Healthy Eating Habit: How Habits are FormedHabits can be formed at any time and for multiple reasons. Our children begin developing habits at very early ages. Sometimes they can be sleeping habits, habits of comfort like thumb sucking, and other habits that are just gross like picking their noses. Habits are behaviors that are done repeatedly. Most children develop habits for a reason. Sometimes these habits comfort the child, like thumb sucking, and other times they relieve stress or anxiety, like nail biting. Other times, however, children develop habits because they were bored. Most habits born out of boredom are things that children do with their hands. Whatever the reason, children develop habits because they are getting something positive out of it. They are either entertained, comforted, or relieved. Most habits tend to disappear as children get older, or sometimes you will see traces of it during their teen years, but for the most part, childhood habits disappear as the child grows and develops new interests. What parents have to look out for are the habits that have been developed in order to manipulate the parent. If a child realizes that exhibiting a behavior, like nose picking, will catch their parents' attention and get their parent to do something they want, the positive effect they are receiving is their parents attention and getting what they want. Children can be wily, so you have to be careful about this, and also because their attention grabbing act can turn into a really bad habit! Now for a quick psychology lesson: The behavioral theorists and practitioners of psychology focus on the effects of the environment on the changes in a person's observable behavior. They believe that experiences, both pleasurable and painful, can alter a person's behavior over time. Our children's behaviors will change depending on the consequences we present to them after they act a certain way. If what our children want is to have our attention, and they achieve this by nose picking, then we are actually promoting the nose picking behavior. We are reinforcing it. One of the tricks to getting a child to break a habit that has been formed to manipulate their parent is for the parent to not give in to what the child wants to happen. This means ignoring the child's attempt at catching your attention via the bad habit. This can be really difficult for a parent, but eventually the behavior will disappear, and the child will learn that their old technique is no longer working. This article, however, is not about helping parents discipline their children or getting their children to break bad habits. It is about getting children to eat healthily. Now that you understand how a habit is formed, and how you as a parent can shape that habit, you can now shape the habit of healthy eating in your child. |
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How To Get Your Kids To Eat Healthy Food - Without A Fight!
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