Great Ideas and Tips for Kids

How to Empower
A Child		 Discipline Why Do Children Misbehave? Eating Habits

Eating Habits

Leann Birch, PhD., is a distinguished professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, has spent more than 25 years studing why kids eat the way they do and how they develop weight and eating problems.

Several interesting points were made, including:
  Kids under 5 eat according to whether they're hungry or not and stop when they are full, regardless of how much food is on their plate. (Unfortunately this oftem changes as children get older for reasons noted in the article). A good rule of thumb for preschoolers is that they only need 1 tablespoon of food of any given food for every year of age.
  Preschool age kids like being independent and should be given some control over what they eat as well as opportunities to serve themselves. Children need to be exposed to a variety of foods over and over.
  Having forbidden foods often serves to make them irresisitible down the road. It is suggested that it might make more sense to show kids how to fit a forbidden food into an overall healthy diet for example.
  Do not reward with food. Wait on dessert. If you must serve something sweet, do it later in the eveing so that is is not connected to what the shild has or has not eaten. Instead of being a reward, it becomes a "sometimes" treat.
  We have to mediate between an environment that offers lots of opportunties for less than healthy choices, and what we believe to be the best choices.
  The overall importance of adults being good role models. We must model eating healthy food choices if we want our children too!
  Kids need lots of opportunities to learn to like those things that are really good for them. Birch notes that this may require several offerings before a child may decide that he/she likes certain vegetables for example.
We are working hard to Wildwood to provide the children with healthym nutritious choices for their snacks. The children are free to regulate how much or how little they eat. We do not force kids to eat snack, we might suggest a "no thank you bit" in which a taste is sampled, and the child can opt to have no more. We try to provide a relaxed environment when eating, and the teachers join the children.
We encourage parents to provide nourishing choices of food for their children at lunch to provide energy for our busy days at school. If your child has found any particular foods or recipes irresistible, please share them with us! We often note eating preferences or habits on our notes home to parents, but we do not regulate what is eaten when during the meal or in what portions. Please keep that in mind as you pack your child's lunch as it may influence what choices you want available for your child.