Junior & Senior High School - Eating & Sleeping

Eating

Nutrition is especially importation during these years of rapid growth. Encourage your teen to:

• Choose, purchase, and prepare a variety of healthy foods.
• Eat three nutritious meals a day at regularly scheduled times: breakfast is especially important.
• Select a nutritious lunch from the cafeteria at your teen's school or workplace, or pack a balance lunch.
• Enjoy meals in a pleasant environment with their family and friends.
• Choose plenty of fruits and vegetables; breads, cereals, and other grain products; low-fat dairy products; lean meats, chicken, fish, and other sources of protein; and foods prepared with little or no fat. Include foods rich in calcium and iron.
• Choose nutritious snacks rich in complex carbohydrates. Limit high-fat or low-nutrient foods and beverages such as candy, chips, and soft drinks.
• Achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Manage weight through appropriate eating habits and regular physical activity.

Many teens have adopted a vegetarian diet. This is also a healthy way to eat; however, they must be aware that not only do they not eat certain classes of foods, but that they must also substitute other foods in the same class (e.g. protein, calcium-rich) to balance their diet. Sometimes buying them a book about the vegetarian lifestyle is a good way to advise them.

Red flags regarding eating habits may include (these are possible signs of anorexia or bulimia):

• Eating only "safe" foods, usually those low in calories and fat.
• Cutting up food into very small pieces.
• Spending more time playing with food than eating it, such as rearranging it on the plate throughout a meal.
• Buying, preparing, and cooking food only for others.
• Becoming very secretive about food, spending a lot of time thinking about and planning regarding food.
• Stealing food or hoarding it in strange places, such as under the bed or in closets.
• Binging on foods with distinctive colors.
• Spending a lot of time, energy, and money on food.

If you notice any of these behaviors in your teen (male or female), place call to make an appointment to discuss it with one of the providers at The Kidz Docs.

Sleeping

Sleeping is one of the favorite past-times of young adults. We now know that teens require more sleep than a child or an adult. Help your teen to establish good sleep habits by good time management. One of the first things to go when a teen is over scheduled is sleep time. Sleep deficit is very difficult to make up, so prevention is the key.

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