Comments on: Encouraging Good Eating Habits, Respectfully

By: Quiet Snacking: Mastering the Art of Eating Doritos Stealthily – BitsysBrainFood

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 04:02:13 +0000

[…] in public spaces, practicing proper snacking etiquette is essential to ensure a considerate and respectful snacking experience for everyone. Whether you find yourself at work, school, or social gatherings, navigating the art […]

By: Ignacio

Ignacio — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 13:09:33 +0000

One thing I do wonder, though, is if this style can also negatively affect how kids value food. At what point do they learn that all nutritious food is valuable and wasting food is bad. My mother-in-law, from the goodness of her heart, never forced her children to eat more than they wanted. As a result, my wife, at essentially every meal, throws away at least 15-20% of what she plates. It’s not a good habit, but was formed from this selfsame food autonomy. What ways can we teach children that food is important by virtue of itself, not just because you want it.

By: Hayley

Hayley — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 00:54:47 +0000

Great post!

This is an area I am particularly passionate about! Food and eating can have such an unnecessarily negative impact on our lives and the way we feel about ourselves.

Anyone interested in more reading along these lines would probably enjoy Ellyn Satter resources. I bought all of them when I was working as a nutritionist /dietitian and fell in love with her way of looking at eating and food. One of the resources I have is called Feeding with Love and Good Sense, which is a great way of summing up the idea, and is pretty much what is being said in this post! If, like me / a lot of society, you’ve ended up with a dreadful relationship with food, and/or an inability to listen to your body – Ellyn has a number of books which expand on the discussion above and can help us prevent the same issues in our own kids.

By: The Language of Consent: Are You Speaking It? | Happiness is here

The Language of Consent: Are You Speaking It? | Happiness is here — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:39:41 +0000

[…] is presumed to have the right to organise their child’s life. Though things like sleep and eating are clearly related to bodily autonomy, most people don’t extend children’s rights to […]

By: Let Me Tell You About Kids Without Control | Happiness is here

Let Me Tell You About Kids Without Control | Happiness is here — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 10:33:53 +0000

[…] coerce, punish, and shame children, but at the end of the day you can’t really make someone eat or sleep. Children know […]

By: Tamsin

Tamsin — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 21:35:23 +0000

I agree with this… when it works. My daughter is completely able to regulate her food intake and responds really well to being in the know about what her body needs. She helps herself to snacks and drinks. My son LOVES carbs, protein and sugary foods… he would happily never see another vegetable and lots of fruits. Even when I’ve tried to give him control over making food he will only eat cucumber. I settled on writing a list of all the vegetables I could think of, talking about how many is ‘a lot’ not to eat, then agreeing that he could choose 6 ‘worst’ vegetables that I would never give him and the others he will at least try even if they are not his favourite (obviously I don’t include unusual stuff in this list!). So now I try to give him mainly the stuff he likes and I give him smaller portions or tiny amounts of stuff he doesn’t love. He has increased the stuff he likes now and happily chooses and eats strawberries, mushrooms, different lettuces etc that he was totally against before.
I also will provide a sandwich with salad and if you want more sandwiches then you need to eat the salad first (of agreed vegetables that they often prepare themselves). I don’t feel that throwing food away when you are still hungry and just want bread is ok, it costs money. If they are not hungry obviously it’s fine.
My sister did give total freedom to her son with a similar taste and he is now a teenager who really does only eat dry chicken, bread, pasta and apples. I agree about not nagging and being overly controlling, I’ve tried lots of cooking, involving him in the shopping, letting him choose dinner sometimes. It doesn’t work, he still needs support in healthy eating otherwise he gets constant runny noses and I don’t feel it benefits him long term.
As I said, with my daughter it was soooo easy, she just self regulates.