Mom’s Best New Year’s Food Resolution . . .

Dec 28, 2010 by Anna Migeon

. . . and the Top Ten Eating Problems It Will Solve

ARE YOU overwhelmed with the number of things you feel you should change or wish could change at your house starting January 1, 2011? Do you feel hopeless about getting your kids to eat healthier?

What if there were one simple new year’s resolution that you could make that would simplify your life and eliminate several problems at once in a powerful ripple effect?

If you are looking for just one simple way to improve the eating situation at your house, the place to start is with the number one foundational habit of eating: eating only at the table and at official mealtimes.

By establishing this one habit for your family, you can expect to gain considerable mileage:

1.  Picky kids will have a stronger appetite for whatever is served. No random snacking before or after a meal insures hunger for whatever you serve.

2.  Picky kids will become less so because their choices are narrowed if they want to avoid being hungry.

3.  Less argument or bargaining. The rules for when and what they can eat will be clear. If it’s on the table and it’s time to eat, they can have it. Otherwise, no eating allowed.

4.  Turns eating into a privilege: the thing they need to do, but don’t necessarily get to do and therefore want to do, instead of the thing they don’t want to do and are pressured to do.

5.   Not getting to eat is less glamorous for them than having the power to refuse to eat. Suddenly you are in charge instead of them.

6.  You’ll have a bargaining chip on their behavior at the table. If they misbehave, you can send them away from the table. They’ll be hungry, therefore motivated to be civilized. Instead of being happy they can go play again, they’ll be scared straight at the idea of having to wait till the next meal to get food.

7.  Their diet will improve as you control the food supply. Instead of eating whatever they want, they’ll have to eat what you want them to eat, or be hungry.

8.  Instead of pushing food on them, which only leads to resistance, you will be restricting their eating, pulling food away from them, which is simple, requires no cooperation on their part, and leads to their taking the initiative for their own eating at the right times.

9.   Food messes will be confined to the table instead of all over the house.

10.  Last but not least, you’ll have a time for getting to know your kids and sharing your life with them.

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Related posts:

11 Ways to Raise a Picky Eater

Push or Pull? When Picky Kids Pick Your Dinner to Pieces