Pediatric Dietitian Shares Unpopular Opinion on Feeding Kids

“How do I GET my child to eat?” or “How do I GET my child to eat vegetables?”

These are common questions I hear as an intuitive eating dietitian that works with moms and children.

As a mama myself who has picky eaters, let me tell you - I GET IT.

So much of parenting often feels like what we need to get our kids to do in order to help them grow up into confident, capable adults.

Food is no exception.

Except for one thing: Trying to get our kids to eat in alignment with our own desires or expectations can feel a lot like fighting a losing battle.

Why is that?

No matter how hard we try to get our kids to eat or encourage them to eat certain foods, it seems to backfire.

What if I told you that it wasn’t your job to get your child to eat?

What if the responsibility of getting veggies into your kids wasn’t on your shoulders?

How different would mealtimes be if you didn’t feel like you had to micromanage what or how much your child was eating?

It starts by pivoting our focus with feeding and understanding one crucial change:

Instead of asking yourself what you need to do to “get” your child to eat, try switching that to “let”:

How can you LET your child figure out what to eat from the foods you’ve provided?

Can you LET your children eat what they need and what feels best in their bodies?

It might seem like a small change, but it’s powerful for creating more peaceful mealtimes and helping your child build confidence with eating.

You can create more safety at mealtimes when you allow your children to have a say in deciding WHAT they want to eat from the foods you’ve provided and to regain a sense of control over their own bodies.

Allowing your children autonomy, especially when it comes to food and what they’re eating, can help end power struggles at mealtimes.

Less power struggles mean more peaceful mealtimes.

When you learn to trust your children with food, they'll internalize trust in their bodies.

More joy & TRUST can help lead your child to a positive relationship with food & body.

[AvaBizDDD]

Eventually they get hungry. My daughter who's now 12 would say no to breakfast. Eat a cookie and milk for lunch. Take 2 bites of dinner. That's it. The next day has 3 of 5 cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Drops $7.50 in the cafeteria for lunch and wants to split a large pizza for dinner. Once I realized there's no sense in force feeding my kid it made our relationship that much better. My only rule is tell me if your not gonna eat dinner so I don't cook too mich.

[meendert]

except when that child refuses to eat anything in the first place. if i didn't encourage my sister to eat she probably wouldn't eat at all.