Transcripts

Pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg, author of the book Good Kids Bad Habits…

So what I recommend for my patients is two to three glasses of low fat milk a day, one glass of 100% fruit juice a day and the rest should really be water. And right from the start I encourage my parents to really get their children drinking water because it could make such a difference in their health.

And getting kids to eat healthy food is often just a matter of persistence.

We do know from the research that you need to introduce a food at least fifteen times before a child incorporates it into their diet and starts eating it on a regular basis; and most parents stop after two or three tries - but keep on trying because you'll be surprised what you can get your child to eat if you are persistent.

Active children usually become active adults, so encouraging physical activity in children is critical.

They need to be burning off the energy, they need to be exploring, that's how children learn - using their minds and their body, they're looking in things, they're exploring, they're building - so you want to foster that. And in fact, recommendations really are no more than two hours of screen time a day for children above the age of two - that's computers and TVs and hand-held devices all combined.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.