There was an article in the New York Times last week about snacking and our children. (You can read it here.) Like the author of this article, I have found myself asking, How many times a day do our children really need a snack?
And are these snacks providing the nutrition that children need? Especially the ones eaten on the run, the cereal bars and snack packs and fruit-like pieces, rolls, leathers. The convenience items that are tossed so easily into mom's bag. Last year we came to a place where WJ was pretty consistently not hungry at meal times. When I really took a look at what he was eating over the course of a day, I was feeling like there were too many chances to say, “There’s no food in your food.”
So Dave and I sat down with WJ and wrote down a list of guidelines we call The Food Rules. Basically, it is a schedule of eating times and a few simple guidelines. The paper looked a little like this:
WJ’s Food Rules
Breakfast (must include protein)
Snack
Lunch
Snack
Dinner
Snack (yogurt or applesauce)
- If WJ is hungry at a time that is not a meal or snack time, he may have fruit, nuts, or bread.
- WJ decides how much to eat at meal times.
- Adults decide about treats; no arguing.
We added a few symbols to help WJ read the schedule so that we could go back to it when he started his begging routine. And we posted it in the kitchen. It is still there, a year later.
These guidelines eliminated a lot of the struggles we had about food in this house. Suddenly there was no more begging. No more little boy begging his parents for snacks. No more parents begging the little boy to eat his meals. Differentiating between snacks and treats helped a lot too. More on that later.
With The Food Rules, we all regained the power we were after. WJ has the power to decide how much he eats and I have the power to decide what is available. I have put my energy into making sure that our meals are balanced and that WJ’s snack options are as nutritionally sound as possible.
What are your solutions to the food struggles in your house?
*This post is part of SteadyMom's weekly 30 Minute Blogging Challenge. If you haven't met her yet, I encourage you to visit SteadyMom (and check out her new book). Post time: 23 minutes.