October 2018 - EASTERN OREGON PARENT - 13
Realistic portions and eating habits for children
By VIRGINIA JUSTICE
When feeding children, it’s
important to remember that their
stomach capacity is significantly
less than an adult’s. Until about age
10 your child’s stomach is approxi-
mately the size of their fisted hand,
though it is elastic and can stretch
to accommodate more food. Some-
thing else to remember is that
a child will eat when they are
hungry, naturally stopping
when they feel full. Children
are born with an innate ability
to consume enough food to
provide the energy their body
will need to function. At one
meal, a child may eat like they
don’t expect to be fed again
for a week and at another
time they may eat very little.
This is normal and should be
accepted.
Like others of my genera-
tion, I was a member of the
“Clean Your Plate Club.” You
know, that club where your
parents put the food on your
plate and you were expected
to eat everything on it be-
cause, after all, “children were
starving in China,” – as if clean-
ing my plate affected those
children. Even being raised by
a dietitian, we were expected to
eat what was set before us (some-
thing my mother now regrets). My
youngest brother, being the most
creative of the four kids, figured out
that he could put the food he did
not want into a paper napkin and
feed it, napkin and all, to the dog.
Interestingly, he is the only sibling
who has never had to struggle with
his weight.
The question becomes how, as
parents, do we determine what is
too much, too little or just right?
My personal solution was to use
smaller plates. I would provide very
small portions and let my children
know to ask for more if they were
still hungry.
And what about “grazing” –
snacking throughout the day – is
it a good thing or a bad thing?
Experts resoundingly agree that
are meant for grinding meat to
make it easy to swallow. As new
foods are introduced into the diet,
children are subjected to not only
new tastes but new textures, and
some are not appealing to the
child’s palate at their age. Because
eating, tastes, and textures are
partly developmental, parents
allowing children to graze through-
out the day is not a good thing as it
reduces their ability to regulate in-
take. Children instead should have
three meals and two snacks per
day. It is also not a good practice to
deny snacks for not completing a
meal, this simply makes the snacks
even more desirable.
Much of eating, especially the
types of foods children eat, can be
developmental. Children who do
not have molars will have more
trouble eating meats, as molars
need to be understanding when a
child who once loved tomatoes no
longer wants to eat them. Likewise,
patience is called for when a child
decides they only want peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches at
lunch. This desire for PB & J is likely
a phase in their development and
next week they will tell you they do
not like PB & J.
One of the biggest issues regard-
ing feeding children and teaching
them healthy food habits is the use
of food as a reward. Often parents
Nutrition
use food as a reward and doing so
encourages bad eating habits and
makes the “rewards” even more
desirable. It is possible to use other
types of rewards to encourage
good behavior and compliance.
Such as tokens that children
can save up to use at the store
to buy a toy.
The British website www.
ToddlerForum.org is an excel-
lent resource for feeding infants
and children. It provides much
information on portion sizes
and feeding ideas for children.
This site features photos of
portion sizes for foods to give
parents a visual representation
of what the plate should look
like.
Teaching children good eat-
ing habits is important to de-
velopment and health for life.
As adults we need to set a good
example by not being afraid to
push the plate away with food
still on it when we feel full. Re-
member the fisted hand stom-
ach comparison for children
under 10 and also consider that
an adult stomach is approximately
12 inches long and six inches wide
at the widest point. Visualize how
much food could possibly fit inside
this organ without it stretching.
It’s the continual stretching that
enables us to eat more and more
without feeling full.
________
Pendleton home economist Virginia
Justice and her husband have two
college-aged daughters.