It’s that time of year again, back to school. Many families are finding themselves having to start virtually, even though they’ve already spent the past five months social distancing. Most adults have noticed a change in their eating habits because of this, and children are no different.
Not surprisingly, a recent study out of Italy, looking at the eating habits of adults during this quarantine found that 34% of the subjects had an increased appetite. Factors contributing to this are spending more time at home, stockpiling food (can’t forget the toilet paper fiasco), the interruption in work, school, and activity routine leading to boredom, and increased stress. Our children undoubtedly have had the same experience and reaction. How do we come back from this?
A common uninvited consequence of increased eating behaviors is weight gain. While the solution for adults can simply be to start a calorie deficit to lose any unwanted weight gain, it isn’t advised for children to do the same. A simple strategy for families to return to a normal eating pattern is to cut back on junk or fast food and focus on whole foods.
Another strategy is to employ intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is a flexible eating style that focuses on trusting—and usually following—physical hunger and satiety cues to guide when, what, and how much to eat. It's associated with positive physical and psychological outcomes. This model is based on trust and allows children to build autonomy. Raising intuitive eaters will allow our children to become more aware of their bodies and recognize their own hunger and satiety signals.
Here are some tips that you can use when first promoting intuitive eating in your household:
Do: Encourage healthy habits
Don’t: Pressure healthy habits
Do: Reward with non-food items, like activities and praise
Don’t: Reward with food items
Do: Praise a child’s effort ("Great job trying the kiwi!”)
Don’t: Praise the child themselves ("I’m proud of you for trying the kiwi”)
Do: Model healthy behavior
Don’t: Talk about foods you don’t like
Do: Decide when to serve meals and what to serve
Don’t: Decide what or how much of that meal the child eats
Do: Ask "How can I make that better?”
Don’t: Ask, "Why don’t you like it?”
Do: Keep introducing foods at least 8-15 times
Don’t: Sneak healthy foods into the child’s diet
Do: Involve kids (grocery store, kitchen, community garden, farm)
Don’t: Treat food prep as a "grown-up” activity
Do: Use positive words to talk about food
Don’t: Use negative words to talk about food or allow your child to do so ("ew” or "bad”)
Do: Talk about health & the body’s abilities ("I cut away the fat on the meat because too much can make it harder for your heart to beat and keep you strong and active”)
Don’t: Talk about appearance ("I cut away the fat on the meat because it will make us fat”)
By: Denise Hernandez, MS, RD, LD