Making Meals Matter

To order your copy of the DVD "Making Meals Matter" click here to download the order form.

To download the presentations, click on the links below:
Better Breakfast, Better Learning (176 KB)
Parental Feeding Styles - Influence on Children (611 KB)

To download the press release, click here

May 26, 2008

CAN YOUR FEEDING STYLE MAKE YOUR CHILD OVERWEIGHT?

(BURNABY, BC)- As parents, we worry about what our children are eating and control what’s available at home. But our good intentions can sometimes harm, according to
the latest research presented at the BC Dairy Foundation 8th Annual Milk & Cookies event.

There are four problematic feeding styles commonly used by parents. Do you use any of these methods? Here is how they can influence your child’s health and weight.

1. Force feeding
Children are more sensitive to the satiety cues than adults and know when to stop eating. When you force feed, you disrupt your child’s natural satiety cues, which
may lead to overeating later. You also create a strong lifelong aversion or dislike for the foods you force your child to eat. Force feeding can also be associated with
negative behaviours such as sneak eating.

2. Reinforcement
You may think you are helping your child adopt healthy food choices when you promise dessert after they eat broccoli. What you are actually doing is making your child add value to the food used as a reward. Your child will start using the reward food to self-reward later in life. Reinforcement is also related to a child’s body dissatisfaction.

3. No control
This feeding style is likely to lead to child weight issues and to other behaviour control issues.

4. Restriction
You may purposely limit access or intake of certain foods over a period of time or even completely avoid these foods at home. This is the most detrimental feeding style as it leads children to overeat the restricted food when available at a friend’s house for example. Specific food restriction at age 5 is correlated with a higher body mass index two years later. Restriction at an early age can also lead to eating disorders.

Tips for feeding your child
• Offer smaller portions to your child. Once a three-dimensional picture of a serving of food is created in your child’s head, it is embedded for life. This creates portion
distortion, as the child thinks of the large adult-sized portion as the norm. Instead, use the palm of your child’s hand as your reference for portion size. It will increase as your child grows. Remember, your child can always eat more portions of an appropriate smaller size, if still hungry.

• Fathers play a significant role as role models with regards to food. As a father, lead by example by eating the foods you would like your child to eat.

• It is your responsibility to decide what to offer but it is your child’s responsibility to decide what to eat and how much.

• Do not use food as a reward.

• Set up regular meal and snack times
.
• Normalize the foods you would like to restrict by explaining that you do not buy or eat these foods in your house but that other houses may have them and it is OK to eat these foods if offered at a friend’s house.