Eat Your Peas or No Dessert! Establishing Healthy Eating Habits.

Resistant child at the tableDo you have a picky eater? Are you worried your child will never get any nutrition and will eat only white food for the rest of her life? Or is p, b, and j your son’s only staple?

Keeping our children healthy and well fed tops the list of any parent’s job description. Every trick in the book seems fair game when a worried parent attempts to get food down a resistant child’s throat. The problem is that with sleeping, toileting, and eating, children have ultimate control and they know it. It’s rare that a parent doesn’t have a struggle in one of these areas. We have to learn to respect that control yet encourage healthy habits.

First and foremost is the parent’s perception of the problem. When a child is not eating what we think they should, we tend to panic. But he’s got to get a vegetable in at least once in awhile. She’ll never grow if she eats like a bird. I’m not a short-order cook! Why do we have to go through this at every meal?

The parent’s job is to trust. Trust that the child won’t starve herself. Trust that only a little of each food group is required and over a longer period of time than just one day. Trust that development plays a big part in both resistance and acceptance of certain foods. And trust that this stage will end.

Baby foods can often be a culprit. When your baby is beginning solid food, mash up real food so he gets used to textured foods right away. Once solids are acceptable and your child shows interest in what you’re eating, let him pick from your plate, make a mess, drop food on the floor.

Dinnertime is the hearth of the family. As often as possible, have a family meal. Coming together for dinner should be so much fun that there is never reason to force your child to come to the table. Happy family meals are a foundation that so many other experiences are based on. Children are far less likely to drift in the teen years.

Keep the following principles in mind and you will have children who can’t wait for dinnertime:

  • Your job is deciding what food you buy and how you prepare it; your child’s job is to decide what goes down his throat. You can’t control that so don’t even try.
  • Don’t worry about table manners. Manners are learned through modeling. Allow your young child to eat with fingers, whatever encourages her to put the food in her mouth.
  • Never use discipline or consequences around eating. Never withhold dessert as a reward for eating.
  • Never talk about food at the table. Take your children food shopping, engage them in food preparation and use those times to teach about nutrition, ingredients and what builds healthy bodies. Do not tell them what they must eat at the table.
  • Don’t present a plate of expectations to a picky eater. Put prepared food in bowls and platters and a bare plate in front of each person. Allow your children to serve themselves. More is likely to go on the plate, but don’t expect it all to go in his mouth.
  • Prepare the meals you want to have. Always include something you know your picky eater will eat, even if it is just bread. Do not fix different meals for different people. You can focus on getting nutrition into smoothies, breakfast or lunch. Dinner should be fun. If your child says, I hate that, say simply, That’s fine, you don’t have to eat anything you don’t want to.
  • As soon as your children are old enough, offer toothpicks or chopsticks to eat with. Making the eating process a challenge will make it more fun.
  • Once a month, have a meal with the rule, No hands allowed. Each person must keep their hands behind their back and eat however they can!
  • Make a ritual of lighting a candle for each member of the family. As soon as your child is old enough to light a match with your supervision, have each person light a candle for another member of the family. If dad or mom is away, a candle can be lit for them.
  • Establish rituals like a thankful prayer or a sharing of best and worst moments of the day.
  • Do not use this time for private conversation with your spouse expecting no interruptions. Conversation must be shared by all for the dinner table to be fun.
  • Tell jokes and play games like “I Spy” to keep interest and laughter at the table.
  • Allow young active children to come and go. Do not expect quiet, mannered behavior. ADHD kids often do better on a large bouncy ball than a chair. There will be plenty of time ahead for manners and asking to be excused.
  • If you are going to have dessert, make it healthy (yogurt with fruit, etc.) so you are not giving cake to a child who has eaten nothing else. Save sugary treats for special occasions, not for mealtime desserts. Reminder: Do not use dessert as a reward or punishment.

Once you have followed these principles, then your job is to trust. Allow your child to find his own way and over time you will see a healthy eater emerge. When there are no expectations, your child is more likely to try new things—especially if he wants to see how many peas he can get on a toothpick! But be patient. It may take awhile.

A good book to read is How to Get Your Kids to Eat, but Not Too Much, by Ellen Satter.

If you have a failure-to-thrive child or one who literally eats nothing, follow your doctors recommendations.

One thought on “Eat Your Peas or No Dessert! Establishing Healthy Eating Habits.

  1. This article is very true and here is a little trick my husband showed me I used to always make cupcakes or cake and one time I got up and the girls were eating cake in the morning I got upset then my husband pointed out to me think of what is in cake and pancakes the ingredients are the same so is the sugar content. It helped get my daughters to eat breakfast when they wouldn’t and kept them happy and healthy. different food preperations may also help with later eating .

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