For two days we have seen with the entries "How and how much a child grows during childhood" what are the factors involved in the growth of children and, therefore, what are those that do not intervene.
Food is one of those involved (you have to eat to live and grow), but not in the way that many think, since It is wrong to believe that the more a child eats, the more he will grow.
Despite this, mothers and fathers worry too much about the growth of our children, emphasizing the diet of our children, trying to eat a little more when they have already said "here I can eat."
Eva Paris, our fellow editor asked in one of the entries if this behavior of parental control and concern could have something instinctive, innate, something like trying to be healthy and strong to be able to fight predatory theorists and take this entry To answer the question.
It could be innate ...
There is no doubt that a baby or malnourished person has many numbers of falling ill, of being weak, of having few strengths, few defenses and much danger of entering a vicious circle in which the less you eat, the less strength you have and the fewer You have less strength to eat.
Surely the message "I must feed my son" is something innate, since, if we look at mammalian animals, mothers feed their young so they can live and survive without thinking about growths or fortifications.
If we were to meet a family in the middle of the jungle, one that had not known any culture, we would see that it also feeds their children or at least that they feel the need to bring some food to their mouths (perhaps simply by thinking that as we eat, babies also have to eat).
... although most likely it is cultural
However, we are not talking about whether feeding a baby is something innate or learned, but about if the concern that they eat a little more "just in case" is innate or cultural.
And in this case it is most likely that this behavior is cultural, that is, learned.
The health of our children is something that parents are very concerned about and that is why we always try to prevent controlling things that may affect them. There are many factors that can favor the health status of a baby and many factors that can make it worse and, of all of them, there are many that are far from our reach and perhaps that's why we end up focusing solely and exclusively on the one we control better: food.
It is something similar to the moment in which an elderly person is admitted to a hospital. It may be fatal, it may be dying or it may be fine and recovering. The fact is that, however you are, your only concern is to make belly because "I have not done for 5 days." Your constipation is one of the only factors that can control since the feeding, the moment of washing, your illness and the medication that is administered to you is in the hands of the medical professionals.
Well, the feeding of children is one of the factors that parents can control because we see how much and when they eat (we cannot see if a microorganism enters them, if their body is fighting against a virus, etc.) and probably because of this we end up give more importance than it has.
"Eat it all that you will get strong"
Or "eat everything you will grow" or "eat everything to be more beautiful" or the variant you prefer. This unfortunate phrase is part of our parents' inheritance and, just as people once believed what they said, so many now believe their words when they speak it.
The truth, really, is that it is not a completely true phrase and in fact it is not even too useful.
The children do not think about being tall and handsome ten years later thanks to the current diet. They eat because they are hungry. No more no less.
A phrase whose result will be obtained in the long term is unproductive because the child who stands before the plate and who strives to eat a little more will not see any result in his body (nor will he feel stronger, nor it will grow suddenly), so at later times you will most likely think "it is not true, the other time I did not grow or have more strength".
And the sad thing about it is not that the phrase has a deadline, it is not even what we predict will happen.
No child in the Spanish state (or in the northern hemisphere) will grow more or be stronger when they reach adulthood for having forced in their childhood to eat that little more than their parents considered necessary, so it is not a negative phrase, but it is sterile (not to mention lie).
All our life they have made us eat more
But all our lives they have made us eat more, you will say many and many, and it is true. "Leave this and eat this little more", "finish the dish", "until you finish there will be no dessert" are some of the phrases we heard as children and I doubt that thanks to this we have grown more. Rather I observe (it is not necessary to be Sherlock Holmes) that most of the population is now doing the opposite, diets to lose weight.
However, that vision of the control that our parents exercised over us is inherited simply because it is what we have seen do always and now. many mothers and fathers feel the need to do their best to feed their children according to what they consider appropriate.
And then, how much do they have to eat?
Well, as we have said other times, only they know. There is a phrase that says “a sweater is what a mother puts on her son when she is cold”, because we can also say that a full pasta dish is what a mother puts on her son when she believes That your son needs it.
Summarizing
It seems that parental control of the amount of food our children take is something we have learned because it is what we have lived as children and because it is what is being done now ("that child does not eat anything", " it is very bad dining room ”,“ you cannot let him go to play if he has not finished ”,…).
The advice in this regard is that offer our children a varied and healthy diet. They themselves will eat what they need both in quantity and quality (if what we offer is quality, there is no way to fail).
It will seem incredible, but if you ask me how much my oldest son eats, I would hardly know what to answer. On Monday he ate everything we put and still repeated, however yesterday he ate a couple of pieces (of which are taken with the fork) of chicken at noon and did not try again snack until snack. He is still alive, healthy and has more energy than the sun (in case it is useful to comment).
Photos | Flickr - Ernst Vikne, phil wood, left-hand
In Babies and more | How and how much a child grows during his childhood (I) and (II), Supplementary feeding: How much does my child have to eat? (I), Complementary feeding: What would happen if we let them eat?
