If Parents Ate Their Children’s Food
Introducing solid foods to our son’s diet was one of my favorite milestones in his development. My husband is a huge foodie and an amazing cook - he was amped up to start making food for our son to try. At 6-months-old, our son was a great eater. Now, at almost two and a half years old, he is still a great eater and he can really pack in the food. He eats like a little man.
Jay has been adventurous in his food choices and has a great gauge of when he is full. Now he tells us “Jay all full up, all done nom nom” when he is done eating. To brag for just a second, we get a lot of compliments on Jay’s eating habits. He isn’t too picky, he eats what we put in front of him, and he does sit at the table until he is done eating.
This has been from a ton of intentional, hard work by my husband and I. I am super proud of the example we set for our son by having a positive relationship with food and to actually eat real-food. Not highly processed, enriched foods. But the real stuff that we make together.
What Our Son Eats:
When Jay started on solid foods, we invested in a puree machine and made his food at home. He ate what we ate, even if it was in a puree form. He ate sweet potatoes, green beans, blueberries, sourdough toast, chicken, beans, greek yogurt, and the list goes on and on - full food list. Some foods he loved more than others, obviously.
Those purees looked absolutely disgusting. Some of them even tasted disgusting. I mean pureed green beans with some olive oil and salt? Not exactly what I want to eat for dinner. But if my son is eating a green bean puree - isn’t it only fair that I try some of it too?
My goodness… taste-testing those purees before giving them to Jay was a short straw job. My facial expressions mirrored my sons when he tasted something he didn’t like. It was even more interesting when my son would eat an entire serving of green bean puree and request more… Alright, our son really loves green bean puree. Out of curiosity, I bought a store-made green bean puree… I could taste the sugar, I could taste the artificial flavoring, and I could taste the disappointment. Seriously, this is the crap companies sell to parents to support their child’s nutritional development? Give me a break…
As our son got older and more developed with his chewing, utensil control, and communication, our food menus got more and more aligned. We didn’t need the puree machine anymore, or the so-called-store-purees. We could just eat green beans together, no extra work. We could also eat sweet potato fries instead of pureed / smashed potatoes. We could just pluck grapes off the vine instead of taking 18 million hours per day cutting up grapes into the correct, non-choking size (chopping food into mini pieces was the bane of my existence… IYKYK).
My Favorite… The Order in which Our Son Eats His Food:
What I also loved about this time was the ORDER in which he ate his food. When he was little, he ate food in the most RANDOM order ever.
Lunch Example at 8-Months-Old:
Puree green beans
Greek strawberry yogurt
Chicken (sometimes chicken dipped in strawberry yogurt)
Blueberries
Kalamata olives (sometimes dipped in strawberry yogurt)
Whole milk
I literally mimicked my son’s process for eating his food. It was TERRIBLE. Going from blueberries to kalamata olives? Talk about a tastebud whirlwind! I literally paused before dipping my kalamata olive in the strawberry yogurt… I must be crazy to eat those two things together… Yup, it was not a good tasting experience.
Jay still does this at 2-years-old. He eats his food in the most random order. I have no idea where he learned this from. Both my husband and I eat our food in a more “logical” or “typical” order. I know the order doesn’t even matter, it is just so quirky and funny to me.
Modeling Good Eating Habits
I reflect a lot on what we are giving our son to eat and what he observes us eating as well. Modeling good eating habits for our son is one of the highest priorities we have as parents. I try to put myself in my son’s shoes - he literally is helpless when it comes to food. He has no idea what is a good food option and what is not. He doesn’t understand the amount of sugar or processed materials placed in common foods sold at the grocery store.
He also doesn’t understand that highly processed food literally changes the chemistry of the brain and turns those foods into an addictive substance. Yes, processed foods are addictive. It’s a fact. The big box companies have perfectly engineered the composition of salt, sugar, and fat to light up the reward circuitry in our brain. They want you to buy their products, eat the entire bag, and then come back for more. Big box companies are not in business to provide the most nutritional food to you - they exist to earn a profit.
You know the really catchy slogan of Lay’s potato chips “betcha can’t eat just one?” Well, they engineered the perfect combination of ingredients that lead to addictive behavior. Check out this photo from the linked article:
You may think that equating processed foods to snorting drugs is extreme… it isn’t. So many parents allow their children to eat these highly processed, addictive foods at a young age. Please, please checkout the ingredients for cheerios and goldfish. These two snacks are among the highest grossing processed foods on the market. Mind blown?
Now, remember when you went to your child’s doctor appointments and they ask you about the “pincer grasp” development? The doctor’s offices ask on their official question - “Can your child pick up a Cheerio?” When we were asked that, we said “our son doesn’t eat Cheerios so I don’t know.” Talk about feeling dumb and outside of societal norms…
Parents are introducing foods to young brains that do not provide nutritional value but empty, unhealthy calories with dangerous consequences. One of the most important responsibilities as parents is instilling a healthy relationship with food for our kids. You and your child eat multiple times per day. It’s a necessity.
The amount of bowel movement, skin, and behavior issues with our children can be directly traced to the food they consume. If your child is having trouble pooping, then look at the food they are eating. If your child has eczema or other auto-immune issues, then evaluate the food they are eating. If your child has consistent behavior issues, then see if that is linked to when all of the food they just ate entered their bloodstream.
Food intake is directly linked to the physical, emotional, and mental health of all people, kids most especially because they are most vulnerable.
If parents ate all of the food they gave their children, what would the outcome be? Would the parent have bowel movement issues, skin issues, irritability, ongoing hunger, poor decision-making? Yes, yes they would. We can’t expect our kids to behave better when their fuel source is corrupted and leaving them on an empty all day, every day.
I joke about eating what my son eats and the order in which he eats his food. I don’t really want to eat a kalamata olive dipped in strawberry yogurt. AND, I see the direct correlation between having a healthy relationship with quality food and the development of my son.
If parents ate the food that they are giving to their children, on a daily and ongoing basis, what do you anticipate will be the health and behavior outcomes of the parent? Diabetes, poor sleep, weight gain, and anxiety?
Hmmm.. those sound like current issues of many young children.
