I have two children, who eat like machines. I am constantly searching for recipes for food to make them. My youngest, however, is just below the 15th percentile for his weight. Today he ate 1.5 weetbix, half a bread roll with peanut butter, 3 cherry tomatoes, a slice of cheese, a cup of milk and some watermelon. All before 9 am! Clearly there is no problem with his appetite, yet many people feel the need to let me know that he is little, and obviously, I’m doing something wrong. Until the age of three, however, children eat when they are hungry, and stop when they are full. This seems obvious, how does a breast fed baby know when to stop? The ‘bottle’ never empties for them, yet they don’t starve or over-indulge.
How can we get kids past the age of three to keep using this skill?
It seems that we can't. The best we can do is encourage it. Often we feed our kids the way we were shown to eat. Eat up all your dinner before you leave the table. So many arguments with my husband over this antiquated idea. Science has since discovered that by forcing our kids to eat all their food, whether we tell them it is rude not to, or they simply haven’t had enough, teaches them to ignore their body’s signs that they are full. This can lead to obesity later in life as they don’t recognise the body’s signs that they are full. Like a breast fed baby, they stop when they are full. But if we keep pushing food on them, they learn to ignore their body’s signs and instead rely on someone else’s idea of portion control.
Always feed them dessert. Yep, this is one way we can try to hold on to a child’s ability to know when to stop eating. Clearly my kids are not having ice cream every night or chocolate biscuits. But they always get dessert. Fruit, home-made ice-blocks, refined – sugar free home baked treats, and the occasional bowl of ice-cream.If they know they always get dessert, they don’t always eat it. If they know they always get dessert, when they get something a little sweet they don’t make pigs of themselves.
My two and a half year old gets frustrated when she eats at others’ houses. They insist she eat more. To finish her plate before she is able to leave or have dessert. None of my kids have to clean their plates. They know when they are hungry and they know when they are full. If they don’t eat all their dinner, dessert is fruit. If they eat their dinner, they get something a little more fun. But they have full bellies, so they probably aren’t eating it all anyway.
I believe they won’t starve themselves and as long as there are always healthy options available, I won’t lose sleep over it. And dessert is always on offer in our house. Food for the soul, right?
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