In case you haven’t noticed the decorations in the stores or the extra
colorful catalogs in your mailbox, here’s a little reminder: the
holiday season is upon us. Officially, it kicks off on Thanksgiving and
lasts until the football bowl games are over in January.
And while the holidays are mostly a jolly ol’ time -- who wouldn’t want
to be a kid again on Christmas morning? -- it’s also a time of added
stress: for parents as well as kids.
One of the significant problems around the holidays for kids stems from
poor eating habits and nutrition, said Margo Humenczuk, a registered
dietitian with The Children’s Mercy Hospital.
"Around the holidays, schedules tend to get disrupted, kids tend to get
overstimulated and it’s hard to get them to settle down to eat,’’
Humenczuk said.
And all parents know what happens when their children fail to get their
meals ... Ho, ho, ho.
The change around the holidays for children -- at least when it comes
to food, eating and nutrition -- can lead to what Humenczuk said is
called the "runabout child syndrome."
It can be described this way: disrupted schedules lead to irregular
meal times and overstimulation. By the time kids get their meals, they
may be too overstimulated to eat. They may skip healthy meals
altogether and grab less healthy snack foods on the run, setting them
up to forego the next meal.
A few days of a more routine schedule and regular meal times can
prevent, or alleviate, this problem.
Not exactly the ingredients for happy holidays.
"Especially for pre-school children, they need to eat several times a
day," Humenczuk said. "What happens when we schedule a holiday meal --
like Thanksgiving -- we tend to do away with lunch or dinner.
"That’s OK for the adults, but it can be a problem for the kids. Just
because it’s Thanksgiving, don’t expect the kids to go without eating
all day. And don’t expect the kids to eat a banquet like the adults."
As with other meals, it’s best to offer the kids a variety of foods and
let them choose what they want to eat. Since there are so many
unhealthy choices especially around the holidays, it’s best to offer
healthy foods before the fudges, cookies and other "junk" food of the
holidays.
"Just offer them the good food and let them fill up on all the good
stuff. Then offer them the other food," Humenczuk said.
As with many things around the hectic holidays, it’s important to slow
down, at least long enough to have a nutritious meal.
"Sometimes we don’t even think about how much we’re dragging our kids
around during the holidays," Humenczuk said. "But if you slow down, you
might find you’ll have more time to enjoy not only your meals, but also
the holidays as well."
