You put the finishing touches on the baby’s room, stepping back to admire your work. The walls are painted a soft pastel and the wood of the cot and the rocking chair gleam in the sunlight coming through the open curtains. All of the items you received during the shower have a place: toys and sheets sit on the cot; tiny onesies are folded and delicately placed inside the dresser; nappies are neatly stacked on shelves above the change table; and flannels, baby powder and baby oil are all within reach. The only thing left to do is wait, right?
There may actually still be something you need to do. Once you have children, your life will transform into a whirlwind of chaos, prams, and dummies, and any spare time you have will be spent collapsed on the bed, wondering “why did we do this again?” Then in the time it takes to blink, your children will be pulling on rucksacks, tying their shoes, and climbing onto the bus for their first day of school.
Unfortunately, one of most important aspects of family life that often gets lost in this whirlwind of parenting and modern life is nutrition – but it’s the key to children’s growth and success. What’s more is that proper health needs to start before you have the baby. While you’re piling craved salt onto your food and eating mint chocolate chip ice cream with pickles, your baby is squirming and receiving all nutrients and chemicals – good or bad – that you eat. As a result, improperly nourished women have a higher risk for pregnancy complications. Then when your child is born and finally graduates from mushy carrots, you may breathe a sigh of relief that chicken fingers and cheesy pasta are things that he or she will actually eat. However, if they don’t get the proper nutrients, their growth, performance in school, future economic success, and overall health will suffer tolls. What’s worse is that unhealthy families aren’t just at risk of obesity or disease. They’re also more likely to have poor relationships, using food as a crutch during difficult emotional times. This teaches children to have an unhealthy dependency on food.
What’s more concerning is the fact that Britain is quickly becoming “the fat man of Europe” as a result of poor nutrition. In 2012, The Guardian reported that the United Kingdom is facing a “nutrition crisis,” with families eating a myriad of processed foods including instant noodles, fried chicken, and pizza. Nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables aren’t selling well anymore, and 900,000 more people prefer unhealthy foods over those that are better for our bodies. Worryingly, studies have even shown that 25% of those in the United Kingdom are obese, simply because the British are eating too much and too poorly. Even the number of children who are being subjected to weight loss surgery has increased!
Protect Your Child’s Health and Future
While cars, television, video games, and computers have been blamed for this epidemic, similar to Canada and America, the only people who can really be blamed are ourselves. After all, we’re the ones who are buying processed treats and putting them in both our own and our children’s mouths. Our families, especially our offspring, are the people who matter most to us – when surveyed, parents said that their children’s health and nutrition is more important than their own – so why did the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) find that Britain’s babies are at risk of obesity from the start?
The simple answer is that the United Kingdom’s parents simply aren’t aware of how to feed their children healthy, nutritious foods, or what they should be giving them. BNF surmises that this begins from the first solid foods, with weaning practices and food introduction and timing being one of the factors that confuses new parents and places Britain’s children at risk of obesity.
Education: Family Safety, Health, and Empowerment
It’s crucial that you educate yourself about proper nutrition to ensure that you and your family regularly eat wholesome meals, promoting your happiness, health, and overall success. While there is a wealth of information on the internet, the fact of the matter is that most it is conflicting, confusing, and sometimes even inaccurate. Attempts at learning about nutritious meals themselves have just led parents to conclude that learning about nutrition is more difficult than keeping their finances in order! After all, there are so many fad diets, sofa nutritionists, and bloggers that wading through all of that information is exhausting. What you really need is to learn the facts from a trusted, credible expert who has studied proper nutrition at the university level.
Lead Your Loved Ones to Success
There are a number of short courses in food nutrition that are open to the community, and you won’t have to change your schedule or go out of your way to take them. Programs such as Cnelm nutrition courses provide you with all of the information you need, walking you through the facts you need to know – all online. At the end of the course, you receive a food health certificate and can evaluate yourself with an at-home written test, learning your strengths and identifying the areas in which you still need to improve. In taking a nutrition certificate course, you’ll be prepared to keep your energetic children healthy. What’s more is that since you receive a certificate, you’ll be able to help your friends and neighbours with their families’ health, too – and they’ll be able to trust the credible and informed facts and advice that you can provide them. You’ll also learn about calories, food safety and even symptoms and prevention for diseases. Instead of worrying that your children and spouse aren’t getting the vitamins, grains and calories they need, you can be confident when you read the nutrition labels on your food and prepare new recipes, what you’re feeding them doesn’t just taste good – it’s good for them, too.
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