Food Communication with Children

There’s a lot of concentration on what we feed our children, ensuring it’s healthy and they’re getting all that they need. However, sometimes we can overlook how important it is to know HOW to communicate to children about food in a way that will protect their ability to eat intuitively. It goes beyond the exact words used, it’s the atmosphere around food, the feelings, the experience in its entirety. The language we use around food, and how we interact with food, is important as children look at us as their role models and we heavily influence their relationship with food.

I hope you find the below helpful.

Do’s

·        Describe foods in practical ways like their colour, taste, texture etc. So, for example, you would say a bell pepper is red/green/yellow, crips, sweet or juicy. A hard-boiled egg is white and yellow, bouncy, or squishy.

·        Make food and mealtimes fun – encourage curiosity around food. Allow them to participate in food preparation where possible. Make them family affairs with no distractions. This will give a great opportunity for them to taste/feel/see their food.

·        Get creative – invite round a friend and have a picnic party, get new utensils, if they’re older give then allow them to pick the foods at the store etc.

Don’ts

·        Pre-emptively tell a child they will or will not like a food. Allow them to try it and tell you have they find it. Ask them open questions on what they think of it, how it felt to them etc.

·        Keep your opinions on food to yourself. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean they won’t either. This can also come across in subtle ways.

·        Don’t get upset if a child makes a mess. Eating is a skill. If your child is accidentally spilling foods/drinks, give them exercises where they can strengthen those skills like pouring challenges, using cutlery with playdough etc.

·        Don’t use food as a reward for good behaviour or limit food for bad behaviour. This will cause food preferences, food avoidance and hunger-satiety issues in the long run.

The Division of Responsibility in Feeding.

I’m a big advocate of this method. Of course, it’s different to how most of us have grown up so some parents may need some time and conversation to understand this method and feel comfortable implementing it. This approach leads from baby-led weaning and protects the child’s intuitive eating abilities. I’ll be doing a blog post on this method of feeding shortly, but I know the following scenario will be a big concern for parents so I thought I’ll give you the answer here.

What do you do if the little one has a meal in front of them and is refusing it/asking for something else? Tell them in a calm voice, *requested food* is not an option right now, but you have the option of *name what’s in front of them*. Tell them they can eat as much as they like, and *requested* food will be offered at a different time. If they do not want to eat, that’s fine, accept it. But they stay at the table until mealtime is over.

I hope you have found this helpful. If you have any further situations/questions, go ahead and leave a comment.