Tips for Parents - WIC South Dakota

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The #1 key to raising healthy eaters is the division of responsibility – Parents Provide, Kids Decide!

Parents and caregivers are responsible for what, when, and where.
The child is responsible for how much and whether to eat.

The division of responsibility applies at all ages, infancy to early childhood to adolescence.

In infancy, it is important to feed your baby on demand, letting him/her determine the timing and tempo of feeding. (See section Feeding Guide: 0-5 month old.)
As baby develops and becomes more regular in his eating patterns, you gradually take on responsibility for when and where to feed.
Most children are ready to join in with family meals and snack routine by the end of the first year. At that point parents focus on what, when, and where.

Parents’ Jobs with Feeding

Whether your child is picky, eats too much or too little, or is too big or too thin, the solution is the same: do your jobs with feeding and let your child do his jobs with eating. Improve the mealtime experience with your children with guidance from the Satter approach.

Choose and prepare the food.
Provide regular meals and snacks at the designated times for your family. A normal routine brings comfort and consistency to a child’s life.
Offer small portions and allow the child to ask for seconds.
Make eating times pleasant.
Step-by-step, show your child by example how to behave at family mealtime.
Be considerate of your child’s lack of food experience without catering to likes and dislikes.
Do not let your child have food or beverages (except for water) between meal and snack times.
Do not use food as a reward, bribe, or means to quiet the child.
Let your child grow into the body that is right for him.

Trust Your Child

Part of your feeding job is to trust your child to:

Eat the amount he needs.
Learn to eat the food you eat.
Grow predictably in the way that is right for him.
Learn to behave well at mealtime.

“Good” Eaters

Children are “good” eaters when they:

Like eating
Are interested in food
Feel good about eating
Like being at the table
Can wait a few minutes to eat when hungry
Can try a new food and learn to like it
Like a lot of different foods
Can eat until full
Can stop when full
Can eat in other places besides home
Can say “no” politely when they don’t want to eat
Can be around new or strange foods without getting upset
Have good table manners
Can “make do” with less-favorite foods

Munch Code

The Munch Code helps you and your family make smart food choices when eating. It uses a traffic light system to label foods as green, yellow, or red to quickly and easily see what food and drinks are a healthy or less healthy choice.

Green foods/drinks are the healthiest option and can be enjoyed often. Think Go!
Yellow foods/drinks may have added sodium and calories and should be eaten occasionally. Think Slow!
Red foods/drinks are the highest in sodium, sugar, fat, and calories, and the least healthy. These foods should be eaten sparingly. The key is not to eliminate all the Red, but keep everything in moderation. Think Stop!

Stop Lights Food Table

Food Group	Green Light	Yellow Light	Red Light
Vegetables	Almost all fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables without added fat and sauces	All vegetables with added fat and sauces	Fried potatoes, like French fries or hash browns
Vegetables		Oven-baked French fries	Other deep-fried vegetables
Fruits	All fresh, frozen, canned (in 100% juice), and dried fruit (without sugar added)	100% fruit juice	Fruits canned in heavy syrup
		Fruits canned in light syrup
		Dried fruits (with added sugar)
Grains	Whole-grain breads, pita bread	White refined flour bread, rice, and pasta	Croissants, muffins, doughnuts, sweet rolls
	Tortillas, pasta, & brown rice	French toast, waffles, pancakes	Crackers made with trans fat
	Hot & cold unsweetened whole grain breakfast cereals	Taco shells, cornbread, biscuits	Sweetened breakfast cereals
Dairy (Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese)	Fat-free or 1% reduced-fat milk	2%, low-fat milk	Whole milk (choose for children age 1-2 years)
	Fat-free or low-fat yogurt	2%, low-fat milk	Full-fat cheese slices
	Part skim, reduced fat, and fat-free cheese	Processed cheese spread	Whole-milk yogurt
	Low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese	Processed cheese spread	Whole-milk yogurt
Protein (Meats, Poultry, Fish, Eggs, Beans, and Nuts)	Trimmed beef and pork	Ham, Canadian bacon	Untrimmed beef and pork
	Extra lean ground beef	Ham, Canadian bacon	Regular ground beef; fried hamburgers
	Chicken and turkey without skin	Chicken and turkey with skin	Ribs, bacon, fried chicken, chicken nuggets
	Peanut butter, nuts and seeds	Low-fat hot dogs	Hot dogs, pepperoni, sausage
	Tuna canned in water	Tuna canned in oil	Fried fish and shellfish
	Eggs (cooked without added fat or salt)	Lunch meats	Whole eggs cooked with fat
Sweets & Snacks	Frozen 100% fruit juice bars	Pretzels	Cookies, cakes, pies, cheese cake
	Frozen 100% fruit juice bars		Ice cream, chocolate, candy, chips
	Low-fat microwave popcorn		Buttered microwave popcorn
Other Calories	Vinegar, ketchup, mustard	Creamy salad dressing	Butter, margarine, lard, gravy
	Fat-free creamy salad dressing	Low-fat mayonnaise	Regular creamy salad dressing, mayonnaise
	Fat-free mayonnaise, fat-free sour cream	Low-fat sour cream	Tartar sauce, sour cream, cheese sauce
	Vegetable oil, olive oil and oil-based salad dressing	Low-fat sour cream	Cream cheese dips
Beverages	Water	2% low-fat milk	Whole milk, regular soda
	Fat-free milk or 1% reduced-fat milk	100% fruit juice	Sweetened iced teas and lemonade
	Fat-free milk or 1% reduced-fat milk	Sports drinks	Fruit drinks with less than 100% fruit juice

Juice Tips

Juice can be part of a healthy diet…just stick to 100% juice and don’t drink too much!

Fruit and 100% fruit juices are excellent dietary sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Folic Acid, Potassium. However, juice does not provide fiber like whole fruits. Fiber is important to make you feel fuller for longer.

Did you know: Juice can cause weight gain, cramps and gas, diarrhea, tooth decay, and poor appetite for healthier foods.

If given, limit to:

½ cup (4 ounces) per day for 1-3 year old
½ – ¾ cup (4-6 ounces) per day for children 4-6 years old
1 cup (8 ounces) for 7-18 year old
No juice is recommended for children less than 1 year.
Children do not need juice every day. Whole fruit is preferred to get additional nutrients and fiber not available in juice.

Tips to reduce juice intake

Be a good role model by making healthy beverage choices like drinking more water.
Dilute it half and half with water.
Offer whole fruit instead of 100% fruit juice when possible.

What to look for

If the label reads 100% vitamin C, it is not necessarily 100% fruit juice.

Avoid products with these names on the label: Flavored Juice Drink, Juice Cocktail, Citrus Beverage, Cherry Limeade
Avoid juice drinks with these added ingredients: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Sucrose

Food Groups

See the Healthy Eating: Food Groups section for more information on food groups and MyPlate.

This post was last updated on October 14th, 2020 at 11:31 AM

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