Looking after your child's nutritional needs is by no means an easy task. Between any tantrums that ensue around mealtimes, their fussy eating habits and a repeated yet undulating desire for chicken nuggets lays your need to nutritionally nourish these young humans.
So in a desperate attempt to get your child to finish the food on their plate, you force them to eat just ‘one more bite’ and offer bribes like ‘if you eat three more bites you can have dessert’. Such statements around feeding time are common but are they helpful?
“Forcing a child to eat is not recommended,” says spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia, Kate Di Prima.
Don’t make eating stressful.
Di Prima explains that by forcing your child to eat ‘one more bite’, parents be unknowingly be associating food with fear and turning them off particular foods.
“Don’t make eating stressful,” says Di Prima, an Accredited Practising Dietitian. “Keep it simple. Food is fuel – not fear. If a child doesn’t want to eat on occasion, look around and ask why.
"Just remember, the eating habits that are laid down for your children early on is what they will take with them into adulthood."
Here are some of the common reasons Di Prima believes your child is refusing to finish their meal.
Food is fuel – not fear. If a child doesn’t want to eat on occasion, look around and ask why.
1. They’re just not hungry
“By refusing to eat more, they could just be registering fullness,” explains Di Prima. “It’s an ability that many adults have lost because we either eat for taste or are busy shovelling food.
“But young children eat to satiety. When they have three or four bites of a sandwich, they are either at the wrong end of their appetite cycle or not hungry. Meanwhile, we adults come in and tell them to eat when they are not hungry.”
2. We’re overfilling their plates
“When you look at what the portion sizes of food that adults are eating, we are having way more than we should. We are overfilling plates in the worlds of both adults and children.”
Di Prima recommends reducing the serving size of children’s to encourage them to eat everything on their smaller plate.
3. There’s a cultural reason
Culture should always be taken into account when determining whether a child is eating the right foods at the right time.
“Once, a Japanese mother brought her child to a GP,” she recalls. “The problem was that the child didn’t like fruit [and that was a concern].”
“Then the mother brought out a little container filled with dried whitebait. It wasn’t fruit but it was the child’s traditional, cultural morning tea snack. It was what the child had grown up on – not fruit.
“This happened in a culturally specific environment so it was fine.”
4. Their eating schedule is out of whack
Children who don’t eat according to their personal body schedule may become over-hungry and lose their desire to eat. “Ketosis can happen to children as well.”
Di Prima explains that it’s just like an adult who skips lunch because they are busy – by 3pm they may have realised they forgot to eat lunch and are no longer hungry.
“If a child eats breakfast at 6.30am and morning tea at school or day care is served at 11am, by that time, they have already gone beyond hunger.”
She says it’s the same with after-school meals, served late at night a long time after lunch. If a child does not eat at least a snack after school, by 6pm they may be over hungry.
If a child eats breakfast at 6.30am and morning tea at school or day care is served at 11am, by that time, they have already gone beyond hunger.
5. They are just trying it on
Of course, your little one’s refusal to finish their meal could be because ‘kids will be kids’.
“Some children will try anything [to get their way]. They may realise ‘all I have to do is refuse the night-time meal and I get a peanut butter sandwich’. Children will always choose a sweet treat or refined food over and above a fruit or vegetable.
Di Prima advises parents to be consistent and not offer sugary or processed alternatives when a child doesn’t finish their meal. “And if they are not hungry now, try again [with a healthy meal] in an hour’s time.”
Recognise when you need help
Although there are many valid reasons for a child’s refusal to eat, Di Prima acknowledges there can be other issues at play requiring medical attention.
For example, if a child is fearful of new experiences in their life – including food. “Or if the child has a heightened sensory response who doesn’t like slime, wet or soft or chewy.
“Keep a record of your child’s eating and behavioural habits for about a week and then see health professional in this area to determine the cause.”
