Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: healthy eating + healthy son + healthy  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

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How can I persuade my son to eat healthy foods?

 You need to establish whether your son's diet is inadequate in terms of quantity or variety. If you are concerned he is not growing normally ask your GP or health visitor to check by plotting his weight and height on a growth chart. Even if his growth is satisfactory the way he is eating may be affecting his vitamin and mineral intake.

Eating a limited range of foods as your son does is called selective eating. Your son is typical in that he favours certain types or brands of food, often choosing cold or finger foods. Selective eating is often present from an early age and usually children grow out of it, especially when they start mixing and eating with other children at school.

However children can get stuck with the habit and need help. This is more likely if there are other areas of development causing concern or where eating patterns are upsetting the child. Your son's Asperger's syndrome may make it more difficult for him to break his selective eating habit.

Helping your son needs a broad approach. First he needs to be checked to make sure he is physically healthy. His GP can not only measure his growth but also take a blood test to check he is not anaemic as a result of taking in too little iron, folic acid or vitamin B12. Iron deficiency is more common in children who eat no meat or fish.

As your son eats chicken, turkey and sausages his iron levels may turn out to be fine. Other foods also contain iron, but not in such an easily absorbable form. These include some vegetables especially those with dark green leaves such as broccoli and spinach; I know very few children who readily eat these.

A better option may be to encourage your son to eat iron fortified foods such as breakfast cereals. You can also improve your son's ability to absorb iron from foods by including vitamin C (found in green vegetables, citrus fruits such as oranges and fruit juices), for example he may be happy to drink fresh orange or apple juice with his meals.

Try working out with your son how his eating fads are affecting his day to day life, for example at school lunchtime or when he visits friends' houses or goes to parties. He is old enough to think about these aspects of his eating and having him on your side in whatever plans you make together is more likely to succeed. See if he can come up with one new food item a month which he will try to start eating - examples might be pizza, milkshake, tangerines - but try to let him make the suggestion.

In the end you need to work out the pros and cons of changing his eating. If you suggest the above idea and he immediately refuses to even try do not force the issue but have another go in six months' time. If he is unworried by his present eating habits, is growing normally and is not anaemic, you may find it less stressful for all of you to give him a vitamin supplement that contains B vitamins and iron.

As he eats cheese he is probably getting enough calcium and vitamin D. If you give him a multivitamin supplement do not exceed the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for his age. Most packets display this information. High doses of vitamins A and D can be toxic. For further information about mineral and vitamin supplements look at the web site : www.hsis.org