how to get your kid to finish his lunch....

[jennifer lynn roger]

I was at my little girl's school today and saw how her teacher helped an older girl finish her food. I thought her strategy was wonderful. We all should try...
That girl wanted to put away her plate before fishing her meal. The teacher showed her 3 cards. 1: a plate of food, 2: a banana, 3: a picture of a toy. She arranged the stickers in this order: 1, 2, 3. To my surprise, the girl after seeing the 3 cards, quickly finished her food, then ate her fruit, then proceed to play at one corner! 3 CHEERS TO TEACHER!
I told myself I must try this on my girl! You should try too.

[durain]

i got a 4th card. a picture of the rotan.

[road.not.taken]

I don't believe in coaxing or forcing children to eat. Rewarding a child for eating food they didn't want is a sure path to a lifetime of weight problems. No thank you.

[Thaiclan]

I agree with you road-not-taken. What is it with all the emphasis on getting kids to finish up everything? As long as you are not offering them junk snacks in between meals a child should know when they are full are not - there has yet to be a case of elective starvation in young children!
When I was a kid I was forced to eat every bite to "join the clean plate club", but I think this was more because food was much more expensive and therefore wasting it was not an option.
That's not the case for us in 2009. Young children need to eat alot of calories everyday (around 1500 - 2000 depending on age and sex), thats way to much to eat in 3 meals for little tums.
Small frequent meals that can be eaten relatively quickly (no kid wants to sit down for a 40 minute meal) will ensure your child is nourished AND happy and with great food associations to last them through adulthood.

[QRM]

JLR Thanks for the tip, but I do agree with the other posters, seems odd to force a kid to eat. The Doc said a toddler will never starve, which is true, my toddler will ask for a carrot, banana, frozen peas etc when she is feeling a bit peckish and so far she has been growing at the normal rate.

The current thinking is that its a lot healthier for the kids to have lots of high quality snacks through out the day rather than gorge on a big meal.

I suspect this force feeding comes about more for the convenience of the grown ups. Also its a bit of a cultural thing, in the west its rude to leave things on your plate no matter how full you are. A trait that was exploited by HSBC in their very funny cultural difference ads.

[wnyw]

i also agree of not force feeding. if my kid has no appetite i'll not force her to eat. later on when she's hungry she'll tend to eat more.

only at times as parents we tend to have soft heart when seeing them not eating and wondering whether she'll be hungry.

[bluenose]

There is a child Psychologist called Tanya Byron and she is brill with kids.
I watched her programme about a wee guy that would not eat and it was the parents who were the problem...as they made a big fuss of washing your hands all the time, cleaning up every time he spilled something, dropped something...so the wee guy decided eating messy foods was not worth all the hassle, so tried to live on biscuits and dry foods.
She made eating fun....made a mess, did not make a big thing of clearing it up...days later, he was eating like any normal child.
I had a problem with my son eating.....I then noticed (some one told me!) it was my problem and if he does not eat...it is his problem as he is the hungry one not me...I had to learn not to make an issue of it.
It was a control issue...he wanted to control the situation, by always leaving some and I was having none of it!
Lesson learned....if he wants to leave some...upto him, but can not complain of being hungry 5 minutes later..

[QRM]

So it would appear JLR school teacher is a bit out of touch with the current outlook on kids and food.

Interesting there was an article in the papers that confirm this force feeding is not the way to go.

JLR why not ask the teachers view on the subject?

[Matney]

A child will not starve if he chooses not to eat at mealtime. The adults in the child's life determine what a child enjoys to eat, whether its healthy or junk food. I don't force my students to eat, but I do request that they eat something out of their lunch box/bag. I also tell them that their mum or aunty doesn't pack foods that they don't normally eat. OP's suggestion is bribery, pure and simple. No thanks!

[cbavasi]

I used to think that children who were picky eaters were just being difficult and agreed with most people that they wouldn't starve. I actually have a kid who has a real issue with food... and ended up seeing a dietician my pediatrician recommended who told me I did, in fact, have a kid who would probably starve instead of eating. He has a genuine fear of food... and coming from a family where we love to eat, cook and celebrate meals - this has taken some strength to deal with. If anyone has serious food issues with their child I can wholeheartedly recommend The Food Clinic (http://www.thefoodclinic.com.sg/). The nutritionist I met with deals with children, teens, adults alike and had some really positive advice for us. Thankfully I have another child who loves food and can be picky so the usual tactics work for her (she will definitely not starve)... but for those kids who have genuine issues hopefully this will help.
(I forgot to add my child had severe reflux as an infant/toddler and would consistently vomit when feeding/mealtimes - so was reluctant to eat from birth.)

[wnyw]

Just came back from my PD and she also assured me again that as long as at the end of the day my kid is eating nutritious food sufficiently, i don't need to worry too much.

Kids have their days of mood swing, so when they become hungry they'll eat.

Of course, it will be different for those kids who genuinely have fear of food, but glad to know that there are some theraphy out there.