As the new year begins, many of us take the opportunity to set goals for personal growth and wellness. This fresh start isn’t just for adults—it’s also a great time to encourage children and teens to build healthy habits that will serve them for a lifetime.
Developing healthy routines around nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management, and social connection can significantly impact a child’s overall well-being now and in the future. On the other hand, neglecting these areas can lead to long-term health challenges that are much harder to address later in life.
But what kinds of habits should you be helping your children form, and what’s the best way to do this? To explore this topic, we spoke with Trish Turo, a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach, Brain Health Researcher, and Health Coach for Kenosis Counseling Center. She is also the author of A Kids Book About Healthy Habits, which provides a simple and engaging introduction to healthy routines for children.
In this post, Trish explains how you can set your kids up for a lifetime of health while also creating opportunities for the whole family to grow healthier together.
Why Are Healthy Habits Important for Children?
Healthy habits aren’t only about looking or feeling good in the present. In reality, they are foundational for a person’s long-term well-being. As Trish points out, many chronic health conditions a person may face are the result of choices made over the course of a lifetime.
“All of the conditions and disease states that we see today are very much a result of our behaviors and our lifestyles,” she explains. “If we don’t set a foundation for our kids to understand how to live a healthy life, we’re just going to keep going through this cycle of reacting to sickness.”
This is why it’s so important to establish healthy habits early in life. Just as young children are taught to brush their teeth to prevent dental problems later in life, so too should they be introduced to a wide variety of beneficial wellness habits.
“We’re a very reactionary culture,” Trish says. “For example, I might feel that I’m not going to start losing weight until I get a diagnosis of diabetes. We want to shift away from that thinking. I should want to maintain a healthy weight so that I can do the things I love, like enjoying vacations with my family and spending time with my kids.”
Trish believes that healthy habits do much more for children than prevent future health problems. They also empower kids to live life with greater energy, resilience, and happiness. “We’re thinking about long-term overall quality of life,” she says. “If we can help kids understand what healthy habits are, and how to create routines that make them feel good, then they will have concrete examples to work from when they start to be more independent and are making decisions for themselves.”
What Are Some Key Healthy Habits to Focus On?
When we talk about healthy habits, we might think most readily of behaviors related to physical health and wellness. However, Trish emphasizes a holistic approach to health that accounts for body, mind, and spirit.
Here are just a few areas of focus that Trish recommends to help you start creating healthy habits:
- Movement: When working with clients, Trish likes to ask, “How are you (or your child) moving your body?” Physical activity is essential for a child’s overall health, but it doesn’t have to be done through structured exercise. Dancing, playing, walking the dog, or climbing on playground equipment all count.
- Nutrition: “How are you fueling your body?” Trish asks. There are many ways to do this, but eating a balanced diet with whole foods, fruits, and vegetables helps children feel their best. “If you eat fruits and veggies, it’s going to help you feel better than if you eat only Halloween candy,” Trish suggests.
- Sleep: “How are you resting your body?” Many kids and teens simply don’t get enough sleep, which affects everything from mood to cognitive functioning. Establishing a consistent bedtime routine can make a huge difference.
- Stress and Mental Health Management: Helping kids develop emotional resilience is just as important as boosting their physical health. “How are you managing stressors or any mental health challenges?” Trish questions. Teaching mindfulness, deep breathing, and other stress-relief techniques can be beneficial.
- Social Connection: “Any kindergarten teacher will tell you that making friends and emotional health is way more important for children than, say, getting their math test done,” Trish says. “Kids need to learn how to be a human in a relationship, whether that’s with your parents, siblings, future partners, or future children.” Children learn much about social connection from observing the behaviors of adults.
- Outdoor Time: “Getting outside is another one that I like to highlight for parents because of the research and the immediate benefits that fresh air, sunshine, and blue and green spaces have on brain waves,” Trish explains. Getting outdoors is easy to do, and it can often be combined with fun and healthy movement.
- Spirituality: While spirituality looks different for everyone, a belief in something greater than yourself is frequently linked to improved life satisfaction. “Helping kids understand that they are not alone in challenges and that they are implicitly connected to everyone around them, or to a greater power, is a helpful habit for building resilience,” Trish says.
How Can Parents Help Kids Build Healthy Habits?
Helping your children build healthy habits requires dedication, patience, and consistency on your part. According to Trish, one of the best ways you can encourage healthy behaviors is by modeling them through your own actions.
“I usually tell parents: start with yourself,” she says. “Find one or two healthy habits that you have navigated, and practice them so that you can help your kid practice them, too.”
Perhaps the habit you want to encourage for your child is going on a daily walk. Trish recommends that you begin by working the habit into your own routine. Then, once your habit is firmly established, you can start inviting your child to join you on your walks. This approach will allow you to guide them toward healthy behaviors in a way that feels natural.
As you are introducing your child to a new habit, it’s important to help them practice and get used to it. Trish advises, “Don’t just set them up and say, ‘You’re going to do this right now.’ If this is the first time they’re building a habit, they need accountability, support, and encouragement.”
You should help your child break large health goals into small, manageable steps that build over time, and always focus on habits that are sustainable into the future. Trish says, “If you want to think about habits, you want to think about how they’re going to work for you forever. Habits do not happen in a day.”
Finally, it’s important to avoid setting a double standard for yourself. “Kids absorb everything, from what you’re doing to what you’re saying, and they also absorb when you say you’re going to do something and you don’t,” Trish notes. “As an example, if you say, ‘We’re all going to stop eating donuts every day,’ but then you say, ‘Well, I’m allowed to eat a donut, but you’re not,’ they will notice that disconnect.”