Disclaimer:
This medical
information is designed as an aid only for the
patients of
Drs. Concannon & Vitale.
It is not a substitute for a medical
exam and direct
advice from your physician.
Family Mealtime Discipline
- Have a formal agreement between both parents and all caretakers
for
your
child that the following rules will be followed and understood. If
there's
any inconsistency between people the child will undoubtedly take
advantage
of it.
- Meal times, especially dinner, should be a time of family
get-together.
Engage your child in meaningful conversation as you do anyone else at
dinnertime.
Strive to make family mealtimes a pleasant, bonding experience. Do not
yell at or plead with your child to eat. Be matter-of-fact about the
whole
process.
- Insist on a twenty minute time minimum at the table. Young kids
would
rather
play than eat. Often they'll skip the scheduled mealtime entirely in
order
to play while attempting to eat on the run. If they sit at the table,
but
refuse to eat, insist that they remain seated at the table until the
twenty
minutes are up. Set a timer to go off, if necessary, to squelch the
pleadings
of, "Can I get up yet?"
- Serve children the same meal items that you'll be cooking for
everyone
else. Try to include one menu item that your child will usually eat,
and
avoid generally disliked foods such as liver or broccoli. Do not tailor
the meal planning entirely around the child's wishes.
- The rules are simple. If your child eats at least a fair
portion
of
the meal, the child is then entitled to a between-meal snack. If the
child
does not eat at least a fair portion of the meal within twenty minutes,
the child then gets nothing
but water until the next regularly scheduled
family mealtime at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
- Many parents, but especially grandparents, worry
needlessly
that
the children in their family are too skinny. This usually reflects the
frustration of getting a child to eat well. Parents become concerned
that
the child is unhealthy because he or she won't eat well. In many
European
and Asian cultures having a skinny child reflected, unfairly, on the
parents
as not being able to provide enough food for the child to eat.
Actually,
being slightly on the lean side is healthier than being overweight.
It's
perfectly okay for you to be able to see the ribs in a pre-school age
child
who is otherwise healthy and growing normally. Pediatricians track the
child's growth from birth on onto growth charts which can tell us that
all is going well.
- Unless you purposely try to raise your child as a strict
vegetarian,
which
is against our medical advice, there should be no reason for your child
to take supplemental vitamins unless these are recommended for other
reasons
of chronic illness like lead poisoning, etc.
- If you insist on the need for vitamins to be given to your child
(usually
to get the grandparents off your back), we recommend a chewable
multivitamin
with extra vitamin C, such as Bugs Bunny with Extra C or Flintstones
with
Extra C. Of course, store brand equivalents of these are fine, too.
Just
avoid those vitamins with extra iron because these can cause a real
poisoning
problem if the child were to get into all of them at once. Also, avoid
health
food store brands that are too expensive and may border on quackery.
GOOD
LUCK!
- See also: Strategies to Reduce Picky Eating
Rev: 10/2005
MEALTIMEDISCIPLINE.htm
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