The Eating Habits of Children
This morning we were driving home after dropping my older two children off at school, and my four year old son asked me, "When we get home, can we have lunch?" I looked at the car clock, and realized I hadn't changed it for Daylight Savings Time yet. It read 7:42. AM. Joshua had just finished eating his breakfast maybe forty minutes before. I hadn't even gotten around to clearing his cereal bowl from the table yet!
I've been a parent for about eight and a half years, and I'm still trying to figure out kids' eating habits. Here are a few rules that I've found apply to most kids. Remember that all rules, especially ones that pertain to children, have plenty of exceptions, usually when it is most inconvenient.
Rule #1: Any time is (or should be) snack time. Kids always seem to be hungry. It doesn't matter if they just ate a huge meal half an hour ago, or if dinner is in five minutes, they are hungry now. A few days ago I was putting the finishing touches on dinner and calling the family to the table while Peter, my 2 year old, was pulling on me and pleading "I'm hungry!" He didn't want to sit at the table; he wanted me to give him something to eat right there, right then.
Rule #2: Children will only eat what they want to. This rule has two parts. First, most children I've come across are picky eaters. They don't like new foods. (Unless they are someone else's. See Rule #3) They don't like anything gooey, spicy, sour, green, fishy, healthy, or otherwise unusual unless it is also loaded with sugar and/or frosting. (Even then sometimes they'll lick off the frosting and leave the rest.) But their likes and dislikes can also depend on the time of day, the temperature or the phase of the moon. A few weeks ago Joshua suddenly decided he no longer likes orange cheese--he only likes white cheese. Hannah liked my Polynesian chicken the first time I made it, wouldn't eat it again for the next year, and now is to the point where she will eat it again, as long as there are no bell peppers.
The second part of this rule is that sometimes kids won't eat foods they like just because they didn't choose it. Yesterday my sweet husband baked a delicious looking apple pie. As the fragrant scent of baking apple and cinnamon wafted through the house, I anticipated the sweet taste. Unfortunately, Steven started on the pie rather late in the day, and the pie didn't come out of the oven until past the kids' bedtimes. Rather than eat the pie by ourselves, we asked John if we could eat the pie for dessert after Family Home Evening the next day (today). John didn't want to eat the apple pie. He was in charge of choosing what we would have for dessert, and he didn't want it to be someone else's choice, or something that was already prepared. So this morning I got to make a banana cream pie for dessert, and the scrumptious apple pie sits in the fridge hoping that eventually we will get around to eating it.
Rule #3 Other people's food is more interesting that their own. Last summer we and a group of friends from church would all meet at nearby parks for a couple hours on Wednesday mornings so the kids could play while the moms talked. We usually brought snacks for our children because two hours is a long time for a child to go without a snack. (See Rule #1) It never seemed to matter what I brought - fruit slices, carrot sticks, crackers, whatever, my children always wanted what the other children had. They weren't afraid to ask for it either. So for much of the two hours we were at the park, my children would go from one mom to another asking if they could have something for a snack. This behavior isn't just preschoolers either. There have been several times Hannah has come home from school with something in her lunchbag that she swapped or begged at lunchtime. Other's food is much more interesting than what it is available at home.
So those are a few of the rules that I've discovered. I'm sure there are more. Someday I may figure out why my children are always hungry, but right now I need to go get a snack.
I've been a parent for about eight and a half years, and I'm still trying to figure out kids' eating habits. Here are a few rules that I've found apply to most kids. Remember that all rules, especially ones that pertain to children, have plenty of exceptions, usually when it is most inconvenient.
Rule #1: Any time is (or should be) snack time. Kids always seem to be hungry. It doesn't matter if they just ate a huge meal half an hour ago, or if dinner is in five minutes, they are hungry now. A few days ago I was putting the finishing touches on dinner and calling the family to the table while Peter, my 2 year old, was pulling on me and pleading "I'm hungry!" He didn't want to sit at the table; he wanted me to give him something to eat right there, right then.
Rule #2: Children will only eat what they want to. This rule has two parts. First, most children I've come across are picky eaters. They don't like new foods. (Unless they are someone else's. See Rule #3) They don't like anything gooey, spicy, sour, green, fishy, healthy, or otherwise unusual unless it is also loaded with sugar and/or frosting. (Even then sometimes they'll lick off the frosting and leave the rest.) But their likes and dislikes can also depend on the time of day, the temperature or the phase of the moon. A few weeks ago Joshua suddenly decided he no longer likes orange cheese--he only likes white cheese. Hannah liked my Polynesian chicken the first time I made it, wouldn't eat it again for the next year, and now is to the point where she will eat it again, as long as there are no bell peppers.
The second part of this rule is that sometimes kids won't eat foods they like just because they didn't choose it. Yesterday my sweet husband baked a delicious looking apple pie. As the fragrant scent of baking apple and cinnamon wafted through the house, I anticipated the sweet taste. Unfortunately, Steven started on the pie rather late in the day, and the pie didn't come out of the oven until past the kids' bedtimes. Rather than eat the pie by ourselves, we asked John if we could eat the pie for dessert after Family Home Evening the next day (today). John didn't want to eat the apple pie. He was in charge of choosing what we would have for dessert, and he didn't want it to be someone else's choice, or something that was already prepared. So this morning I got to make a banana cream pie for dessert, and the scrumptious apple pie sits in the fridge hoping that eventually we will get around to eating it.
Rule #3 Other people's food is more interesting that their own. Last summer we and a group of friends from church would all meet at nearby parks for a couple hours on Wednesday mornings so the kids could play while the moms talked. We usually brought snacks for our children because two hours is a long time for a child to go without a snack. (See Rule #1) It never seemed to matter what I brought - fruit slices, carrot sticks, crackers, whatever, my children always wanted what the other children had. They weren't afraid to ask for it either. So for much of the two hours we were at the park, my children would go from one mom to another asking if they could have something for a snack. This behavior isn't just preschoolers either. There have been several times Hannah has come home from school with something in her lunchbag that she swapped or begged at lunchtime. Other's food is much more interesting than what it is available at home.
So those are a few of the rules that I've discovered. I'm sure there are more. Someday I may figure out why my children are always hungry, but right now I need to go get a snack.
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