I get asked a lot of questions when I talk about how I’ve implemented a healthy lifestyle and diet for my kids. Talking about how I get them to take outrageously gross supplements like fish oil and desiccated beef liver always seems to lead to a lot of inquiries in my DMs ha ha!
I can’t say that I have perfect answers, but the two main things I can say worked for me were being consistent and setting boundaries early on.
Parenting is difficult. We are constantly at our wit’s end and being challenged. I know that what works for one family won’t always work for another, and even within a family unit….what works for one kid won’t work for their sibling.
The only thing we really can do is try.
I have faltered and failed at many things during my time in the parent-hood. We all imagine how perfect we will be as parents…until we actually become one. This is why wine and coffee sales are major for us breeders.
I do think that creating a healthy lifestyle for my kids when it comes to nutrition and sleep habits came intuitively at first. It then became a necessity as time wore on and I started learning about what I needed to do to help my son on his path towards health-recovery.
Getting my kids to eat and sleep well was my job and I had a stronger impetus to get it done right in order to help my son. I didn’t feel like I had a choice and so I didn’t give them a choice either.
Bed time routines were consistent and early. To this day, as teens, they go to bed long before most of their friends. I’ve come to learn that when you develop healthy sleep patterns early on in life, you carry them with you into adulthood…not to mention the many benefits of proper sleep and a healthy circadian rhythm like proper immune function, brain function, growth, healthy hormone levels, healing, and development.
When asked how I get my kids to sleep well, I don’t really have an answer. I just stuck to my guns about their bedtimes and they learned that self-discipline from that point on. Mind you, this didn’t happen overnight.
I had plenty of struggles and many times I thought about giving up, but I knew I had to keep that commitment so I did. Sometimes I’m not even sure how.
Same with their food and supplements.
Well, now that they are in middle and high school, they eat shocking stuff when out with their friends, but I know that at least they come home to the good stuff. They know it too. Too many days in a row of highly sugary foods and synthetic ingredients and they feel it.
I love adding in the occasional “I told you so!”. It’s payback for all the stress and worry, right?
However, when they were little and I had full control over their diets I never really gave them the option to not eat what I served. It’s not that I didn’t have at least one picky eater….I was just very matter of fact about what my expectations were and somehow it worked out.
This is how I ended up with kids who would eat turmeric powder in their apple sauce, Brewer’s yeast in their yogurt, drink cod liver oil off a spoon, and still to this day drink a concoction of bone broth, cilantro, and super greens without complaining.
It just became a part of their life from early on. It was their normal. That’s all.
I can’t tell you it wasn’t a struggle. At times it was. I just remember thinking that if I gave in when they were little, the struggles would just become much worse as they got older. I think I was right because now my kids are 13 and 16 and OMG….I just don’t struggle with food or sleep…and lord knows I need that respite!
I have plenty of other struggles with my kids on a daily basis. They are kind and smart and decent humans but….
The teen angst is real on the homestead. My son can be loud and inappropriate. My daughter has more moods than the entire cast of The Breakfast Club. They both know more than I do. They can get mouthy. The emotional rollercoaster is real, and I dream of a one way ticket to a hammock on Phuket.
Send help!!!
Just kidding….but not really. I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job on the healthy eating and sleeping front. Not such a great job on getting them to get up off their bums and exercise especially now that we’re on lockdown. I’m working on that one (and have more than once thought about throwing in the towel.)
I guess my advice if you want your kids to eat and sleep healthily is just to start early, be consistent, and unemotional about it. Research foods and supplements that will benefit your child’s growth, development, and gut microbiome.
Try to avoid introducing them to the junky stuff because once they have it, it gets A LOT harder to break them away. They make that stuff addictive for a reason.
Talk to an integrative pediatrician. Regular pediatricians have little education on proper nutrition and often recommend things that are shockingly high in sugar and hydrogenated oils. An integrative doc combines both natural medicine and western medicine so that you get the best of both worlds and the best advice. This is priceless.
Make the “healthy stuff” their normal.
Let them chop up veggies and put stuff together that they love when they are little. Always have that good stuff on hand.
Let them play with their food.
Remember that your relationship with food will be modeled by them also…so if you’re picky or have aversions, they may end up like that too (and then you can’t get mad at them for it!).
Stick with whatever decisions you make. You’re the boss. You’re the parent. You can be the friend later. 😉
Again, I understand that not all kids are the same and not all family dynamics are either.
I can tell you that I went through years of incredible challenges with my son which led to months and months of sleepless nights for me as I researched how to help him. I probably gained a gray hair for every minute I spent mothering….but I had to do what I knew would help, and so I did.
Maybe if I didn’t feel like I had no other choice I wouldn’t have stuck with it. Who knows. I also probably wouldn’t have been forced to learn as much as I did which was a huge driving force for me to be consistent and “get it right”.
So that’s it. That’s my advice or my story or whatever you wanna call it. It’s how I got my kids to eat healthy, sleep well, and take their supplements. No magic or wizardry….although I would’ve loved some help from a few fairy godmothers!
Now I’m tired and need a glass of wine while I fold laundry and decide what crap reality TV I might want to let my brain idle to later tonight…..
My kids are making a paleo dinner tonight for themselves with green tea as their beverage of choice, and in this moment all is well.
In this moment. 😉
header photo by Ellieelien @unsplash
As an affiliate marketer, I earn from qualifying purchases via the ads provided on my website.
