There's a lot of focus on eating this week, so we thought it was the perfect time to bring you this guest post from Katherine Shamraj, the founder of PVP partner organization, Sproot.
Nothing can prepare you for the challenges of feeding a
preschool-aged child--not even feeding another preschool-aged child! Each child
is so different, it’s hard to find any rhyme, reason or pattern to their
relationship with food and eating.
Since starting Sproot,
Boston's only nutrition-focused food company for young children, I've learned
more than I knew there was to learn about feeding this age group. Throughout
this process, I've had an incredible resource on hand -- Registered Dietician
with a PhD in early childhood nutrition and a two-year-old daughter. When I am
stumped, Dr. E. Whitney Evans
always has an answer that's both practical and rooted in academic research.
Because the research she shares with me looks for statistic significance
instead of crowd-pleasing sound bites, her answers don't always apply to every
single child. But on average, they apply to most children most of the time.
Here are five of the biggest preschool feeding surprises
I've learned about:
SURPRISE #1: 14 TIMES
Otherwise known as:
- Once every single day for 2 weeks
- Once a week for 3.5 months
- Once a month for 1.2 years
This is how many times it takes -- on AVERAGE -- for a child
to accept a new food if they don't like it immediately. Some children might
take 5 times, others might take 25 times. The worst thing a parent could do is
think: "My child doesn't like beans," and stop putting beans in front
of them.
SURPRISE #2: VISUALS COUNT
There's this thing called "sensory
processing" that influences a child's acceptance of food. Even if they
don't eat it, exposing them to food by allowing them to see, touch, and smell
it increases likelihood of acceptance. So, even if that broccoli comes back
uneaten, it has still served a purpose so long as it was placed in front of
them. It's very important for them to have their ENTIRE contents of the lunchbox
placed in front of them at lunchtime (as opposed to allowing them to pull some
things out and leave others behind).
SURPRISE #3: TASTE
PREFERENCES ARE SET BEFORE AGE 4
The flavors they like by age four are the flavors they will
default to for the rest of their lives. Wow! In a study
that followed the same set of children from ages two to eight, the strongest
predictor of the number of foods liked at age eight years was the number of foods
liked at age four years. New foods? Far more likely to be accepted between ages two
to four, than between ages four and eight.
SURPRISE #4: TODAY’S MEAL, TOMORROW’S HABIT
If you eat takeout more than once a week, you’re giving your
children a lifelong preference for unhealthy food. Restaurant and prepared
foods are tasty. That's their job. But they are rarely healthy. With today's
lifestyle it is difficult to avoid ordering takeout. But when you put the
following two facts together, you may think twice about what to order:
1) Food preferences are set before
age four (see SURPRISE #3)
2) Eating away from home has proven
to result in higher caloric intake and consumption of sugar and salt
It's impractical to suggest not eating prepared foods, but
consider that today’s restaurant meals will set your child’s flavor preferences
to extra salty, extra sweet, extra fat for the rest of their lives. Proceed,
but with caution.
SURPRISE #5: GIVE
THEM SWEETS, NOT TREATS
One of the most surprising things I learned from Dr. Evans
is that she recommends that if you are going to give your child a sweet
anyway, it is better to give it to them alongside dinner instead of saving it
for later. This surprising piece of
advice may remove negotiating leverage during the day ("You won't get your
treat unless...") but not putting sweets on a pedestal is important for a
number of reasons, which Dr. Evans eloquently describes here.
