Golden Rules for Feeding Your Family

Every parent wants their children to grow up healthy and happy, with sound eating habits. How to encourage positive food habits is a problem unto itself, especially when your children have their own definite opinions. Many, if not most, picky-eater, slow-eater, or no-eater situations can be turn into frustrating experiences and stand-offs.

Well-meaning parents can push, bribe or cajole a child to eat a certain food but meet resistance because the child feels pressured. This goes against his/her desire to be independent, which is natural in a child’s development. Or, the child simply doesn’t like the taste or texture of a food. When pressured, a child reacts by rejecting the food.  Better to back off, but keep the food as part of the menu, allowing the child to try it on his/her accord, even if that takes weeks or months. If the child never accepts a certain food, respect your child’s choice.

The general rule is that parents can trust their child to decide how much, and whether to eat at all. If parents do their job with respect to feeding, the child will do their job with respect to eating.

Ellyn Satter, an internationally recognized authority on eating and feeding, has developed guidelines for fostering healthy food attitudes and behaviors, which are widely used by nutritionists and pediatricians.

The Division of Responsibility for Toddlers Through Teens:
• The parent is responsible for what, when, and where the child eats.
• The child is responsible for how much and whether or not he/she eats.

The Parent’s Feeding Jobs:
•Choose and prepare healthy, nutritious food.
•Provide regular meals and snacks.
•Make eating times pleasant.
•Model appropriate food and mealtime behaviors.
•Disallow grazing for food/beverages (except for milk and water) between meals and snack times.

The Children’s Feeding Jobs:
•Eat the amount/portions that they need (just enough to satisfy their appetite).
• Consume an increasing variety of food, when not pressured.
•Learn appropriate table behavior.

For more information, visit www.ellynsatter.com

Susan Landgren is a nutritionist with The Portland Clinic, Beaverton.