I've noticed that a lot of us have been raised to 'Clean our Plates', and I can't help but think that the way we were raised has a lot to do with our current health problems. My own mother used to get angry when I didn't eat all of my food, and would threaten to "Shove it down my throat!" We all want to be healthy, and we all want to raise out children to be healthy, and to have a healthy relationship with food. I'm sure we've all seen the shows with parents feeding their children trash, and then somebody swoops in and shows the parents how to feed their kids healthy, yummy foods. Not to mention, exercise!
The question is, what can we do as parents so our kids will not have to go through what we are going through????
Keep junk out of the house. They are exposed to it everywhere else!
Have plenty of healthy, natural, whole foods around to snack on.
Offer 2 choices and leave it at that. Don't offer to be a "short order cook" for fear of your child "starving". Hungry children EAT so don't send the wrong message and make it a power struggle!
Don't use food as a reward.
Center fun activities around things OTHER than food.
Educate yourself about nutrition and share what you learn with your children.
I think the only kids I know that are healthy are those that wont eat pre packed food or junk food, because from a young age their parents educated them that it was full of chemicals and all sorts of nasty things. Education is the answer.
This is something that I've been working on lately--not making them clean their plates. When they say they're full, they can stop.
BUT and this is a big BUT, when they want dessert I really have to watch their portion sizes and not make it an every night thing (usually it's low fat ice cream).
My 8 yr old got to where she was asking me for dessert after lunch and supper!!!
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But back to the clean your plates thing: REmember that for a great many of us, our grandparents (and even for some of us, our parents) were coming out of the Great Depression and WWII. For years they didn't HAVE anything ... so the idea of leaving food on your plate was not just mildly wrong ... but morally abhorrent. To waste food in that way ... to not eat good food that was provided for you ... that was a sin beyond thinking.
So I can totally see where the "clean your plate" idea came from. It wasn't easy to store leftovers in those days ... and throwing away food ... simply not done. You eat what is put before you - all of it.
For Our Children's Health!
We all want to be healthy, and we all want to raise out children to be healthy, and to have a healthy relationship with food. I'm sure we've all seen the shows with parents feeding their children trash, and then somebody swoops in and shows the parents how to feed their kids healthy, yummy foods. Not to mention, exercise!
