Compartment 14B
| Newest | Older | Contact Me | Profile | Photos | Etsy |
Kids and food in our household. 2008-04-16 - 3:26 p.m. In reading a recent entry of Linda�s over at ParentDish, I started to give some thought to what �rules� we have around food in our house. Food is a loaded issue in this society. With the health advocates on one side chiding about the problem of obesity growing at all age levels, and the vast commercial machine pushing over-processed, over-packaged empty calories (often touted as �convenience foods�) on the other, it�s no wonder that ordinary people get caught in the middle, repelled by those who are fat, but consuming a lot of junk - and feeding it to their kids - themselves. And this doesn�t even graze the surface of all the stereotypes associated with food (as a side note, I feel like smacking people who say that women �have to have chocolate every day�.). So how does that translate into eating habits in the Compartment 14B household? I�d like to think that we make healthier choices than a lot of parents, though we certainly don�t go as far as some others (the �granola� types, for example, who only buy organic and whole grains (See? There�s one of the food stereotypes right there, rearing its ugly head). Certainly I feel confident stating that we are more informed about food and what good choices are than the majority of people, even if we don�t always put that information to full use. J and I have had a bit of a struggle with how to deal with Grommet�s refusals to eat certain foods or, at times, eat at all. Maybe it�s because she was underweight for awhile, or maybe it�s how he was raised, but he definitely tries to �force� her to eat sometimes. A common refrain from him is �No X until you�ve finished Y�. X, of course, is something she wants such as a less-nutritious food, or TV, or a toy. Y can be any part of a meal, to a portion of every meal component, to the whole meal itself. I find myself having to remind him that it�s the parents� job to provide healthy food choices, but it�s the kid�s job to decide whether or not to eat it, and as long as the food we offer contains a variety of healthy foods, that should be the main thing. As I commented on the article linked to above, my main rules are: - If we give an unasked-for food to Grommet she doesn�t have to eat it. Of course, this doesn�t mean she gets to ignore everything on her plate and then get a cookie or a bunch of bread if she wants it right after dinner. But if she�s picked at her dinner and then wants a snack before bedtime I have no problem with that so long as it too is something healthy and she hasn�t brushed her teeth yet. Fortunately she hasn�t hit upon this as a stalling tactic and doesn�t ask often, so we can be reasonably sure that she�s actually hungry if she asks for a snack before bed. My main goal for my kids, really, is to foster a healthy and enjoyable lifelong relationship with food. I don�t think forcing kids to eat when we think they should teaches them how to control their own portions later on in life, and to stop eating when they�re full. I don�t think that, in terms of keeping energy levels and nutritional intake constant, three big meals are better for a person than spreading it out over 3 moderate meals and several small snacks. I don�t think forcing someone to eat something they hate will make them like it in the long run, or create a stress-free atmosphere at dinner, or happy memories to look back on. So, in the service of the above, I�m really working on not getting worked up over food. I vow to continue serving a variety of healthy food options, and as long as I see Grommet eat some protein, some fruit �n veggies, and some carbs over the course of a week, I figure I should be okay with that. I�m a bit of a control freak by nature, so it�s kind of odd for me to be the parent that takes the more relaxed attitude about something, but I�m kind of enjoying having the shoe on the other foot.
recommend me
- If she asks for it, she has to eat some of it.
- If she asks for it and chooses her own portion, she�s supposed to try to eat all of it (but doesn�t have to, as everyone�s eyes can be bigger than their stomachs from time-to-time).
That means no swiping my stuff - text, images, etc. - without asking.
HTML and design help by Jo
hosted by Diaryland