Parenting strategies: how to feed kids

Since my first son was just a baby, we made a habit of eating dinner together – now we do it with all 3 kids! My mom was over last week to witness the spectacle that is dinner at our house, and her opinion was that we should feed the kids first and then we’ll be able to eat better afterwards. Although she does have a pretty good point, I decided that I would stick to our current routine.

My 4 year old has grown so accustomed to the family dinner that he completely misses it if we are out or if for some reason he has to eat alone. I found that having this routine with my kids, no matter how challenging it can be at times, has made them pretty good eaters. I mean, I know that it is possible that they just naturally love food, but I have a feeling that the practice is a key part in them not being fussy eaters.

While they were still within their first year of baby-hood, I did feed them before we had our dinner, but I would still keep them in their highchair with us and I think each of them grew comfortable and accustomed to sitting down at the table and eating a meal. Routines are greatly instrumental in the development of kids and really helps them to understand complex concepts and to have situation-appropriate behavior – simply by the virtue that they know what to expect.

When it comes to the actual dinner, I do try to make one meal usually, but I will not force them to eat things that I know they don’t prefer, like red peppers for example, I will instead choose the ingredients that I know they enjoy and this way I know that the chance of them finishing their meal is greater – and isn’t that the aim? Often parents may forget that the point is to get kids to eat healthy foods, and not necessarily to eat foods that we may enjoy! Serving kids a healthy selection of foods that they like is key in ensuring that they are actually getting all the nutrients they need, and not complaining about they stuff they may not be particularly fond of.

There are surely times when they refuse to eat – they are kids after all – but I don’t really push them at those times because in general I know they are good eaters, and because I am usually careful with what they eat at home, when we go out I don’t mind if they indulge in ‘not-so-healthy’ alternatives!

How do you feed your kids?

Thoughts from Amber

I think it is great you’ve established that tradition. We have it, too, even if my husband gets home late. I will feed them snacks until we can all sit down together

Thoughts from Surviving

We do pretty much the same thing.  We try to at least have lunch all together.  My husband works in the evening so dinner is out.  Sometimes we have breakfast together. I’ve tried other things in the past, I think eating together generally works out best for us. My 6 yr old has recently started picking through his food leaving the veggies.  He even does this with things he used to eat without a problem.  I am a little more pushy with him and try to get him to eat at least a few bites of the veggies.

Thoughts from sf

I totally agree, in the beginning, with our first one, I fed her first then we had our dinner, but then it proved to be tiresome. Now, we all eat together and alhamdullilah, it is a circus but still, as you pointed out, you know that they are eating well, having conversation together(plus screaming and shouting).
I have breakfast/lunch with them and evenings, my husband joins us. We grew up having meals together and it’s a good habit and also brings together the family.

Thoughts from Sue Olson

Our family is with you on this one.  When we were just a couple we ALWAYS said that we needed to eat at the table NOT in front of the TV...BUT we never quite got to the table.  We tend to think that not only do our kids benefit (2 and 6 mos) from being at hte table but we are healthier because of them.  Since our son was born this house has seen more produce than ever before! THanks to babies:)

Thoughts from Mona UmIbrahim

Salams Shaz, we too eat dinner together. We split the kids up between us, and he gets the younger more difficult child, i get the easy one - the oldest But the thing i’m frustrated with these days, is not just the nutrition part, but the frequency in which they eat. About every 2 hours they need to eat and it’s just overwhelming me. There are about 12 hours that they are awake so that means i have to put food for them 6 times during the day, not counting the times i have to pour them milk or juice. And i’m nursing a baby frequently throughout the day as well. I feel bad being frustrated about this when some parents have the opposite problem - kids that won’t eat. I just wish that my day didn’t revolve around food.

Thoughts from Cakes

I agree with you. In general, we eat all of our meals together.  I think it makes things much easier for me and we love the time to gather together.

Plus, so many studies have been done to show the significant lowering of many risk factors in children (drug use, school drop-out, violence etc) when the family eats dinner together.

Thoughts from Carissa

We eat dinner together as well!  Sweetheart works twelve hour days, so dinner is on the table when he arrives (thank God for cell phones!) Any advice though, on how to convince Sweetheart that TV during dinner is just a bad idea?  Even Baby Chubchub (10 months) is now fully turning around in her highchair to see what the Simpsons are doing!

Thoughts from shaz

It’s really great to know that this is the norm, I really think that it’s an important routine for kids.

Carissa - well, I don’t know about the TV thing, because I also fail in that category! Although it’s not us that watches the TV, I leave it for the kids because it just seems to keep them a little more focused during dinner time (usually dinner is late and they are already cranky). I think that if we had dinner earlier, they would not be as tired and so I would leave the tv off.