03 Feb Healthy Family Eating by Danielle Shea Tan, TLC’s Family Nutrition Coach
It’s 5 o’clock and dinner is ready. Phew! You get the kids set up with food cut into perfect little pieces on their plates so you can tackle dishes early. But, the tantrums begin and no one is eating. What’s gone wrong?
This common situation happens in lots of homes, including mine as a child. The good news is this stressful scenario can be avoided with relatively painless modifications to how you feed your children.
Raising children who have a healthy relationship with food requires evidence-based strategies, consistency, and faith in the process. The Division of Responsibility feeding and eating model, coined by Ellyn Satter, includes a specific set of strategies that families have used for decades, if not longer, to help children become competent and healthy eaters. Not surprising, these strategies do not resemble those offered by family and neighbors like “no thank you bites” or “hiding veggies in foods.” Rather, consistently implementing The Division of Responsibility’s strategies takes the stress out of raising a healthy eater.
Consistency in feeding is just as critical as consistency when teaching your child not to hit.
Finally, like all child growth and development, there is a process a child goes through to develop into a healthy eater. Once you learn about the Division of Responsibility process, having faith in it through the ups and downs is what keeps you sane.