It is common that since we learn that we are going to be parents We try to change those things in our life that we consider unhealthy or harmful to our child. For example we usually quit smoking or change the place where we do it, we do not go with our son to places that we consider harmful, we monitor our behavior on the road and the most common is that we try to maintain a healthy diet, or at least healthier than we had.
But despite our good intentions we continue to make mistakes, many times they are small vices acquired throughout our lives and other times they are simply the consequences of bad information, especially due to misleading advertising or popular beliefs of no scientific basis. These are Thirteen of the most common mistakes we usually make with the feeding of our children.
Make mealtimes just eat
I explain. Lunch or dinner, although other meals could also be included, are great moments in our life to share with the family, not just food, but experiences.
It is true that we are always running, that time seems to be scarcer every day, but stop and focus for an hour or even only half, in us, in our family, in knowing how the day has gone for others and share with them how ours has been, trace plans, however small or insignificant they may seem, will help to forge that bond of belonging to the family in our son and will teach us many things about our family that day by day, with acts like this, It takes shape and entity.
Do not let her play with food or use her hands, especially in her first contacts with her.
"Do not play with the food", is perhaps one of the phrases we have all heard in our childhood. We have it burned inside us and that is the problem.
When a baby has his first experiences with solid food, he spends more time trying to prove what can be done with it and the different flavors he now tastes that seeing how much he can put in his stomach. What for us is to play with food, for them it is a form of learning and cognitive stimulation, a way of becoming familiar with new foods.
Using our hands to eat may not be something widely accepted in society, but it is one of great pleasures that food gives us and, just like we have learned to handle ourselves in different situations, our children can also do it and so we can tell them that in the school canteen or in a restaurant they should not use their hands, but at home the rules can relax a bit, especially if our children have certain difficulties in accepting new food on their plate.
Cut your food or feed it in your mouth
We may not see it, but Being able to eat for yourself or cut the sausages without help can make your child feel proud of himself and grow his self-esteem. It makes sense, when they are babies that still do not have a good coordination and if we leave them alone it is likely that from the whole plate only a couple of tablespoons reach the stomach, we can let them continue experimenting with the food and while we feed them (You would be surprised how quickly they acquire enough skill to satisfy themselves).
A child of 5 or 6 years, even younger, should already have adequate coordination to at least try to cut his own food. We will probably have to help you and more than one piece of food will end up on the tablecloth or on the shirt in front of you until you get the hang of it, but you will end up learning.
Patience and a good stain remover.
Do not put something on the table because it is "hard"
Mold pande sandwiches, fruit cut into tiny pieces or porridge, as thin as possible fillets, etc. We see our children grow up, they wear growing clothes, they walk, run, talk and have fun at school. Of what we don't realize that eating habits also develop with age and that not only do you have to put more food on the plate, but there are certain habits that must be eliminated.
All this type of "soft" food causes our children to barely have to chew, something that is very important for a correct oral development and that will avoid many problems in the future. We must, therefore, make our children chew food well and not avoid those foods that can be harder or whole (have they ever eaten an entire apple as we did as children?
Do they protest when they eat chips or kikos?
Feed him too much
"Grandma's portions" have made many children grow up overweight. It is not easy to calculate how much food our children need. Many times it is they who know best when to stop, after all the stomach is theirs. The problem is that here the factor comes in, "I like this, I don't like this" and we already know that something I like occupies half that something I don't like.
But It is important not to force our children to eat and remember that there is a lot of difference between eating two pieces of chicken that half breast.
Feed him only what he likes
I do not mean that we also feed him what he does not like, by noses, but always give him the same, or that his menu consists of only two or three things so that he eats well and we do not have a number in the food.
It is important that our child's diet is healthy and balanced, but it is also varied. Getting used to different types of foods and flavors from a young age will help in your diet and will predispose you to try new dishes, not only those that we prepare, but from other kitchens in the world and we will take away many headaches in the future. (It is not easy to find a Thai who prepares some macaroni and tomato)
Abuse products of little or no food value or use them as a reward or blackmail.
This point would give to write several books, so I will try to summarize and we will talk more deeply about it in the future.
It is clear that industrial pastries, soft drinks and juices It is very present in the lives of our children in general and in particular in their diet, but this type of products that can take us out of a baton one day They are a real problem when they are a regular part of the children's diet.
We tend to think that children can eat almost everything without problem, well, after all, they are moving all day, but that is not the case, nothing is further from reality. Abusing this type of food ends up causing serious effects on our children, such as the development of type II diabetes, tooth decay and overweight in adulthood and in many cases such effects occur much earlier.
Rewarding a behavior with a treat should be taken very carefully We are promoting a preference for an unhealthy diet. Many will think that they have eaten sweets and buns a lifetime and not everyone has left size XL or with diabetes and indeed the sporadic consumption of this type of products will not cause much bad, but if you analyze it coldly you will see that Its consumption is not as sporadic as we think.
Examples of "if you eat broccoli I give you a jelly bean / cookie / donut / etc" are much more common than we think and in the end how good it is to eat the vegetable is obscured by an excess of sugar.
Use food as blackmail or punishment
We saw in the previous point that it is not good to use food as a reward, but we should not use it as punishment either.
Telling a child that as he has misbehaved we are going to put vegetables instead of a dish that he likes is foster an aversion to a dish that does not correspond to reality and is unnecessary. We are implying that the vegetable, for example, is not as good as pasta or steak.
Also coming back to put the same dish at dinner because he has not eaten it in the morning will not make our son like itMoreover, we will probably get the opposite effect.
Do not lead by example
Do not expect your child to eat the green bean dish if he has never seen you eat it or you see the face you put in disgust while doing so or listen to derogatory comments about the food.
To think that he doesn't have his own tastes.
Since we love potato tortillas, my children have to do the same. Well, no, taste is not inherited and it is something that matures over time and with each new culinary experience. What is important is to encourage you, without forcing you, to try new things, to be able to decide whether or not you like it with anything other than sight and smell.
Prohibit any food without medical reason.
There is, a priori, no "bad" food, in the same way that there are no so-called "superfoods" As much as they want to sell it to us. There are foods that should not be eaten with certain frequency or in certain quantities and others that should be eaten daily.
Banning for example, chocolate or sausage at home without a medical prescription does not make much sense. An industrial bun is not recommended, but it is not recommended does not mean that we have to ban it, if one day, for whatever reason one falls on the plate nothing will happen either. There is no reason to be afraid of food, but to know how to eat well.
Tell him that he is fat or very thin
If with 7 or 8 years we have a child concerned with his physique soon we will have a teenager slave of his image. If we are concerned about your weight, we can vary your diet with the help of the pediatrician and nutrition experts, encourage you to play sports or try new foods.
Tell him that he is "poop" when he takes food from the ground.
If one day he drops a piece of apple and when he picks it up and is going to put it in his mouth we say "that does not poop" what do you think he understands the next time you give him a piece of apple or with the pieces that Do you have left to eat? Up to certain ages, literality is a constant in the child's life. The "poop" is "poop" and if something falls to the ground, you simply cannot eat because it is dirty.
