Answer
In this counseling answer:
•Children may see ads on TV or in the supermarket, but parents still have control over what they are eating for a long time. Use this control to purchase the best foods for them and provide them with only healthy choices at home. If you don’t buy it and have it around, they won’t eat it.
•If they find it difficult to shop without asking for treats, then leave them at home with a babysitter, sibling, father or relative while you shop.
•If they watch TV, have them watch videos rather than cable to reduce their exposure to commercials.
Salam Dear Sister,
Thank you so much for asking this question as I believe many parents have the same worry nowadays with the advertising industry growing at exponential speed, especially for junk foods. Hope you benefit from the advice below.
Develop Their Sense of Taste
Children, when exposed to many healthy nutritious foods more often than unhealthy ones, will develop a better sense of taste. This sense of taste will allow them to distinguish the difference between “real food” and “fake food”.
Make sure that children learn how “real food” tastes from a young age.
•Baby food should be processed by hand or smashed up from freshly cooked homemade foods and not fed to children from jars or cans.
•Toddler snacks should consist of foods like sliced apples, grapes, bits of quality cheeses and fresh breads, and not packaged nutrition bars, snack crackers or cereals.
Check out this counseling video:
•As children grow older and want to try things like hamburgers, ice cream, chocolates, sweets and potato chips, introduce them to the homemade “healthier” versions first.
A child who is raised on mostly healthy and whole foods will naturally migrate back to those foods and will prefer them.
You will notice a child, who has been raised this way, will not even want a hamburger from a fast food place. They will taste it and say “Yuck, this doesn’t taste like a hamburger.”
How to Avoid Junk Food Ads
•Children may see ads on TV or in the supermarket, but parents still have control over what they are eating for a long time. Use this control to purchase the best foods for them and provide them with only healthy choices at home. If you don’t buy it and have it around, they won’t eat it.
•If they find it difficult to shop without asking for treats, then leave them at home with a babysitter, sibling, father or relative while you shop.
•If they watch TV, have them watch videos rather than cable to reduce their exposure to commercials.
Salam,
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