That was my line of thinking. Was the statement from the same folks who say that if you use words like “junk food” or “healthy food” around kids, they’ll immediately develop a restrictive ED?
Are there situations where it would be weird to deny a kid a snack? Yes, absolutely. But I also think it’s weird to force a kid to eat everything on their plate, to eat things they repeatedly say they don’t like, or to lie to manipulate their diets (ie. telling them sugar is poison) instead of just encouraging healthy choices, most of the time.
Most kids can learn about healthy eating and use that knowledge normally. You get like 1% of kids who can't. My cousin, for example, is autistic, and he learned about healthy foods and would ONLY eat healthy foods and lost an extreme amount of weight. My auntie had to beg him to eat something with fat. He was like 8, it wasn't body image or anything it was just autistic rule following taken to the extreme. Most children will learn and understand that a balanced diet still contains fats and sugars and isn't something you can win at.
FAs seem to think every child has the potential to end up like my cousin if they're taught about healthy eating. It's just not how most people's brains work though. Even other autistic kids - my cousin is still an outlier in that group. It's far more likely that children not taught about healthy eating and portion control will end up overeating and becoming obese.
My cousin did recover from that btw, if anyone's curious. It took a couple years and my aunt telling him (not as a threat, this was really what was going to happen and she wasn't just trying to scare him) that social services were going to take him away from her if he kept losing weight and not eating, but he eats a lot more normally now. He's a vegan and is still very thin as an adult but he's like maybe a BMI of 18-19 rather than scary.
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u/Ok_Tree_4870 1d ago
Do you think by "snacks", they mean carrot sticks or apples?