Healthy Fall

Fall is in the air! My body is already craving warm soups, roasted root veggies, and pie:) And although I'm eager to welcome a new season of eating, I was feeling a little anxiety about re-introducing these foods to the boys. In the past its taken a few weeks of extra patience as dinnertime is met with a barrage of refusals until they finally declare "Oh yeah! I remember, I love soup!" (Do you know it can take up to 15 tastes before a child likes a new food!) But after 3.5 yrs I feel like our routine is finally paying off. Visiting the farmers market together, tasting and hand picking goes along way to prepare the boys for when it gets to their plate. Eating healthy together takes as much effort, planning & diligence as character development. And I whole heartedly believe it is just as important. I recently read a book (Disease Proof Your Child by Joel Fuhrman) that claimed that eating healthy is most important between the ages of 5-10. Not just because the relationship children build with food will follow them throughout their life but because of the intense growth during this time, the food they ingest becomes the building material for everything from bones to brain cells. We are (very literally) what we eat. And on an immediate level it shapes their personality, how they experience and react to the world. I have a student this year who was having trouble with classroom behavior expectations. He would have regular meltdowns if he didn't get to do what he wanted, refused to follow directions and acted like we hated him when we asked him to change his behavior. We noticed this was worse after snack which we realized was a daily dose of chocolate pudding, granola bar and chocolate milk. We asked mom to go easy on the sugar and literally the next day he was a changed person. Snack is now just a granola bar and water and now he can function! And he is so much happier too. What power!
And to harness that power at this age mostly it's about how and what you offer. Positive, encouraging opportunities to try new foods at all meals through out the day. Don't get me wrong, its not a free for all. Mealtime is just as structured as bedtime. You would never tell your child, "hey there's the bed- use when you feel like it." We provide training (stay in your bed ALL night) and so too at dinnertime, (eat the other things on your plate before you have a second helping). And once they experience success, we slowly start adding independence at the table. I start by having 2 green veggies to choose from or letting them serve themselves a portion of the meal. So by building choice within the structure of a healthy balanced meal, you can start to train children to make healthy choices. At this age, they are having at least one snack/meal 2-3X a week out of our presence. We are not there to say yay or nay. 
But while they are with us...we model and encourage and train. Two tips that have worked well for my family:
1-Encourage self monitoring with a chart (like you may have with potty training). And don't be afraid to eat before you go to a party. 2-We load up on healthy snacks (veggies and dips, fruit and nuts)- we call it pre-partying;)-right before we walk out the door, that way the kids will be too full for the junk or even if they eat it, we don't feel guilty because we know they got their nutritional quota for the day.