Winning the War on Eating

First, I am not your physician. I am not telling you to starve your children. Consult them before implementing. Don’t be extreme. Use common sense, etc. etc. etc.

Let’s face it, we all want to control our kids and not the other way around.  There are a lot of us out there who think we have the upper hand, but I think that if we were to be someone other than us asking people other than us they might paint a different picture.  The battle for parental supremacy begins in the kitchen.  As parents, we are obsessed with getting our kids, especially our toddlers, to eat.  Nobody wants that picky kid that only eats peanut butter and jelly. 

Your toddler doesn’t have a heck of a lot of high leverage plays, but for some reason food is one of them.  I’m here today to tell you that it does not need to be that way.  As an adult, it is not our responsibility to make our kids eat. It is our responsibility to provide our children with things to eat. We should also take note of things that they enjoy and always remember that just because they didn’t eat it once, doesn’t mean they will never eat it. The converse is also true.  Here are some of my household general rules: Produce three nutritious items.  Place these items on the plate.  Serve them to the child. Give them a very reasonable amount of time to eat it.  If they ask for something else before they finish it (including more of one item if the item), let them know that they have plenty of food on their plate.  If you are constantly making something else for them, then they learn that you are Iron Chef Noodad, short order cook.  If they finish what’s on their plate, you can give them some more or you can give them “dessert” (another topic for another post).  If they don’t eat it, they won’t starve.  Chances are they’ll eat at least 2 of the 3 things you make them. After a while they will learn the way that the kitchen works.  Some caveats: Make sure you give them enough of each item. 

Another way to discipline your kids about eating is to designate drinking and snack times.   I’m not talking about denying your kid a sip of water when they’re thirsty, but if you’re going to allow them to carry a sippy cup of orinj joosh everywhere they go, how can you expect that they’ll be hungry when it’s really  time to eat?  As always, with kids, it’s about establishing routine and sticking to it (no, NOT on vacation, or at grandma’s house, you have less control there). 

Some of you are saying, “but foodad, we’ve already ruined our children by doing what you said not to do.” Hey, I was in the same boat too. Your kids can be retrained. Sure, the older they get the harder it is, but they will learn.  A few days to a week of pain for you and your wife will pay dividends later.