Quote:
Originally Posted by runnerbrit  I am not sure this is what it is called...
The idea is that after a child has begun to eat solid foods that you allow them to eat whatever they want whenever they want. Of course, you choose what you bring into your home. But, if you have ice cream in the house and your child wants to eat ice cream for breakfast you let them.
I have heard that the theory behind this is that the child will learn to listen to their body and self regulate their eating.
Has anybody tried this? If so, what does it look like in your home? Also, is there another name for it?
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I've tried it, and it isn't looking so good in my home, and I'm sure most of the problem is me. My first dd would self regulate on sugary things. She would eat a certain amount of sugar, but during the times she had access to candy like during certain holidays she would only eat a couple pieces and forget about the rest. But her younger sister was a candy gorger and will eat sugary things like there is no tomorrow--although sometimes it can be right in front of her and if she doesn't want it, she doesn't want it. My biggest concern is that they don't eat the healthy things at all and then eat the crappy things when they are hungry. My youngest dd would eat a full plate of spinach or beet greens or of the dinner I provided, might only eat a plate of steamed broccoli. So I didn't worry about it with her as much, but lately she's gotten picky too.
With my first I tried letting her eat what she wanted, but not having bad stuff in the house. What happened is she would taste it elsewhere and it got to the point where she would not eat the foods I had and ask me over and over and over again to go to the store and get the food she wanted. When are you going? But I'm hungry! Did you get my food yet? And so on and so on and so on. She now refuses to eat any kind of bread but white, any kind of pasta but white. Even if she doesn't know and doesn't recognize the pasta as being whole wheat, she will just take a few bites and say, "I don't like it, can I have something else?" A few times she told me it just doesn't taste the same, and now she is at the point where she only wants the brands she recognizes. The lists of foods she will actually eat is very small and isn't very healthy, but I'm hoping she will become more adventurous later. I offered her hummus last week and she wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, but she ate it as a toddler.
She will be 8 in May and she does ask me about foods and the wholesomeness of them; I've noticed her not eating certain foods (like soda) because she realizes they aren't that healthy. For awhile I would try and at least explain why the foods weren't healthy, only to have her yell at me, "I don't care about diabetes! That's your problem." So I think she is coming around a bit. I think part of the problem is that no matter what the food is, I can't say completely, "Yeah, that is healthy, you should eat a lot of it." I explain the negatives and positives of the food and I guess they think that since it's not healthy anyway, why bother.
Anyway, last night my husband bought donuts and the kids each had one. Then this morning they wanted one and asked me, so I let them have one. Then my 3 year old wanted yet another one and I said no. I was telling her no, they are bad for your heart, they'll clog your arteries, etc. She put her hand up to her chest and said, "I had a heart attack already."
Now she is playing with her sister, the donut forgotten and I'm thinking I will put it out of sight.
But if they decide they want something, like chips or cookies or whatever, they are quite capable of bugging me day and night to go to the store and buy it. I'm not sure how to handle that other than saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no."
I'd just gently point out that it moms and daughters come in all different shapes and sizes. Putting on and losing a bit of weight in your teens is pretty normal I think. But if she's gaining more than seems healthy for her I'd also mention, and I imagine you have, that weight depends on a variety of factors including the way we eat and excersize & that she might want to look into eating more healthy foods. That's really all you can do...in addition to trying not to take it personally anyway. lol
