A reader wonders, after reading a recent post on The PediaBlog (“Taste Buds — Food Battles”; May 23, 2013):
So should we not be making the plate for our children? We should let them ask for the foods they want to be put on the plate? I always make my daughter’s plate and she tends to want what’s on my plate even if it’s the same thing she has.
Parents should offer their children healthy, age-appropriate “real” food. Families should try to eat meals together as much as possible. Put the food on the table and let your child decide what and how much she wants to eat. Serving meals “family style” might make sense in this case, though it probably shouldn’t matter.
An important rule to remember: If your child doesn’t want to eat what you put on the table, just assume that she is not hungry. Don’t assume she doesn’t like it. There is nothing wrong with the food you put on your table (as long as the food is, of course, actually good!). If she is hungry, she will eat it.
As parents, we are responsible for almost all the meals our children eat from birth until 18 years old (at least!). Think about that: three meals a day (more for infants), 365 days a year, for eighteen years! How many meals is that? (I get 19,710 meals! Per child! Add a few more meals for infants and for snacks and a few less for school lunches and visits with grandma and friends.) No wonder how kids eat is a huge worry for parents!
That’s Life (Yahoo.com)
I’ve been reading Fearless Feeding – How To Raise Healthy Eaters From High Chair To High School, by Jill Castle and Maryann Jacobsen. Focusing not just on what kids eat, but also how they eat, and why they eat what they eat, the authors have written a highly readable and helpful (even essential) book for parents who worry about feeding their children (all of us!). I highly recommend it!
(Image: Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net)