What should parents do?
Nutrition experts say that there is nothing wrong with children eating an occasional fast food meal as long as less nutrition foods do not regularly replace the healthy ones. From our questionnaires, most of children love eating fast food, and many fast food companies directly aim to them. Hence, parents should tell their children how to eat fast food wisely.
However, it seems very hard to avoid consuming fast food because nowadays there are many restaurants in Thailand, and their advertisement especially aim at children. So, no matter how hard parents try to develop their children?s eating habit, it is going to change easily and there will be a struggle.
Nevertheless, children?s judgment is less mature than adults. They still rely on their family and parents? guidance. This is very important because when they are addicted to fast food, it is very difficult to change if parents do not make a good start, or suddenly coerce them into healthier food. The best way for this might be an understanding conversation between parents and their children about eating healthy food. Parents should carefully select food in every meal- gently add fresh fruits and vegetable little by little each time. They should allow their children to eat fast food occasionally because if parents completely restrict their children not to eat fast food, it might only make it more tempting.During their pre- school, parents should teach their children how to set their meal and take them to grocery (stores) and let them choose some fruits and vegetable they like to eat themselves. Besides at a fast food restaurant, parents should advice children to select a grilled chicken instead a fried one or milk instead of soda (that means they can order a better fast food choices) Due to this, parents will see the capabilities of children growth astronomically. If parents do not follow a natural signs that children are ready to help, they will lose the window of opportunity. But if children are properly prepared, once they enter school they are more likely to choose healthy food as this choice (said Jane Rees, director of nutrition service/ education in adolescent medicine and lecturer in pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Public health).
Nevertheless, even children who have developed a taste for nutritious food may change their eating habits when they become teenagers. In addition, teenagers normally like to experiment everything, including risky eating behavior. They might gravitate toward highly processed foods, but once they become older, they are likely to return to the healthy eating habits.
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