"Encouraging Healthy Habits in Preschoolers"

The first considerable challenge around paying any sort of serious attention to habit formation in the early years is that it is often a hard sell to convince even ourselves that all of the little things we do (or say or eat) early in life really do add up to something of much greater importance. After all, one single bedtime sweet, one missed bedtime or adding one single evening stroll around the block really can seem too small to be of any great consequence when it comes to one’s overall health and well-being. Whether we’re talking about healthy bedtime routines, eating habits, tooth-brushing or book-reading (just to name a few), however, we now know that the numbers really do add up – both in the shorter term, and in determining what our children’s habits are likely to be in the future.

Visit our 360 Parenting Blog to view the complete post, “Encouraging Healthy Habits in Preschoolers”, by Dr. Laura Jana, pediatrician, nationally-recognized parenting expert, spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, award winning author and mother of two.