Chubby toddlers growing into normal weight children? - Page 3

[pigpokey]

Mine matched in pounds and inches also for a long time.  They never had fat stores. 

[serenbat]

HOWEVER:  "End of Overeating" presents some really interesting research.  Because those preset self-regulation points get overridden by very very very fatty or sweet foods.  Kids in these studies did *not* self-regulate on very, very rich foods, and too much of those foods seems to turn off regulation. 

Those studies that show that kids self-regulate?  Are changing. In the 1980s, kids aged 2-4 compensated for 90% of calories added to their diets.  By the 1990s, they were only compensating for 45% of added calories.  (Compensating means that when fed a high-calorie food in the middle of the day, they adjust their intake later to make up for it, resulting in a total intake close to their usual average). 

The theory he presents is that a lot of modern food is processed to be "super desirable." It is *designed* to make you want to eat it and eat lots of it.  And we are instinctively driven to  load up on fat and sugar and salt when we find it, because in nature they are rare treats that are vital to growth and health.   So manufacturers layer on fat-sugar-salt into everything, and in the process we are all resetting our regulatory systems -- in some cases we are turning them off.

It's not the "processing" of processed foods, per se that does this.  They could "process" food into something that wouldn't trigger this.  And you could theoretically accomplish this turning-off of the regulatory systems with unprocessed foods -- lots of organic honey and free-range butter would do the same damn thing.  But realistically, many  processed and restaurant foods are being specifically designed to be ultra-appealing, because they are also products.

and to add- as children age presentation (visual appearance) plays a bigger role in their decision making making (self regulating) 

[savithny]

Originally Posted by serenbat 

and to add- as children age presentation (visual appearance) plays a bigger role in their decision making making (self regulating) 

This is also very true -- and both books I mention talk about this (it's a major theme of Mindless Eating, though he doesn't talk about kids specifically).    

Presentation -- especially the size of the bowl/cup and the amount in it -- have a huge effect on how much everyone winds up eating, including kids.  Kids eating out of larger bowls will eat up to 25% more -- and not report feeling any fuller.

That's actually another thing I did -- I went and got real "juice glasses" like my grandma used to have.  I think they're 7 ounces -- the same size as all the sippy cups were when my 12yo was a baby (side note: it sure seems like most of the sippy cups on sale now are bigger - more like 12-18 oz).   When we drink juice, we drink it out of those.  You don't fill it to the brim, so a serving is more like the 6 ounces which is the official USDA "serving size," and is what old parenting manuals were assuming when they recommended that kids have juice every day.)

We use those glasses for pretty much any flavored drink we have. Adults too (though I also got small, standard-serving wine glasses and we sometimes use those).  I have two sets of custard cups that I use for things like ice cream and other desserts.  They make the standard serving size of ice cream look reasonable, rather than tiny.   We have smaller bowls for cereal too, rather than using our big soup plates.   All of that makes servings of treats look bigger, and makes them ultimately as satisfying as larger servings in larger bowls, because we feel like "We ate the whole bowl full."

[serenbat]

we use OLD kids size plate, cup, glasses and flatware too!

we have OLD "sherbet" glasses- big difference when having ice cream!!!

when you look at the "size" that coke was (in bottle form) from one decade to another you get the difference

ALSO we talk and talk and talk about portion size and not just in terms of at the table in front of food- you can do it very causally, when we shop we talk and count out how many things we are getting and how it relates to a meal, we read packages, we talk as we cook about how many serving a recipe makes- this way portion size, servings are common knowledge and not foreign and not made out to be a big deal

[Youngfrankenstein]

We also went back to using my extra set of grandma's china for our everyday dishes.  They are a few inches smaller than the Ikea ones we were using.  We also use ramikins for ice cream.