Episode 46: Toddler and kids snacks

Episode 46: Toddler and kids snacks

Let’s face it – our little ones love to snack! From lunchbox staples to quick, grab-and-go bento box ideas, I’m sharing my best tips for choosing healthier snack options for kids, particularly those aged 18 months and above.

We’ll unpack everything from muesli bars to rice cakes, and I’ll call out brands that deceive parents with false health claims. Plus, I’ve got some healthier, parent-approved alternatives you can confidently pick up at the supermarket.

Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

7 Ways I Keep My Kids Healthy and Happy (00:00.00)
Raising Children: A Holistic Approach (02:22.37)
Holistic Health Tips for Kids: Focus on Gut and Immune Health Through Fiber and More (04:37.984)
Boosting Kids' Immunity: Fiber, Zinc, Vitamin C, and Healthy Snack Ideas (06:52.578)
Gut Health and Active Kids: The Power of Fiber and Physical Play (09:07.704)
The Screen Time Dilemma: Finding Balance for Kids' Mental Health and Wellbeing (13:43.746)
Screen Time and Mental Health Impact on Children(16:03.586)
Limiting Screen Time for Children (18:21.902)
Promoting Colorful Eating for Children (20:39.778)
Iron Deficit and Dairy Consumption (23:03.96)
Limiting Dairy Consumption and Providing Time for Children (25:20.724)
Parenting and Taking Time for Children (27:36.654)
Role Modeling Body Image in Children (29:56.14)
Parental Eating and Body Image (32:23.086)
Mindfulness in Parenting and Child Health (34:46.252)
Self-Talk and Child Development (36:55.342)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Key Discussion Points:

Here are the updated discussion points with headlines and descriptions:

1. Unmasking Snack Marketing Myths

Learn how to spot misleading claims like “97% yoghurt” that trick parents into thinking they’re buying healthy snacks.

2. The Reality of Food Standards in Australia

Understand why current regulations allow excessive amounts of sugar and salt in toddler snacks, and what we can do about it.

3. Decoding Nutrition Labels

Tips for navigating confusing labels so you can make informed decisions about what’s really healthy for your kids.

4. Top Healthy Snacks to Choose

Discover my favourite snack options that are low in sugar, nutritious, and easy to pack for toddlers.

5. Alternatives to Deceptive Snacks

Swap out unhealthy, misleading products with real, wholesome alternatives that your kids will love.

For more recipes and snack ideas, visit Kids Recipes https://nourishwithkarina.com/kids-recipes).

Show Notes:

- Kids Recipes https://nourishwithkarina.com/kids-recipes

- Follow me on Instagram for more snack tips and reels!

7 Ways I Keep My Kids Healthy and Happy | (00:00)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 47. Seven ways I try to keep my kids healthy and happy. Hi there, I'm karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.
Welcome back to another episode of the Easy Feed. I hope you're really well. Today I want to talk about how I keep my kids healthy and happy or how I try to keep my kids healthy and happy. My daughter's just had a bout of the, well, I guess you'd call it the flu, had virus and she was lucky to make her school camp actually. Luckily it passed through her in time for her to be able to go and camp. know, camp is a much anticipated.
part of the year, especially for year sixes because it's their final camp of the junior primary school experience. And so she was lucky actually, because she kind of picked up the bug the week before. So she could actually get to camp. yeah, look, you know, you can't avoid these things. We do what we can to keep our kids happy and healthy. But sometimes sickness is unavoidable and it's not, you know, through anything that you've done. It's just that bugs are around, right?
So today I talk about things that I do to try to keep my kids healthy and happy, our children, should say, you know, have my husband around as well. And yeah, it's something that is a work in progress. You do the best you can. Certainly not perfect. You shouldn't expect to be perfect or aim to be perfect because then you set yourself up for failure. And, you know, that's not saying you shouldn't have standards, but...
I think sometimes we expect too much of ourselves, which can then lead us to feeling like we're not good enough. So definitely these things are things that I try to do, the things that I share with you, but no one's perfect. I'm not perfect. They're things that I think that are important to health. And that's why I want to share them with you today, because I think they are tips that if you can.
Raising Children: A Holistic Approach (02:22.37)
keep in mind, then it can certainly help to contribute to your child's overall health and wellbeing. And these tips aren't necessarily all food and nutrition related. They are a bit more generalist, but I think, you know, you've got to look at your child's health holistically. It's yes, absolutely food is medicine and it's so important, the food that you put into their body. But
Raising kids is more than just the food that you're putting into them. It's a holistic approach. You know, it's sleep, it's time, it's connection, it's all sorts of things. So I'm going to touch on my top seven or seven things that I try to focus on today. And then perhaps we'll talk about other things other days, but I'm going to give you my top seven today. My number one today is gut and immune health. So the things that I focus on to ensure that my kids got
and immune health is as good as it can be. And look, you know, no one's perfect, but it's all the way I can progress. Is to make sure that firstly, they are getting as much fibre rich foods as possible. Now I will talk about fruit and veg a bit later, but I also wanted to make special mention of fibre because really fibre is the nutrient that makes everything work better. If you can give your children fibre, you are
feeding the gut bugs in their bowel, then in turn that is keeping their gut health strong, their immune health strong. And then what that means is that there's healthy bacterial communities in the gut. And then that actually has significant impact on their systemic health because when the microbes in our bowel munch on fibre, they produce what we call messengers.
These messengers then travel to the brain, which is what we know as the gut brain access. These messengers travel everywhere and they influence our health. So, fiber rich foods really is the, it's not so sexy as other names that you might hear. P-biotics, probiotics, post-biotics is a new one now actually that we'll be talking about a bit more in the future. But really at the end of the day.
Holistic Health Tips for Kids: Focus on Gut and Immune Health Through Fiber and More (04:37.984)
It starts with fiber. So fiber is what we know as a prebiotic. Fiber is what feeds the probiotics, the microbes in your gut. So probiotics are bugs that we add to our system to boost our microbiome. And look, this isn't meant to be a microbiome podcast episode, and I could absolutely do one. But fiber is the starting point. If we can, I mean, obviously we have to have the healthy bugs in there to start with, but fiber.
feeds the healthy bugs and it keeps everything working. keeps the system working well. Now, if your kids are like my kids and they love white bread, it's about trying to move them to a wholemeal or a grainy. And look, I used to have my kids on grainy bread and then I sort of lost that battle along the way. The older they get, I think the fussy they can get sometimes. I mean, I know that peak fussy eating age is between the ages of two and four, but then...
They also start to see what other kids are having at school. And that's when I think, you you find whole new challenges with feeding kids. look, I think a good one, a good compromise is a wholemeal bread and wholemeal bread actually has more fiber in it than grainy bread, believe it or not. Grainy bread still trumps wholemeal bread from a nutritional perspective because you've got the whole grain. So you've got the outer layer, you've got the inner middle layer, and then you've got the
So the outer layer is the husk where it's very high in fibre and then you've got that middle starchy layer and then you've got the inside layer which is where you have the wheat germ and the healthy fats. So grainy bread where it's got the grains intact is still more nutritious in general than wholemeal bread but wholemeal bread is higher in fibre and it's still very nutritious. It's a great source of iron.
And so wholemeal bread is definitely something that I would not feel guilty about my kids having because it's still very nutritious and you're still feeding their gut bugs a good amount of fibre. Oats are another brilliant way of boosting fibre. Oats can be put into cookies. They can be made, you know, in porridge, overnight oats. Other fibre rich foods, things like chia, another great option, chia pudding. My members have got access to all my recipes, which include the cookies have oats.
Boosting Kids' Immunity: Fiber, Zinc, Vitamin C, and Healthy Snack Ideas (06:52.578)
The chia pudding's a great one. Black bean brownies, another great one. Legumes are a beautiful source of fibre and iron and protein. So trying to increase their snacks that have fibre is a great way to ensure that over the days and the weeks and the months, they're getting a bit more fibre. Nuts and seeds are another great source of fibre. Popcorn is another great source of fibre.
I wouldn't talk about popcorn as being, you know, the healthy food that you must eat because it's got fiber in it. And also has iron in it, by the way. I would just put it in their lunchbox and say, here's part of your, here's part of your day. Just choose the one that's got a little less salt. And I quite like the Cobb's range because they typically have around the 350 milligrams of sodium per hundred grams, not too high.
So just be mindful of the sodium, but popcorn is a whole grain. It's high in fibre, it's high in iron, it's a good option. Other nutrients that are valuable to immune health, vitamin C and zinc. Now vitamin C we typically get enough of. I mean, unless your child had literally not one fruit or vegetable past their lips, then vitamin C might become a problem. And I've certainly seen kids like that.
But if your child has a little bit of fruit and vegetables, like potatoes even have vitamin C, right? Herbs are rich in vitamin C. So most of the time children will meet their vitamin C requirements. Zinc is another good one for the immune system. And zinc is often found in those protein foods, also nuts and seeds. So zinc is something that I think is beneficial to boost during times of sickness. So for example, my daughter's recently been sick.
So I did give her a bit of extra zinc vitamin C. I really liked the Armoforce for juniors because it's got all of that in there as well as Antigrapus and Elderberry. So zinc and vitamin C I think are good to boost during times of sickness, but you don't necessarily have to supplement them all the time. In fact, it's not good to supplement them with vitamin C unless there's literally not a fruit of it to all that passes their lips. So all in all, my number one is that gut health is...
Gut Health and Active Kids: The Power of Fiber and Physical Play (09:07.704)
crucial and fiber plays a massive role in that. Fruits and vegetables 100 % play a role in that as well. I'm just not talking about them a lot in my number one, because I'm going to talk about them again, but try to keep the skins on as much as possible. I'm not talking about eating a banana skin or a kiwi fruit skin, well, you can do that if you want, but typically not. But definitely things like apples and pears, because you're getting more fiber and you're actually getting more nutrition in the nutrients just under the skin. Or even if your child's not.
at the point where they will eat a whole apple that's got skin on it. You can do two things. You can either half peel it. So you kind of leave stripes on the apple or you can finally slice it into what I call apple chips. So round, thin apple chips with a tiny bit of peel on the outside. So that can be a good way to try and transition them over to eating fruit with the skin on it. Same with the veggies. Leave the skin on the carrot. Don't peel the carrot. It's a lot more nutrition and fibre.
Same with potatoes, if you're roasting potatoes, leave the skin on. So, fibre is my number one. That is the biggest contributing factor to gut health. And then making sure that you leave the skin on for the vegetables, you boost their fibre, you give them cookies with oats in them, as much as possible, because all those little things add up, they make a big difference in the long run. Okay, so that's my number one.
Moving on to number two of my seven. So the second thing that I focus on for my children is to keep them moving and active. Now this is important for a number of reasons. Number one, for their health to be physically active. Number two, for social reasons. I think sport is wonderful for kids from a social, emotional perspective, especially team sports. I love team sports for kids. So I think sports great from that perspective is great for confidence.
boosting and it's also good because it keeps them off the screens and screens is something we'll talk about a little bit later, but just getting them out. If you're going to the playground, they can run around the playground or facilitating a playdate where, you know, they meet their mate at the park and they just kick a footy. think these days, unless you're blessed to have kids that are next door neighbors, that your kids can just run between the houses or you've got a cul-de-sac and you're not worried about.
Balancing Play and Screens: Raising Active, Engaged Kids in the Digital Age (11:24.75)
I feel like these days kids just don't go and play on the streets so easily. And that's a problem because they're not out and about. They're not mixing necessarily with other kids unless you facilitate a play date. And they're also likely to be on screens more. And I think that's got a whole host of other complications and problems associated with it. So as much as possible, keeping them moving, keeping them active. Yes, organised sports great, but taking them to the park, running around.
Going for runs in the morning, obstacle races in the backyard, anything that keeps them moving and active is going to be good for their health. It's going to be good for their blood sugar control. It's going to be good because, know, psychologically they're out and about. They might be in nature. There's so many benefits to being outdoors and moving. So that's another big one that I think is important and that I try and do for my kids. And moving on to number three, a good segue to that is limiting the screens. Now I think screen time is one of the
most challenging parts of parenting children in this day and age. And I certainly find it really challenging around screens. My kids are 10 and 12. And it's especially problematic for me. Well, it's both ages, but you know, my son's definitely attracted to the games, you know, with his friends. And then my daughter's more attracted to the, the girls' shows series. And so she'll tend to...
watch shows and then talk to her friends and he'll be on a game and talking to his friends. So look, whilst they are still socializing with their friends, like they're on a call, they're talking, they're not, you know, physically outdoors kicking the ball with their friends and they're on screens. And so I don't like that because these games especially are addictive.
And then it's just dopamine hit after dopamine hit after dopamine hit. And yeah, as I said, I think it's one of the biggest challenges that parents in this day and age face. And I certainly feel tremendous guilt around the amount of time that my kids spend on screens. And it's possibly, you know, not nearly as bad as some other kids, but you know, hey, who's judging? Because really at the end of the day, it would be best if they had literally no screen time at all during the week and maybe
The Screen Time Dilemma: Finding Balance for Kids' Mental Health and Wellbeing (13:43.746)
You know, one hour per day on the weekends. That would be my goal, but I just find it so hard to stick to that because they just tend to like sneak in and grab a bit of screen time whenever they can. And whenever you're paying attention and then all of a sudden they're on a screen, you're like, hang on a minute. I didn't think you'd go on that. It's just so hard unless you're on it all the time. They'll just grab any opportunity to jump on a screen. And I think, you know, because
They feel like it's restricted. It's like the forbidden fruit. So then they want it more. So, but you don't necessarily just want to give them a free for all either because it's not good for them. So I find screen time really challenging, but definitely it's a focus of mine to limit the screens. And I would ideally love to have no screens during the week and just limit to like maybe two hours on a Saturday and two hours on a Sunday. But for me, that's yeah, that's my biggest challenge. So look.
It's coming up school holidays, so the screen time will go up, but during the school term, that was something that we were really trying to stick to is like no screens during the weekend, just a bit on the weekends. I was recently up in Queensland doing a talk to a beautiful group of mums and the speaker after me was talking about screen time and she was from a company called Screen Sanity. It's a not-for-profit organization. It's a
Fantastic organization. would encourage you to check it out. They want more ambassadors. We want to get the word out. We really want to support other parents to reduce screen time. They told some amazing stories and they gave some incredible statistics around screen time and the negative impact on our children's mental health, social and emotional wellbeing. It is phenomenal.
And I think it's something that we know deep down is a problem and we know deep down is affecting them. But I don't think we understand the extent to which our children's exposure and addiction to screens and smartphones is causing them health problems. And mental health problems is the biggest one. There were some pretty sad statistics on self-harming behaviors.
Screen Time and Mental Health Impact on Children(16:03.586)
the incidents of that, how it's tripled. And they're based in Queensland and they came out and said only a few days prior that there was a comment made from the Queensland Minister of Health. One of the parliamentarians from Queensland was talking about screens and smartphones being basically the new health pandemic for children. So it's not COVID, it's screens.
basically the negative impact that screens have on mental health, on anxiety, on self wellbeing is significant. And so it's something that I think we just need to keep working on and keep the conversation going with, because it's something that we're all up against as parents. And it's something that we all need to continue to band together. And I think, you know, if we're all singing the same song to a certain extent, it makes it a lot easier because otherwise you get
You know, kids going, but such and such is on all the time. And then it makes you feel like the bad parent. they're probably not on all the time. So if we're all having that open conversations and we're all, you know, not that you all have to have the same rules, but if we're all trying to do the same thing or similar things in terms of reducing screen time, reducing that mental health impact of the smartphones and screens on our children.
then that kid's going to be better for it. So hopefully moving forwards, we can continue the conversation and yeah, support each other in terms of limiting screens. And maybe for my child, would be, especially for my son, when he doesn't have something on in the afternoon, that's when I find it really hard to get him through the afternoon. And I just need to be a tougher mom and say outside, my friend bless her like the other week, she actually locked her kids out of the house, locked the doors.
out of the house and she goes, I'm sick of them coming in and just laying around the couch and watching screens all afternoon after school. So she literally locked them out of the house so that they were out and about. And it just so happened that I was across the road at another friend's house. And so her son walked in and he ended up just playing with the rest of the kids because he was forced to be outside. It made him go out and made him be physically active and made him socialize. And so.
Limiting Screen Time for Children (18:21.902)
I think on those nights when my son doesn't have sport or same with my daughter, especially my son though, like if I can organize something or if he can just be out and about like bouncing around the trampoline, I just have to be tougher with saying no, outside, outside, outside all the time, you know, get outside. mean, if it's pouring with rain, of course you're not and then you have to do something else. But I find that I don't have the confidence often to just push him to be bored. And then I give in too easily to screens. And so I just need to.
be tougher on that and I'm going to continue to work on that because it's just hard, right? They get you when you're down, they ask you about 10 or 15 times and then on the 16th you finally give in. So it's just a work in progress. But I think limiting the screens is something that I will continue to focus on. It's definitely in my top of things that I think are important to keep my kids healthy because screens I feel contribute very negatively to a child's overall wellbeing most of the time.
Yes, they're good if you need to Google something for a school project, but on the whole, I don't think that they are hugely beneficial to our children's wellbeing. Moving on to number four. Number four, I feel, needs to go to plant foods. And the reason it needs to go to plant foods is because children need vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, all of those important...
what I call phytochemicals or nutrients to keep their immune system really strong and functioning so that they can fight off sickness. They don't get sick all the time and they're feeling good. So I mean, yes, we all need fruit and vegetables and phytochemicals and all the good stuff, but if we can prioritise it and just remember to offer them something that's colourful every time they eat.
Without realizing it, you will make a big difference to their daily, their weekly, their monthly, their annual intake of plant foods. I think I've talked about this on a previous podcast where, you know, just simply having two extra mouthfuls of fruit or vegetables every day over the weeks and the months and years adds up to a significant amount of extra fruits and vegetables and vitamins and minerals. And so it doesn't seem like much, but simply throwing a bowl of
Promoting Colorful Eating for Children (20:39.778)
blueberries in front of them next to their cereal or chopping up a banana onto their weebigs or putting some chopped carrot and some cherry tomatoes next to a cheese toastie at lunchtime. So always trying to put some colour next to the food that they're eating, whether it's a main meal or a snack. Now I love a good platter for snacks. I think that's a great way to incorporate plant foods, fruits and vegetables. And by plant foods, we could also mean nuts and seeds and whatnot.
Popcorn's probably more in the carb range, although popcorn does contain fibre and iron. But for the purpose of this, I'm talking about fruits and vegetables. And that's where I would do fruit three times and veggies three times. So I would offer fruit with breakfast, morning tea and supper. And I would offer veggies at lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. And literally just try and pop something there six times a day. Whether they eat it or not is another story.
And we can talk about that another time, but definitely I would incorporate plant foods into their meals six times a day. And if you say, they don't have dessert or supper, then that's fine. Just do it five times. But I would always try to offer something colourful every time they eat. And that will just help to boost their intake. But even if they don't eat any of it, that exposure and subconsciously them being exposed to colour all the time.
because we know kids eat foods that are familiar to them. And if you are constantly putting these colorful foods in front of them, then eventually they will get used to it and they will start to eat more of these as well. Okay. Moving on to number five. Number five is something that I pay attention to firstly, because my daughter is vegetarian and she doesn't eat meat and I'm containing foods from animals. So I'm always really cautious about.
making sure she's getting enough iron. And on that note, I then have to watch dairy as well, because I believe dairy is one of the significant inhibitors of iron intake and absorption, because our kids fill up on dairy, they fill up on milk, yogurt, cheese, custard, at the expense of iron rich foods. So they're filling up on these dairy foods, they're not eating the nuts.
Iron Deficit and Dairy Consumption (23:03.96)
the seeds, the black bean brownie, because they're having another piece of cheese and another tub of yoga and ice cream or a glass of milk. So it's a problem because they're not eating the iron rich foods because they're having dairy, but also dairy can inhibit the absorption of iron. So it's through the protein and also the calcium interaction with the iron. So if you're ever needing an iron supplement, don't have it around dairy because it will inhibit the absorption. So for my kids, I'm conscious of not only
you know, keeping up the colour and the plant foods, but also the iron rich foods, because that is something that's very, very common. In my Nourishing Kids membership, we talk about it a lot. We talk about iron deficiency a lot. We talk about supplementation and iron rich foods because it's very common for many reasons. We fussy eaters definitely, but then things like reflux medication can increase your risk of nutrient deficiency, increase. Iron deficiency risk, increase. B12 deficiency risk, because
It inhibits the absorption of these nutrients. So for many reasons, we are seeing a lot of iron deficiency, especially in young kids. We know that 20 % of young kids do not get enough dietary iron and that's why they are low in iron or deficient in iron. So for my kids too, I do focus on it just to make sure that we are.
nourishing them and getting enough iron in. I'm always conscious of making sure that I've got vitamin C rich foods with the iron rich foods to maximise the absorption of iron there as well. Putting vitamin C rich foods with the iron rich foods such as spinach or eggs or baked beans or edamame, which is something that we use a lot of in our house, will triple the absorption of the iron from the edamame. So it's really important to put vitamin C rich foods with the iron rich foods.
Now with dairy, I would definitely limit to any child over the age of two, I would definitely limit to 300 mils of milk per 24 hours. And this is something that was a consensus years ago when I went to an international pediatric gastroenterology nutrition conference. There was that discussion around how, you know, too much dairy displaces the intake of other nutritious foods. So we really need to watch the amount of
Limiting Dairy Consumption and Providing Time for Children (25:20.724)
milk and dairy that they're having. So I would limit to just over a cup of milk per day for your child. Or less, like if they're not, if they're dairy free, totally fine. You just need to make sure they're getting enough calcium from a supplement. A plant milk, and my preference there is a soy milk, a fortified soy milk, because that's going to be the best substitute from an amino acid and nutritional quality of the protein perspective.
and make sure that it's supplemented with calcium. So for something like the VitaSoy Calciplus, I think is a great one. Yes, it has a little bit of sugar, but it's still less than cow's milk in terms of its total sugar content. And it's a very nutritious option, especially for a dairy-free diet. Okay. The next one we're moving on to is about giving our kids our time. And this is something that is a focus for me.
for their, I guess, not so much for their physical gut health, but it's more from their mental health perspective and happiness perspective because at the end of the day, all your children want apart from love and security is your time. And I find that this is something that I need to make a priority because it's so easy to go, hang on a minute, in a minute, let me just do this. And then the moment's gone.
And then something's happened, like even for example, yesterday, my son was like, mommy, can you help me get this? Cause he wanted to show my mum who's visiting us at the moment, staying with us. He wanted to show her his racing car game and he's got this steering wheel, right? That he was given to play this racing car game, but the steering wheel needs to be screwed into the desk.
He was asking me if I could help him to screw it onto the table so that he could then just show my mum the racing car game and do a race and show her, cause he was proud of himself. And then he could, you know, get ready for bed and read. Anyway, I was still doing something in the kitchen and you know, sometimes you just can't go to them because I think it was tidying up. But he's like, mum, can you help me or can someone help me?
Parenting and Taking Time for Children (27:36.654)
Well, in a minute, and then he's tried to do it on his own and then it's quite heavy and it's fallen and it's hurt his ankle and he's ended up in tears. And it's like, Oh, well, I just gone and helped him. Then that wouldn't have happened. I'm really mindful of trying to take that opportunity to spend that time with them for them to show me what they wanted to show me. Maybe they were, and often he does this too. He's like, mommy, can you just come outside? I just want to show you my.
my shooting, my basketball shooting. I'd be like, in a minute. And then I'd catch myself and I'm like, no, just stop what you're doing and just go out and just watch him shoot a few hoops. Often it's because they're proud of something that they've achieved and they just want to show it to you and they just want to share it with you. And for you, you value it, but then you're also in the middle of something. So you're like, hang on a minute. So I'm trying to catch myself and I'm still.
got a long way to go with this, but I'm trying to catch myself a little more and actually go, you know what? I'm just going to drop tools. I am actually, my mom even commented, she's like, was really sweet to see you playing handball with Lucky the other night. And I did, I was like, all I'm just going to stop what I'm doing and we just can play some handball. So I'm really mindful of that because you don't get these years back. You don't get that time back when they're 17 or 18 and they're off with their mates and they don't want you to play handball with them.
So I'm really mindful of trying to give them my time. And I'm trying to catch myself when I am not prioritizing that when I can. mean, sometimes you do need to get dinner ready. Sometimes you do need to do things. Sometimes you do need to work, right? And they need to go off and play with, you know, whatever and be bored. Because I think that's another thing. I just want my kids to be bored more. I want to have the confidence to say to them, no, go and be bored. And that's again, my confidence as a parent to say.
No, not be a yes mum, but if you can spend that time with them, then do. Okay, moving on to number seven of my seven ways that I try to keep my kids healthy and happy because I just feel that they're all important in one way or another and they're quite varied, but I think they're all valuable. So number seven for me is being a really good role model in how I
Role Modeling Body Image in Children (29:56.14)
behave around my body and how I talk about my body and how I talk about other people as well. And sometimes I'll catch myself and I'll be like, I shouldn't have said that. Because it's really important that A, we role model a love of our own body and all our jiggly bits and all our, you know, the bits that we don't love and the bits that we do love. But to our kids, we need to show self-love and self-compassion. It's so important from
our kids' perspective that we have a really positive body image because especially as mums and as fathers, we have the most powerful influence over how our kids love their bodies. And look, working in the children's hospital for the first 10 years of my career, I saw significant disordered eating and kids that had a really dysfunctional relationship with food and often it came from their parents.
And something happened, either something was said to the child or their parents themselves have disordered eating habits and poor body image. And it really impacts the child. And, you know, when they're in hospitals, of course, they're significantly medically affected as well as psychologically affected. But I think it all starts at home and them seeing how you behave around food, but also your own body image. So if you're eating chocolate.
Don't verbalize, don't say, I shouldn't eat this, it's going to make me fat or it's bad food or I'm trying to cut back. All of that stuff. Don't say that around your kids because they'll pick up on all of that. You don't want your daughter in 10 years time to say the same thing, right? Because they remember all of this. So how we are around food and how we talk about food or our bodies is really valuable. And it's really, really important that we are positive around this. And same with other people, you know, if someone that's obese, it's walking down the street.
perhaps don't comment on their obesity. And if someone else does, you can say, well, some people live in larger bodies, some people are in smaller bodies, but really I'm trying to limit or avoid any fat shaming or crude comments because you just don't know what's going on in their little brains and you just have to be really careful. So it's important too for girls and boys that may be around. And I see a lot of parents who have girls between the age of say,
Parental Eating and Body Image (32:23.086)
nine and 12, and they're just storing that extra bit of fat around their bellies. And the parents were worried because they haven't had that growth spurt yet. And it's such a tricky and delicate situation because you don't want to create a situation where the child becomes hyper-focused on what they eat because it's that slippery slope down the eating disorder path. so I always say, if they are a little bit
chunky around the middle, they are going to grow into their weight. They are going to grow up. They will stretch out. And the most important thing you can do right now is role model healthy eating behaviors, role model self love for your body. And also perhaps talk about mindful eating, head hunger versus tummy hunger, keep them active and just try and ride it out. Because the more of a thing you make it, the more of a thing it becomes. If you start trying to restrict.
then food becomes a forbidden fruit and then that leads to disordered eating behaviours as well. So you don't want to over restrict food, but at the same time, you want to teach them to have healthy eating behaviours and a healthy relationship with food where you've got everyday foods and sometimes foods. So I find it's a, it's a minefield and we do the best we can. But as parents, I think we really need to be aware of how we are with our own bodies, how we talk about our own bodies. You know, if you're in the
bathroom and you just had a shower and your son or daughter comes in to brush their teeth and you know, there's discussion about your body, then it's really important that you show love and compassion for your body. You know, I love my bum or I love that jiggly beard or, you know, you make a joke of it, but it's so powerful when they can see you're happy and you accept your body the way it is. Because then they're much more likely to do the same thing.
You know, we're their teachers for life in everything and how we feel about our bodies, how we talk about our bodies, how we talk about their bodies. If they want to have a conversation about their body, then they've got to be really positive about that and talk about their body being strong and fast. And it's very powerful when you use words like that. Really avoid any discussion about fat, skinny, throw all the scales out, hate scales. The only reason you would use a scale is if for medical reasons.
Mindfulness in Parenting and Child Health (34:46.252)
You really had to weigh a child, but the rest of the time, I hate when I wish they didn't exist or a baby that's not growing properly or not gaining weight quickly enough. That's when you need scales, but for all other situations, don't ever let your kids see you weighing yourself. I think that's another thing that is a problem. So just be really mindful about how you are. And that's something that I'm always.
mindful of in front of my kids and I've definitely told them how much I love my, even the jiggly bits or, I can't even remember what our last conversation was and we wouldn't have them very often. They're very occasional, but I'm very, very mindful of being positive whenever a discussion comes up. And I'm also mindful of when I am eating, you know, chocolate or chips or whatever that.
Again, there's no self-shaming, there's no discussion about being a good food or a bad food. You're just enjoying it. It's just a food. All right. Well, wasn't that a real melting pot of different conversations about how I am wanting to keep my kids healthy and happy right now? Keeping them moving and active and off screens or limiting the screens, keeping up the fruits and the vegetable exposure, the plant foods.
watching iron rich foods and vitamin C and limiting dairy, giving them more of my time, spending more time with them wherever possible. And then being really mindful about how we talk about our own bodies, how we role model eating junk food in front of our kids and also eating the healthy stuff in front of our kids. Cause that is so powerful as well. And you'll hear me talking about that all the time, but that benefit of
eating good foods in front of your kids subconsciously plants so many seeds. And I talk about this all the time in my membership in my three week feeding kids reset, which is my flagship fussy eating program. And also with my members in the nourishing kids membership, you get my fussy eating program, the three week feeding kids reset. You get all of the strategies. And I do talk a lot about that, you know, importance of eating with your kids and role modeling those healthy eating behaviors. So, but definitely that awareness of
Self-Talk and Child Development (36:55.342)
self-talk and how you talk about yourself and what you eat is so powerful because remember kids see you, they listen to you, they absorb everything, stuff that you don't even realise. Your external words can become their internal words. So just be really mindful about what you say. All right, I will wrap it up there. Thanks so much for spending the time with me. I hope that you have a wonderful week and I will chat to you soon. Bye for now.