home. So this is the idea where parents decide what and when the meal or snack is, but once served, the child decides how much of it they're going to eat. So this idea is less about controlling our child's food decisions, but guiding and reinforcing that idea of making the healthy choice, the easy choice. And just through this process, remember that it's important to that every child is going to be different and this whole process takes a lot of time. So don't give up as it may take up to like 12 to 15 exposures for a new food to be accepted as the parent, just continue to provide a variety of healthy options from an early age and be patient as the child learns, tastes and textures they like or dislike.
Host: And Dr. Barlow, what are some of the benefits of eating at the table versus eating away from the table?
Dr. Barlow: Well, I think eating at the table is really family time and we're all really busy. Oftentimes, you know, both parents are working, they've got a lot of activities. So I think the time at the table is really an opportunity to kind of reconnect and touch base and everybody kind of keeping track with what's going on in the lives of the other family members. So yes, we want to, it's a great chance to model eating. It helps reinforce that idea that, you know, there's a set time for eating. It's not just grazing throughout the day. And I think it becomes a opportunity for parents to do that modeling of eating well, eating good food, enjoyable food, healthy food, but I think there's also good evidence that families that eat together have stronger relationships and the kids often do better at school, and are maybe less likely to have any kind of problem behaviors. So I think it's actually, it can be a really pleasant time for families and it's both a good nutritional approach, but it's also a good family approach.
Host: Ashley, you mentioned getting kids involved with cooking is a great way to keep them entertained and engaged. What are some other benefits of kids involved with their own meal prep?
Ashley Kim: The cooking is a great way to bring in that social aspect of food and make nutrition fun for our children. And when your children get involved in the cooking process, they not only become more open to trying new foods, but they also learn a lot of important age appropriate developmental skills. For example, for preschoolers, they can learn how to stir and mash ingredients together, as well as bring fruits and vegetables. For our elementary kids, you can challenge them to measure out ingredients or how to follow a recipe. And as children get older, teens can develop their knife skills and practice how to chop and dice vegetables, as well as sauté foods on the stove and start just using those different kitchen appliances that we have at home. And so cooking at a young age can not only give children exposure to a variety of foods, but also support the skillsets that we're going to carry on throughout the rest of our lives.
Host: Now, when it comes to exercise, Dr. Barlow, can you share some tips? How can family stay active and busy while at home?
Dr. Barlow: Well, I think that we have to remember that for kids, play, physical play is, is exercise. And sometimes exercise as a word has a negative connotation. It sounds like kind of a chore and obligation, something you have to make yourself do. But if we think about it in terms of physical activity in play, I think that becomes something that kids will want to do. So focusing, especially the younger the child, the more important it is and the easier it is in many ways to make physical activity fun. So for preschoolers, you know, it can be rolling a ball, it can be playing a fun game of tag or hide and seek. You can do some indoor games with the little kids, you know, indoor bowling with empty plastic bottles and a rolled up sock that is, you know, safe for the house and fun for the kids. And then with older kids, it could be, you know, kicking around a soccer ball or basketball. There's lots of inexpensive toys like jump ropes and Frisbees and hula hoops. Kids that are old enough, if you have a backyard, they can just go in the backyard and families don't need to feel like they have to organize and entertain the child, especially if there's siblings or cousins around.
It's perfectly fine to make sure that there's some toys in the backyard and send them out to play for an hour. I think in Dallas, one of the challenges is the weather. And, you know, when we're right in the middle of the summer, it is so hot. It is a little uncomfortable being outside. So it is, you want to plan ahead and have the kids in the family outside in the cooler parts of the day. So first thing in the morning, or maybe for those teenagers that are sleeping in, you know, kind of early evening, loose clothing, loose light colored clothing, makes it more comfortable. And then don't forget those water games like water balloons, running through the hose. Younger kids love that. It's cool and it keeps them active and there are some indoor activities and there's some good ideas on the internet. So I certainly would encourage families to check online for some fun games that are, can be done in doors and protect the house from too much damage.
Host: And Ashley, the COVID-19 pandemic has of course, made it harder to keep healthy eating on top of mind. What are your tips for parents that make healthy, eating easier in the midst of the current stress that many families are facing right now in this pandemic?
Ashley Kim: So, we still want to be eating balanced meals, but I would say step away from just the stress of building the perfect plate or including all food groups at every meal. Instead, I would focus on finding fun recipes to be conscious of using what you have at home to be able to minimize trips to the grocery store, as well as prevent food waste while we're all at home. Also like Dr. Barlow said, focus your attention on healthy habits that you can control and build on like staying active as a family or down together for a family meal. As we touched on earlier, creating a schedule around mealtime can help establish that sense of normalcy while at home, and also give family members an opportunity to connect about their day and kind of end the day with that sense of togetherness.
Dr. Barlow: I would just add with the current COVID changes that we're all living through, I think one benefit is that we're being more careful about food that's prepared outside the home, you know, going to restaurants and fast food. So maybe that's going to be a benefit. It's an opportunity to do more of that home meal preparation. And to, again, we're a little bit less able to be busy outside of the house. So I think that there's some positives here in terms of bringing the family together around meals, prepared at home and shared together at home.
Host: Thank you so much for your time and for these healthy tips, ladies, that was Ashley Kim, a registered dietician with the Get Up and Go Program at Children's Health, supported by Kohl's Cares. And Dr. Sarah Barlow, the director of the Children's Health Integrated Program in Childhood Obesity and professor at UT Southwestern. Find more information on developing healthy family habits at childrens.com/healthyweight. This has been children's health checkup. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Thanks for listening.
Tips for Healthy Eating at Home
Caitlin Whyte: You're listening to Children's Health Checkup. Welcome. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. Today. We are talking about establishing healthy eating habits at home. Something that was hard enough to do before the COVID-19 pandemic. So what are some tips to get fruits and veggies into our kids' bellies? And how do we stay healthy when we're stressed and stuck at home with the whole family? Joining us for this conversation today is Ashley Kim, a Registered Dietician with the Get Up and Go Program at Children's Health supported by Kohl's Cares. And Dr. Sarah Barlow, the Director of Children's Health Integrated Program and Childhood Obesity, and Professor at UT Southwestern. So Ashley, when children are at home all day and of course can become difficult to stick to a healthy diet. Can you talk about how sticking to a schedule may be one way to achieve this goal?
Ashley Kim: Sure. So when we are home all day, it can be very common for children as well as ourselves to just eat out of boredom or just because the food is readily available. We want children to avoid building any habits is just grazing on food all day, as this can easily interfere with their appetite at meal time, as well as just cause unnecessary overheating. So building a mealtime schedule can really combat and prevent random snacking throughout the day, as well as establish a sense of normalcy for our children while at home. So this can look like offering meals and snacks at predictable time each day, this way a child knows what to expect. And so still incorporate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at consistent times and offer one to two snacks each day for most children, as well as adolescents. These meals can be spaced three to four hours apart and healthy snacking can be incorporated to keep children fueled between meals, especially if they're more physically active. And with snacking, we want to focus on making healthy choices, the easy choice. So it's going to be a lot easier for you to say no to sweet treats or sodas when they're just not available in the house. So we can stock our pantry with nutrient dense snacks and keep fresh fruits and precut veggies at kids' eye level in the fridge to help children stick to a healthier diet. Even if we're home all day.
Host: Now, I know staying hydrated is also important. Dr. Barlow, what insight can you share with parents about the best way to keep kids hydrated and how much water should they be drinking throughout the day?
Dr. Barlow: I'm going to echo what Ashley said, which is make the healthy choice, the easy choice. So it's a lot easier to avoid the arguments about the soda or the juice if it's just not in the house. So just having water available is the first step. And then you can make it seem a little more appealing and interesting by, for instance, with little kids, special cups, you know, the little kids really love those cups with their characters on them. And if they have a cup that they love, that is only for water that will help make the water more appealing, and special straws can be kind of fun too. And then for older kids keeping that water available, putting some berries or fruits in a pitcher in the refrigerator, makes it again more appealing. Sparkling water is a great choice. In terms of getting enough, I think it's a great idea to put a glass with each meal and snack. So it becomes just part of consuming that meal or snack because the water is right there. And in terms of how much it's, you know, sometimes it seems a little intimidating, the number of ounces they set as a goal for all of us. But I think again, if there's a glass at each meal or snack, that means that the kids are going to get, you know, probably four to five good glasses each day. And that that should be a good amount for them.
Host: Another struggle besides drinking water is of course, getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies. Ashley, what are some of your tips on how to entice kids to eat their fruits and veggies throughout the day?
Ashley Kim: The great way to get kids just excited about fruits and vegetable is to offer a variety of options from an early age. And with these, we want to keep them familiar and kid friendly. For example, you can put peanut butter and raisins on celery sticks for ants on a log or mix in vegetables into a fruit smoothie or soup. So we don't want to stress too much over starting with the goal of having vegetables at every single meal. If your child doesn't like vegetables, start by offering fruit and build from there. And once you graduate, you can try preparing vegetables in different ways. Vegetables that are steamed or raw and baked can just taste very different depending on how they're prepared. And with that, get your children involved in the kitchen. Children are going to be more likely to try these new foods if they had a say in mealtime decisions. So for younger children, this can look like a veggie challenge and letting them choose one new vegetable from a grocery store each week to try. And lastly, as a parent, just recognize that you are the biggest role model when it comes to how and what your child will eat.
So, normalize having vegetables on the dinner plate and fruit at snack time, we want to be consistent and actively offering fruits and vegetables and practice the division of responsibility at home. So this is the idea where parents decide what and when the meal or snack is, but once served, the child decides how much of it they're going to eat. So this idea is less about controlling our child's food decisions, but guiding and reinforcing that idea of making the healthy choice, the easy choice. And just through this process, remember that it's important to that every child is going to be different and this whole process takes a lot of time. So don't give up as it may take up to like 12 to 15 exposures for a new food to be accepted as the parent, just continue to provide a variety of healthy options from an early age and be patient as the child learns, tastes and textures they like or dislike.
Host: And Dr. Barlow, what are some of the benefits of eating at the table versus eating away from the table?
Dr. Barlow: Well, I think eating at the table is really family time and we're all really busy. Oftentimes, you know, both parents are working, they've got a lot of activities. So I think the time at the table is really an opportunity to kind of reconnect and touch base and everybody kind of keeping track with what's going on in the lives of the other family members. So yes, we want to, it's a great chance to model eating. It helps reinforce that idea that, you know, there's a set time for eating. It's not just grazing throughout the day. And I think it becomes a opportunity for parents to do that modeling of eating well, eating good food, enjoyable food, healthy food, but I think there's also good evidence that families that eat together have stronger relationships and the kids often do better at school, and are maybe less likely to have any kind of problem behaviors. So I think it's actually, it can be a really pleasant time for families and it's both a good nutritional approach, but it's also a good family approach.
Host: Ashley, you mentioned getting kids involved with cooking is a great way to keep them entertained and engaged. What are some other benefits of kids involved with their own meal prep?
Ashley Kim: The cooking is a great way to bring in that social aspect of food and make nutrition fun for our children. And when your children get involved in the cooking process, they not only become more open to trying new foods, but they also learn a lot of important age appropriate developmental skills. For example, for preschoolers, they can learn how to stir and mash ingredients together, as well as bring fruits and vegetables. For our elementary kids, you can challenge them to measure out ingredients or how to follow a recipe. And as children get older, teens can develop their knife skills and practice how to chop and dice vegetables, as well as sauté foods on the stove and start just using those different kitchen appliances that we have at home. And so cooking at a young age can not only give children exposure to a variety of foods, but also support the skillsets that we're going to carry on throughout the rest of our lives.
Host: Now, when it comes to exercise, Dr. Barlow, can you share some tips? How can family stay active and busy while at home?
Dr. Barlow: Well, I think that we have to remember that for kids, play, physical play is, is exercise. And sometimes exercise as a word has a negative connotation. It sounds like kind of a chore and obligation, something you have to make yourself do. But if we think about it in terms of physical activity in play, I think that becomes something that kids will want to do. So focusing, especially the younger the child, the more important it is and the easier it is in many ways to make physical activity fun. So for preschoolers, you know, it can be rolling a ball, it can be playing a fun game of tag or hide and seek. You can do some indoor games with the little kids, you know, indoor bowling with empty plastic bottles and a rolled up sock that is, you know, safe for the house and fun for the kids. And then with older kids, it could be, you know, kicking around a soccer ball or basketball. There's lots of inexpensive toys like jump ropes and Frisbees and hula hoops. Kids that are old enough, if you have a backyard, they can just go in the backyard and families don't need to feel like they have to organize and entertain the child, especially if there's siblings or cousins around.
It's perfectly fine to make sure that there's some toys in the backyard and send them out to play for an hour. I think in Dallas, one of the challenges is the weather. And, you know, when we're right in the middle of the summer, it is so hot. It is a little uncomfortable being outside. So it is, you want to plan ahead and have the kids in the family outside in the cooler parts of the day. So first thing in the morning, or maybe for those teenagers that are sleeping in, you know, kind of early evening, loose clothing, loose light colored clothing, makes it more comfortable. And then don't forget those water games like water balloons, running through the hose. Younger kids love that. It's cool and it keeps them active and there are some indoor activities and there's some good ideas on the internet. So I certainly would encourage families to check online for some fun games that are, can be done in doors and protect the house from too much damage.
Host: And Ashley, the COVID-19 pandemic has of course, made it harder to keep healthy eating on top of mind. What are your tips for parents that make healthy, eating easier in the midst of the current stress that many families are facing right now in this pandemic?
Ashley Kim: So, we still want to be eating balanced meals, but I would say step away from just the stress of building the perfect plate or including all food groups at every meal. Instead, I would focus on finding fun recipes to be conscious of using what you have at home to be able to minimize trips to the grocery store, as well as prevent food waste while we're all at home. Also like Dr. Barlow said, focus your attention on healthy habits that you can control and build on like staying active as a family or down together for a family meal. As we touched on earlier, creating a schedule around mealtime can help establish that sense of normalcy while at home, and also give family members an opportunity to connect about their day and kind of end the day with that sense of togetherness.
Dr. Barlow: I would just add with the current COVID changes that we're all living through, I think one benefit is that we're being more careful about food that's prepared outside the home, you know, going to restaurants and fast food. So maybe that's going to be a benefit. It's an opportunity to do more of that home meal preparation. And to, again, we're a little bit less able to be busy outside of the house. So I think that there's some positives here in terms of bringing the family together around meals, prepared at home and shared together at home.
Host: Thank you so much for your time and for these healthy tips, ladies, that was Ashley Kim, a registered dietician with the Get Up and Go Program at Children's Health, supported by Kohl's Cares. And Dr. Sarah Barlow, the director of the Children's Health Integrated Program in Childhood Obesity and professor at UT Southwestern. Find more information on developing healthy family habits at childrens.com/healthyweight. This has been children's health checkup. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Thanks for listening.