toughLOVE by Lisa Stiepock

Author:Lisa Stiepock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Handling Mealtime: A Matter of Attitude and Action

Traditionally, mealtime has been a touch point for the family, an opportunity to communicate and strengthen family bonds. But today, family mealtime can be filled with pressure, angst, and chaos, with a little bit of guilt thrown in. Parents may pressure children to eat this or that, or threaten to take privileges away if eating isn’t good enough. Chaos comes with disjointed meals, where family members are anywhere but at the table, and parents are retrieving alternative food items for the child who “won’t eat.” Feelings of guilt exist because mealtime isn’t a source of pleasure or bonding, but one of argument, disappointment, and, let’s face it, dread. The truth is, for many families mealtime has become more of a chore and less of a bonding experience for everyone.

Have you ever stopped to think about whether the vibe of mealtime is getting in the way? Forget the perfect meal. Forget the manners. What about how you interact with your child at mealtime? What about your beliefs about how your child should be eating?

Success at the table is as much a matter of attitude and action as it is about food. The attitudes and actions you bring to the table are what researchers call feeding styles and practices, and they may be setting you up for failure. From worsening picky eating to promoting excess weight gain, feeding styles and practices are an emerging area of childhood nutrition research that give insight into how the interaction at the table affects eating, for better or worse.

Feeding styles are the attitudes you carry from your own childhood experience with eating, and the general approach you use in the process of feeding your child. 10 Feeding styles are transgenerational, that is, they are passed down from generation to generation, as the “way things are done when feeding kids.” Feeding practices are the daily strategies, or tactics, used to get children to eat, or not. 11 These practices are related to your feeding style but may also stem from outside pressure and fear. Let’s examine some feeding styles.

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