November 30, 2010 Playing For Peas
You want your kids to eat their veggies.
You pressure them. You bribe them. You beg them. Still, they barely eat more than a bite.
Instead of focusing on vegetable consumption, change the message. Teach your kids to eat some of everything before they eat all of anything.
In other words, teach your kids an organized form of grazing. Eating around the plate is a simple strategy that works.
Eat SOME of everything BEFORE you eat ALL of anything.
Most parents plunk down a plate and let their kids dig in… any way they want. But imagine, instead of powering down the pasta, your kids learned to eat a little of this and a little of that until they were done. You wouldn’t have to harass your kids to eat two more bites of vegetables anymore!
It might not seem like kids need this type of structure, but young kids don’t know:
- How hungry they really are.
- How much food they can eat before they’re full.
A lot of young kids can't even identify hunger; they think their tummies hurt.
Your kids might be absolutely tormented by tomatoes, plagued by peas, and positively allergic to asparagus, but it’s just as likely that they’re full.
Or at least full enough to resist your reasoning: Mmmm, this spinach is delicious! Don’t you want to grow up to big and strong?
Even if your kids have the best intentions (they actually want to eat their veggies) they’re probably doomed. It’s practically impossible for kids to eat anything other than their favorites when their preferred foods are staring them in the face, just begging to be eaten.
Plus, matching food consumption to hunger satiation is tough stuff — even most adults haven’t mastered that skill. Teaching kids to eat some of everything before they eat all of anything prevents the problem of premature fullness.
In the past I’ve talked about a technique I call One-One which teaches children to eat some of everything before they eat all of anything.
For more on One-One read My child asks for seconds of pasta before she’s even touched her peas. What should I do?
But here’s another way to teach the same lesson: let your kids play with their food. Literally.
The spinner tells your children which well to eat from and how many bites to take. Brilliant!
The beauty of this game is that it takes YOU out of the picture.
The rule of what to eat is put it in the hands of…GOD (or rather, maybe it’s Lady Luck.) Either way, it will be fun and teach your kids a valuable lesson about eating. (Full disclosure: the manufacturer is a friend of mine.)
Learn more about this plate www.daydreamtoy.com.
A few weeks ago I mentioned another plate that would simply your life and teach your kids to eat right. Read Forget the Food Pyramid.
If you don’t want to buy the plate, you can make a version of this game yourself.
You could, for example, draw different foods on a piece of paper, attach a spinner and away you go.
Whatever technique you decide to use, remember, the point is to actively teach your kids how to eat. You'll be amazed by how effectively this teaches kids what to eat as well.
~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~
Reader Comments (6)
This is all good IF you have a child that will entertain the idea of eating anything. I have a nearly 6 year old that eats next to nothing. There's not a bribe on this earth that will entice him to eat something if he doesn't want to. And if, by chance, he does decide to take a bite - he ususally ends up back on his plate. It's not pretty.
Melanie,
Sorry to hear that you have such a tough eater on your hands. Have you tried serving extremely small portions? Sometimes that helps change the dynamic. Read When Less is More.
Dina
I got very sick of the "eat your fruit and vegetables" mantra. At our house, we've changed things to "you have to eat all of ____ (fruit or vegetable for the evening that I know the kids will eat) and at least one bite of everything else" before you can have your drink at dinner. I agree whole- heartedly that the approach you outline is probably preferable, but we've found we have many less battles with the kids now. They know they must eat their fruit or veg if they want something to drink with the meal and if they want any more of anything else. We also use really small portions in subdivided plates which seems to give the kids a sense of accomplishment and idea that they're not going to be eating fruits and vegetables all evening.
Thanks for your blog, BTW. It's quite insightful.
I just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE your blog! I have a two (almost three) year old daughter and have witnessed her eating habits go significantly downhill from when she first began eating "solid" food. She was never a picky eater, but has picked up bad habits along the way and now I find myself worrying about how to correct her eating habits (and my own along the way!) I also have a six month old who is very new to solid food...a chance to start over again!
I guess I just want to thank you for your blog and the inspiration that I get when reading here!
That's a cool idea --I wish I'd thought of that when my daughter was young. Not that her eating habits are terrible now, but I think it is really hard to know when your child is honestly full, or just doesn't want to try something. I've always stressed the "listen to your tummy" to see if you are hungry or not, rather than the "clean your plate" philosophy, and sometimes I've had to give up on a bite of veggies when she tells me she's full from eating the pasta or potatoes :-)
This is a great idea. I also loved your advice in the comments above about putting less on the plate. I used to feed my picky eater on a teacup saucer. Also we had a deal that he would eat a little of everything, even if it was just one single pea. Now that he's ten I can't keep food in the house because he's gobbles it all up!