The Window of Opportunity for Teaching Your Kids Great Eating Habits
Dr. Greene’s take on great eating habits…
What does mother goose have to do with getting kids to eat right?
Researcher Konrad Lorentz showed that by replacing a mother goose with something else as the first thing a baby goose encountered, he could alter the behavior of the baby goose to view that thing (even a toy train!!) as ‘mama’.
This phenomenon is referred to as “imprinting,” and it works just as well for “what’s for dinner?” as it does for “who’s mama?”
But there’s a catch – it only works for a short while.
If you want your children to make healthy food choices almost instinctually, you have just a couple of years to give your kids the right message about what to eat to keep them healthy.
Watch this video where I discuss the impact of ‘food imprinting’ and getting kids to fall in love with real food
Make sure that your kids smell the aromas of the foods you want them to learn to like early in life. AND you want them to see you eating healthy food as well.
We’d love to hear from you in the comments below! Tell me what you can do to put this in to practice in your family.
Or do you have some eating habits that you use in your family that already have them loving nutritious food?
Talk with you soon!
– Dr. Alan Greene
Alan Greene MD
Our goal is to improve children's health by inspiring parents to become knowledgable partners who can work with their children's physicians in new and rich ways.
Recent Comments
Will your idea cultivate student appreciation of the natural environment by getting the students outside?
We are vegan, and my 15mo boy eats peas, edamame, Tempe, Nori, hemp seeds and hemp seed bars, smoothies, hemp milk, cooked carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, Aduki and a few other light beans, coconut yogurt, some fruit like red grapes and watermelon. He doesn’t like things that are too sweet. He’s gluten, corn and peanut free. He eats so well and is so healthy! (No colds or sickness).
It pays to feed your baby what works for them.
So what if i missed my window of opportunity? Is there any types for when parents miss the window of opportunity?
Make your opportunity! I started late in life, becoming a non-dairy, non-potato, no-onion vegetarian/pescetarian at age 50, after being put on an invalid pension because of severe back problems. I used my time to study Kinesiology, (became a Kinesiologist), Nutrition, Sports therapy, became a Rei-ki master, pranic healer, and Rolfing practitioner.
The best and healthies thing you can possibly do for your children is; Wean them after breast feeding. There is absolutely no need to bottle feed them cow’s milk after the age of 2.
If your offspring is male then dairy has additional problems as it is a delivery system of heaps of pregnant female hormones, and the link between cancer and dietary hormones – estrogen in particular – has been a source of great concern among scientists, according to Dr. Ganmaa Davaasambuu. And estrogen isn’t the only one to worry about. There is also progesterone, prolactin, melatonin, oxytocin, and hormones like gastrointestinal peptides and hypothalamic hormones.
Better wean them now!
Love this!!