The Good Parenting Food Guide

Managing What Children Eat Without Making Food a Problem

Jane Ogden

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781118709375, 9781118741894
• eBook ISBN: 9781118714904
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Physiological Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The Good Parenting Food Guide offers straightforward advice for how to encourage children to develop a healthy, unproblematic approach to eating.

• Explores key aspects of children's eating behavior, including how children learn to like food, the role of food in their life and how habits are formed and can be changed
• Discusses common problems with children's diets, including picky eating, under-eating,  overeating, obesity, eating disorders and how to deal with a child who is critical of how they look
• Turns current research and data into practical tips
• Filled with practical solutions, take home points,  drawings, and photos
• Mumsnet Blue Badge Award Winner

Facts and CapitalStarttCapitalEndheories

1

What is healthy eating?

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Magazines, newspapers, and radio and TV programs are full of articles and items about the importance of a healthy diet and what a healthy diet actually is. Often this information is confusing and sometimes it is wrong. This chapter attempts to clarify the world of healthy eating and will describe:

• A brief history of healthy eating
• Healthy eating in the modern day
• Healthy eating throughout childhood
• Why a healthy diet is important

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Good parenting …

A healthy diet is important for how a child grows and develops. It also helps children stay healthy once they are adults as many adult illnesses start in childhood long before we have any symptoms. Good parenting is therefore about helping your child to eat a healthy diet and to develop good eating habits. It is also about making food nice without it being an issue.

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A Brief History of Healthy Eating

The nature of a good diet has changed dramatically over the years. In 1824 The Family Oracle of Good Health published in the UK recommended that young ladies should eat the following at breakfast: “plain biscuit (not bread), broiled beef steaks or mutton chops, under done without any fat and half a pint of bottled ale, the genuine Scots ale is the best”; or if this was too strong, it suggested “one small breakfast cup of good strong tea or of coffee – weak tea or coffee is always bad for the nerves as well as the complexion.” Dinner is later described as similar to breakfast, with “no vegetables, boiled meat, no made dishes being permitted much less fruit, sweet things or pastry … the steaks and chops must always be the chief part of your food.” In the 1840s Dr Kitchener recommended in his diet book a lunch of “a bit of roasted poultry, a basin of good beef tea, eggs poached … a sandwich – stale bread – and half a pint of good home brewed beer” (1). In the US at this time, diets were based around the staples of corn, rye, oats, and barley for making bread, the use of molasses as a cheap sweetener, and a quantity of salt pork, which could survive the warmer weather in the absence of refrigeration. Blood pudding was also a source of meat; it was made from hog or occasionally beef blood and chopped pork, seasoned and stuffed into a casing which was eaten with butter crackers to provide a meal for the workers. What constituted a healthy diet in the nineteenth century was very different from current recommendations.

Most improvements in the diets of many Western countries mainly came about as a result of the rationing imposed during both the world wars. These rations resulted in a reduction in the consumption of sweet foods and an increase in the role of carbohydrate in the diet. In addition, the need to provide the armed forces with safe and healthy food stimulated research into food technology and established dietary standards.

Healthy Eating in the Modern Day

Over the past 30 years there has been a proliferation of literature on healthy eating. A visit to any bookstore will reveal shelves of books full of diets designed to improve health through weight management, salt reduction, a Mediterranean approach to eating, or the consumption of fiber. Nowadays there is, however, a consensus among nutritionists as to what constitutes a healthy diet (2). Descriptions of healthy eating tend to divide food into broad food groups and make recommendations as to the relative consumption of each of these groups. Recommendations change across the lifespan as we grow from babies into toddlers, to children, to teenagers, then adults. They even change as adults get older, as we need different diets at different stages, such as pregnancy, the menopause and as we progress into older adulthood. Current recommendations for children aged over 5 and for adults are the same, and are outlined below. These are:

• Fruit and vegetables: A wide variety of fruit and vegetables should be eaten, and preferably five or more servings should be eaten per day.
• Bread, pasta, other cereals, and potatoes: Plenty of complex carbohydrate foods should be eaten, preferably those high in fiber such as brown bread, brown pasta, and brown rice.
• Meat, fish, and alternatives: Moderate amounts of meat, fish, and alternatives should be eaten and it is recommended that the low-fat varieties are chosen.
• Milk and dairy products: These should be eaten in moderation, and the low-fat alternatives should be chosen where possible.
• Fatty and sugary foods: Food such as potato chips, sweets, and sugary drinks should be consumed infrequently and in small amounts.

Other recommendations for adults include a moderate intake of alcohol (a maximum of 3–4 units per day for men and 2–3 units per day for women), the consumption of fluoridated water where possible, a limited salt intake of 6 g per day, eating unsaturated fats from olive oil and oily fish rather than saturated fats from butter and margarine, and consuming complex carbohydrates (e.g. bread and pasta) rather than simple carbohydrates (e.g. sugar). It is also recommended that men aged between 19 and 59 consume about 2,550 calories per day and that similarly aged women consume about 1,920 calories per day, although this depends on body size and degree of physical activity.

Recommendations for children are less restrictive for fatty foods and dairy products, and it is suggested that parents should not restrict the fat intake of children aged under 2. By 5 years old, however, children should be consuming a diet similar to that recommended for adults, which is high in complex carbohydrates such as brown bread, brown pasta, and brown rice, high in fruit and vegetables, and relatively low in fat and sugary foods. They should also have a diet that is low in salt and should not drink any alcohol until they are at least 16.

Adults and children should also drink plenty of fluids to keep them hydrated. Foods such as fruit, vegetables, soups, and stews are also a good source of fluid. Caffeinated drinks can make you dehydrated but decaffeinated ones can count as part of your fluid intake. A balanced diet is shown in the “healthy plate” below.

A balanced diet: the healthy plate (© Adam Merrin)

Children's diets across the years will now be described in detail.

Babies 0–6 months

Current recommendations state clearly that breast milk is the best possible food for all babies up until 6 months old. It contains the perfect nutritional mix for growth and development and also enables antibodies to be passed from the mother to the baby to help their immune system and defend against disease. There is also some evidence that breast milk helps expose the baby to a wide range of tastes as flavors from the mother's diet flow straight into the breast milk. Children like the foods they are familiar with (see Chapter 2). It is possible that early exposure through breast milk helps children to like a wider range of foods once they move on to solids.

When still in the womb the placenta acts as a filter and blocks some molecules from getting to the baby. Therefore, if you drink alcohol when pregnant, only some but not all of this alcohol will reach the fetus. Breasts do not have this filter so any alcohol you drink will go straight into the breast milk. For this reason it is recommended not to drink alcohol either while pregnant or while breast-feeding. The evidence for this remains weak, but to me personally, it seems to make sense. You wouldn't put alcohol in your baby's bottle so why put it in their breast milk?

While breast-feeding, the mother needs to eat a healthy balanced diet high in fruit and vegetables and brown bread, brown pasta, and brown rice and relatively low in fat and sugary foods. At this time mothers shouldn't try to eat for two or lose weight by eating a restricted diet. They should just eat a healthy diet to keep themselves and the baby well nourished.

But some women genuinely struggle to breast-feed and then feel guilty. Being a mum is a huge responsibility in so many ways, with so many possibilities for guilt and beating ourselves up. Therefore if you have weighed up the pros and cons and decide to stop breast-feeding, don't feel guilty. Just move on. And one benefit of not breast-feeding is that dads can take on a greater role in parenting, which may well keep them more involved in the longer term.

Babies 6–12 months

Current recommendations state that babies should be fully breast-fed (or bottle-fed) until 6 months when weaning onto solids can start. At first most of their food will still come from milk so the main aim of early weaning is to get them used to eating and encouraging them to try different tastes. Some mums make up ice-cube trays of mashed-up sweet potatoes or vegetables, or purée parts of their own meal to spoon-feed to their baby. Others hit the shelves of jars in the shops, while others toss their baby bits of finger food from their own plate to chew on. Nutritionally, at this stage it is probably best to create perfectly balanced frozen cubes of food which can be defrosted on time to be wolfed down by your compliant child. But life isn't always like that and the last thing you need at this stage is a parent frazzled by the food processor and cross with a baby who throws the carefully prepared food onto the floor. So psychologically (for you and your child) it is probably best to give your child a mix of a variety of foods including mashed-up vegetables, handy jars, and whatever you have on your plate, in order to keep your sanity and not make food into an issue.

Toddlers 12–24 months

As babies turn into toddlers they suddenly become much more active and their need for energy increases dramatically. At this age children move away from mashed-up food and start eating more adult-like meals. Children need energy, but they don't need sugar for energy, as although this might give them an immediate boost, their energy levels will quickly plummet, making them more tired than they were in the first place. So during this time they need a diet high in complex carbohydrates such as brown bread, brown pasta, and brown rice, high in fruit and vegetables, with moderate amounts of meat and fish, and relatively low in fat and sugary foods. They also need lots of dairy products for their calcium levels. But try to do the following:

• Keep the variety going.
• Give them plenty of savory foods.
• Eat with them when you can.
• Get them to eat with other children.
• Have regular meal times.

We like what we know (see Chapter 2) and now is the time to get them to know the tastes of the foods you will want them to like later on. It is also the time to start planting the seed of family eating, social eating, and planned eating, all of which are predictive of a healthy attitude as they grow up.

Children 2–5 years

By this stage most children should be eating a balanced diet high in complex carbohydrates and fruit and vegetables with a moderate amount of protein and low in fat and sugary foods. They shouldn't be on a low-fat diet as such and should now be drinking full fat milk and plenty of cheese for their fat and calcium intake. But neither should they be eating lots of high-fat foods such as crisps and deep fried chips. Children at this stage can become quite picky (called neophobia) and often refuse new foods, preferring to eat the same old familiar foods over and over again. Tips for overcoming this are described in Chapter 10, but simple approaches involve sheer persistence (putting it on their plate but not making a fuss about it), getting them to eat with other children, and eating different foods yourself in front of them. Some children seem to go through a stage when they hardly eat anything and live off air, while others seem forever hungry. Tips for managing children who either overeat or undereat are described in Chapters 12 and 13. But often these are just stages that they grow out of and the best way to help them to grow out of it is to ignore it. Making it into the focus of the dinner table can often make it worse.

Children 5–12

By age 5, recommendations suggest that children should eat the same kind of diet as adults. Ideally they also should be eating at the table, with the family, at regular meal times and eating the same food as everyone else. Obviously this is not always possible due to life getting in the way, but wherever possible try to include your children in with what and when you are eating. Also, have other children round for tea and send your child round to others for tea, to get them used to eating with others and as a me...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• Facts and theories
• Tips and reality
• Recommended reading
• References
• Index