With my son we have very food restrictions, we just tell him not to eat more than his body needs. He is a natural faster, often eating 1 large meal a day. This worried me a bit, prior to me starting w/ fast-5, but now I see it as very positive. We only had 1 period that we tried to push food on him, when he was 12 and the pediatrician diagnosed him w/ failure to thrive b/c he didn't gain any weight in a year. But then we relaxed pretty quickly and stopped bugging him. He is 15 yo, 5'11" and 145 lb (very athletic.) I have noticed some disapproval though, to my parenting style. For instance from an older relative (at a restaurant) who complained to me that he hadn't eaten his side dish of mac and cheese, after he did eat a steak and shrimp! I smiled and said, "Oh that's okay, I'm sure there were enough calories in that steak and shrimp for one meal." I've also been in situations at restaurants when he took one look at the food and refused to eat it. Fine, he doesn't get anything else but he doesn't have to eat it, and he doesn't get in trouble either. Why make an issue? Completely bothered my friend who then spent the rest of dinner trying to entice him to eat it. Why bother? It wasn't even healthy food!
I had too many rules about food growing up, "don't eat that, you're too fat." And "eat more, your wasting money if you don't eat it." I tell my son what I think is healthy (high protein, high fat, low carbs, low processed foods, low seed oils, etc) but I would rather him eat a few extra candy bars than end up w/ food issues.
Heidi
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