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Eating Habits And Mealtime
From the Field Guide to Parenting
by Shelley Butler and Deb Kratz
Young children with healthy eating habits like to eat, are interested in food,
can eat until they are full and then stop, and can enjoy eating in other places
besides home. Over time, children with healthy eating habits add to those
skills: learning to try new foods and like them, having good table manners, and
making do with less-favorite foods.
REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
* Children will typically eat and grow physically at the pace that is right for
their own body.
* Children know when they are hungry, when they are full, and how much they need
to eat.
* Children need a fairly consistent eating and snack schedule, and a variety of
healthy foods; this helps children to regulate their appetites and expand their
tastes. The predictability of mealtimes and snack times is emotionally reassuring
for young eaters.
* Children need not eat a large variety of foods at one sitting, but they should
be offered a good variety each day. Children can get just as much nutrition out
of well-planned snacks as they do out of meals.
* Since children's nutritional needs are different from adults, and their
stomachs are smaller, they need one-quarter to one-third of an adult-sized food
portion, and snacks between meals.
* Children need more fat in their diets until they are two years of age.
* Children are more sensitive to the smell, taste, and texture of food than
adults. They typically react negatively to new foods, but they are more likely
to try them if they are allowed to spit out the food if they don't like it. It
may take up to twenty tries during twenty different meals before they will
swallow and accept the new food.
* Temperament can impact the way that children approach and enjoy food; some
children have regular eating habits and take to most new foods easily, some have
irregular eating habits and are slow to accept new foods, some fall somewhere in
between regular and irregular, and the remaining children show a mix of
regularity and irregularity in their reactions to food.
* Unpredictable and picky eating are common and normal in most young children at
some time: they may have clear food preferences, want only one food over and
over, decide they hate certain foods that they once loved, and have appetites
that change often.
* Typically, steady growth is the best proof that children are getting the right
amount of food for their unique needs.
* Expect to see any or all of these mealtime behaviors in toddlers:
-- Have increasing interest in feeding themselves.
-- Use their hands and fingers to pick up foods.
-- Learn to stab food with a dull fork.
-- Hold a cup to drink, but spill liquids frequently.
-- Show a preference for unusual food combinations.
-- Play with food, create a mess, and sometimes throw food when finished eating.
-- Have a low tolerance for sitting at the table for more than five to ten
minutes.
-- Leave the table and return again and again to eat if permitted.
-- Enjoy imitating mealtime behavior of adults.
* Expect to see any or all of these mealtime behaviors in preschoolers:
-- Begin to eat neatly with no help.
-- Begin to use small spoons and forks well.
-- Use a dull knife awkwardly, but still need assistance cutting food.
-- Drink from a cup without a lid.
-- Serve themselves from a platter, dish, or pitcher.
-- Dislike foods mixed together.
-- Use simple table manners but interrupt conversation to gain attention.
-- Prefer play to eating, but can remain at the table for five to fifteen
minutes.
-- Enjoy helping to set or clear the table.
* Children learn eating habits by watching adults and older children and
imitating them.
* A positive feeding relationship between parent and child throughout childhood
is important; it promotes healthy eating habits and helps to prevent eating
disorders in adulthood.
* As children grow, develop, and reach adulthood, some of their most vivid and
fond memories may be of time spent together as a family at mealtimes.
Excerpted with permission from THE FIELD GUIDE TO PARENTING;. Copyright © 2000
Chandler House Press. All rights reserved.
For More Information Contact:
Carousel Corner Preschool and Childcare Center
5345 Carousel Lane SE, Port Orchard, WA 98366-3800
Tel: 360-871-7572
FAX: 360
Internet:
info@carouselcorner.org
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