What Children Can Teach Us About Eating

Adults Adults Division of Responsibility What Children Can Teach Us About Eating What is Normal Eating? You and Your Eating ¿Qué es comer normalmente?

Children don't worry about their bodies Children eat as much as they are hungry for, they are as active as their adults can tolerate, and they let their bodies be the size and shape that is right for them. If they think about their size and shape, it is to be curious and proud of getting big and strong and increasingly able to do what they want. Many adults start by choosing a body size and shape different from their own, then trying to achieve that by manipulating their eating or forcing themselves to be active. We could learn from children by letting ourselves eat and be active, then learning to love and respect the bodies we have! Children eat as much as they need Children go by their feelings of hunger and fullness to eat the amount they need. Adults tend to teach them otherwise by insisting they clean their plates or by limiting the amounts they can have. However, until then they are very good regulators–a child will stop in the middle of a bowl of ice cream when he gets enough! We have those same abilities, but we undermine them by tuning out our hunger–perhaps eating less food than we are really hungry for or by finishing a portion when we are no longer hungry. Children learn to like new food Children are curious about new food, and will sneak up on it to learn to like it. They look at it, watch others taste it, put it on their plates, put it in their mouths and take it out again and, finally, swallow it. If adults get pushy and make them eat before they are ready, they will either rebel and refuse to eat at all, or they will force it down. Adults can learn to like new foods in the same ways that children do. However, many adults do what they did as children - they rebel by refusing to eat anything unfamiliar or they force ''healthy'' food down when they don't really like it. Children are inconsistent about their eating Children will enthusiastically eat a food one day and shun it the next. They will eat only two or three foods out of a ''square meal,'' and those two or three foods will be different one day from the next. Children eat a lot one day and not much another. Provided they are offered regular and varied meals and snacks, it all averages out. Over time, children get what they need and they get as much as they need. Adults are inconsistent, too, but not to the extent that children are. Adults think they ''should'' eat the same amount every day and that they ''should'' eat a square meal whether it tastes good or not. If adults set aside the ''shoulds,'' they average out in the same ways that children do. Children eat food they enjoy Children don't eat food that is good for them–they only eat food if it tastes good. What tastes good to them one day won't taste good another, so they automatically eat a variety of food. They do, that is, as long as that variety is being offered to them. Adults try to eat what they should and forgo what they like for a variety of reasons–calories, fat, food snobbery. Then periodically they cut loose of all controls and load up on preferred foods. The lesson? You can't not eat what you want–at least not for any length of time. Include the foods you like, but you don’t have to give into every impulse. Children depend on regular meals and snacks to do well with eating Children who are allowed to graze for food often eat too much or too little and grow too fast or too slowly. They also tend to eat the same easy-to-like foods over and over, and don't learn to like new foods. After all, when children panhandle for food, they don't beg for broccoli. They beg for cookies or crackers or candy. Adults depend on enjoyable meals to make eating worthwhile–to pay attention to food, to enjoy eating, to eat enough–then to forget about it between times. If eating is to take its place as only one of life's pleasures, structured and satisfying meals are essential. What do I do if I feel I need more help? Before you can fix a problem, you have to know what is causing it. Ellyn Satter, a registered dietitian, author, and psychotherapist is a widely recognized and respected authority on eating and feeding. Satter has helped many parents solve their children's and their own eating problems. Here's what Satter recommends: Discuss the problem with your health care provider to rule out medical issues. Ask for a referral to the dietitian to evaluate nutrition, food selection and feeding relationship issues. Read one or more of Ellyn Satter's books: Your Child's Weight: Helping Without Harming (Kelcy Press, 2005) Child of Mine; Feeding with Love and Good Sense (Bull Publishing, 2000) helps parents observe and understand their child and translate that into good feeding. Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family (Kelcy Press, 1999) teaches fast, efficient, delicious and nutritious food management for the ''thinking cook'' How to Get Your Kid to Eat...But Not Too Much (Bull Publishing, 1987) details solving feeding problems.

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