Most new parents are worried about the basic three: The children's diet, their sleeping habits and toilet training when that comes along. To help ease those worries, I am adding three blog comments taken from my recent column, Raising Good Kids in Tough Times.

Basic number 1:
Acting Right Starts with Eating Right
You would think teaching children the basics would be easy, but sometimes eating and sleeping can be a battle from the beginning of childhood. Even toilet training can produce conflict long after it should have been over with.
We parents must be doing a pretty good job since almost all teenagers learn the eating, sleeping and bathroom skills well enough. Yet “well enough” may leave the foundation of life-long health problems. Why are the basics so much trouble?
Eating is problematic because little ones don’t always know why, or if, they feel hungry and parents have only secondhand information. All parents have experienced a baby pushing away food she is offered only to find that a dirty diaper was the real problem. Yet many of us cling to the notion that food will solve the problem of a fussy child. Later on, the child may also believe the happiness-food connection and carry it into adulthood.
The best parental control over diet is in the supermarket. If Mom doesn’t buy sugar-laden food, caffeine and fatty snacks, the kids will fuss but they will have to eat their fat, salt and sugar somewhere else. Kids are not good advisors at the food store. If they are going to be trouble, shop when you can shop alone.
One mother told me that her son’s stubbornness about food changed when she gave him part of the cooking chores. Once he began helping to prepare meats and vegetables, his choices at meals were wider and more reasonable.
Many parents have healthy children with no problems related to diet except occasionally eating too little and often eating too much. Statisticians tell us that 2004 was the year obesity took over as the No. 1 cause of early death in the U.S.
Controlling the quantity of food can be even harder than controlling the quality. A good solution for this problem is to serve meals buffet style, allowing each person to serve himself but then putting away the leftovers before beginning to eat in order to discourage second helpings.
Another good strategy is to serve one course at a time – soup or salad with nothing else yet on the table, then another course. The advantage of this routine is that food has time to get to the body sensors that signal fullness. Fast eating usually means over-eating and bad choices.
Manners are best taught by infrequent corrections and by example. Table nagging may only result in arguments and the children may learn to resist Mom and Dad’s control or they may learn to eat to please them – neither outcome is healthy preparation for a lifetime of eating.
West Virginia is now No. 1 in obesity. Type 2 diabetes, previously considered an adult disease, has also increased dramatically among children. The U.S. Surgeon General’s office says a weight gain of 11 to 18 pounds above normal weight increases the risk of developing diabetes to twice that of people who have not gained extra weight. Half of West Virginia’s children have gained this extra weight and risk.
While the kids are still young, be very selective at the supermarket. When it comes to diet the kids have no idea what is good for them and parents have to see that the choices coming home are good ones.
Next time: What makes a good night’s sleep?