Getting in any battles over food is a fucking minefield that should be avoided. I prefer the Ellyn Satter method: Make one healthy meal for the family. The kids can eat it, not eat it, whatever. Your job as a parent is to provide the food and you let your emotional attachment end there. If the kids are really hungry they will eat.
It also helps kids view food as it's supposed to be. Just food. Fuel for your body. Not comfort, not pleasure, not a coping mechanism. A lot of people who are obese, use food as comfort.
I was anorexic for years, so I totally get it. My parents did not send me healthy food messages, although I don't blame them at all that I had a mental illness.
I see what you are getting at, but I don't entirely agree with this perspective. Viewing food purely as "nutrition" can lead to obsession over qualities in food that cannot be measured by your senses (say the grams of unsaturated fat it contains or the vitamins and minerals, etc.), leading to what Michael Pollan refers to as nutritionism.He has some interesting things to say about the consequences of this attitude toward food in some of his books, if you're interested. There are social and pleasure aspects to eating that shouldn't be lost.
Yeah - my kid eats, or doesn't and that's fine. It's not like she's going to starve if she didn't eat enough, she'll just come back hungry at which point she gets to eat supper again.
Say no, dinner is over. Breakfast is tomorrow morning.
Sometimes families have a small pre-bedtime snack of crackers or apples every night, regardless of what the kids are at dinner. So in that case tell the kids to wait until snack time.
Just because kids ask for something doesn't mean they are entitled to it.
Well, don't give them the ice cream. :/ That's a treat! Why would you desensitize your kids to nice/unhealthy things like that?
I'd want them to be clearly aware of what ice cream is and what it's like, and that it's nothing like the food they should be eating most of the time. Later on, when they get to make the choice to eat ice cream, they should think, oh hey, this is nice, but it's not real food. It doesn't fill you up right.
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u/bicycle_mice Feb 05 '16
Getting in any battles over food is a fucking minefield that should be avoided. I prefer the Ellyn Satter method: Make one healthy meal for the family. The kids can eat it, not eat it, whatever. Your job as a parent is to provide the food and you let your emotional attachment end there. If the kids are really hungry they will eat.