Six tips to start a healthy life style for your children

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1. Breastfeeding

Establish healthy eating habits right from the beginning-by breastfeeding.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dietetic Association recommend breastfeeding as the best way to feed your baby. Try to breastfeed as long as possible, because breast milk not only aids in your baby's eye and brain development, but also lowers your baby's risk of developing allergies and infections. It may even decrease your baby's risk for obesity later in life. When you nurse, you pass the flavors of all the foods you eat on to your baby. And it's a wonderful way to really get to know your baby and learn to read the cues he gives you.

2. Positive parenting

Healthy eating starts with a positive parent-child partnership.

Keeping in tune with your baby's eating cues now is key to how she'll relate to food in the future. Your responsibility is to offer a variety of nutritious choices—your child's responsibility is to decide what and how much to eat. You're partners in this learning adventure.

Some tips to remember:

* Infants understand their bodies and their hunger right from the start. They nurse until they're full and then stop. When your baby starts eating solid foods, watch for the same "I'm full!" or "This is new" cues. If she turns her head away from the spoon, covers her face with her hands, spits out familiar foods or pushes it away, it may be time to stop. Offer something to drink. If your baby still signals "I'm done", it's time to stop. Never force your child to clean her plate.

* Don't use food as a reward for good behavior—this can set up a negative relationship with food. Instead use praise or hugs to reward behavior.

* Offer a wide variety of foods that includes at least one that you know your child likes. Let her choose, but if she decides to eat nothing, respect her choice. She'll make up for the missed calories at the next meal or the next day. A positive partnership with food starts with a positive partnership between you and your child.

3. Keep trying

If he rejects a new food, try, try again!

When you first offer your baby a new food, don't worry if he makes a little face. He may simply be telling you he doesn't recognize the food. All babies are born with an inclination to reject new foods. In fact, research shows that it takes a baby up to 10 exposures before he may decide if he likes a food. So have patience. Here are some other tips for enticing baby to try new foods:

* Try a new food along with a familiar food, even mixing the two together. For example, if baby likes bananas, introduce peaches by mixing them with bananas.

* Don't apply pressure. Any pressure at all—even positive—can slow the acceptance process. Eating should be a positive experience, so don't bribe.

* Set a good example. If you wrinkle your nose at a food or refuse to eat it, your baby may react the same way.

4. Variety

Build your baby's taste buds with variety.

Recent research from the University of Tennessee shows that infants who have early eating experiences with a variety of fruits and vegetables are more likely to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables later when they begin making their own choices. Include fruits and vegetables with varying flavors, colors and textures. Different colors of fruits and vegetables have different nutrients; routinely serving your baby from each color group will provide a unique array of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals. So expand your baby's rainbow!

Variety means choosing different foods within each food group. For example, within the vegetable group, offer carrots, spinach and peas one day, sweet potatoes, corn and green beans the next.

5. Five a Day

As your baby makes the transition from an all-milk diet to one that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, she'll need your help—five times each day.

5 Servings = 2 1/2 Jars

Nutrition experts recommend five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day for older babies.

But how many slices of fruit or tablespoons of veggies equal a serving? Gerber makes it easy. Just remember 2 1/2 jars of our fruits and vegetables meet that daily recommendation. It's the measure of a healthy infant and toddler diet.

"Don't 'trick' your kids into eating fruits and vegetables. Help them learn to enjoy them by offering them a wide variety of good-tasting choices... Cultivate an attitude of curiosity and anticipation..."

Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family

Ellyn Satter, Kelcy Press, 1999

The 5 a Day Goal

1. Introduce the traditional favorites first (applesauce, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes)

2. Later, offer new flavors along with familiar favorites. It may take several tries before your baby learns to like some fruits and vegetables.

3. Respect your child's personal preferences. No one fruit or vegetable is going to make or break your child's diet.

4. Convenience is key. Baby food is easy, safe, portable, nutritious and comes in appropriate portion sizes.

5. Let the colors of the rainbow be your guide each day. The more variety, the better!

Fruits and vegetables provide your growing baby with essential nutrients such as:

* vitamin A for healthy vision and cell growth throughout the body

* vitamin C to keep gums healthy

* potassium for maintaining the fluid balance in your baby's body

* phytonutrients (like beta-carotene and lycopene), which promote health in a number of ways scientists are still discovering

Keep track of how many fruits and vegetables your baby or toddler eats in a day. Download our handy, printable 5-a-Day Feeding Charts now. Go

For more information, visit http://www.5aday.gov

6. Activity: the other side of the healthy habits equation

Will your baby grow up to enjoy participation in sports and other physical activities, moving with confidence and skill? Or prefer a sedentary life? Again, as with eating habits, experts say that you can influence your little one's future preferences by what you teach him now. Nurturing your child's motor skills helps to ensure healthy development and later participation in physical activity. Here are some guidelines for getting your baby started on the road to an active lifestyle:

* Give baby the freedom to wave his arms and kick his legs for long periods of time—do not restrict his movement unless necessary.

* Place your infant on his stomach and encourage him to move about on a clean, blanketed floor. Try placing a rattle or favorite toy just out of his reach.

* Supply your toddler with plenty of child-sized equipment to ride, push, pull, throw, catch, balance on, climb up, and jump safely down from.

* Have your toddler act out imaginative poems and participate in simple body awareness and chase games.

* Establish physical activity as a routine, just like reading a book before bedtime.

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