“In a new study examining how parenting contributes to snacking, researchers found that parents who have a hands-off approach to feeding children may unknowingly contribute to an increase in children’s snacking.” …
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-07-snacking-parental-oversight.html
The article doesn’t ever explain what an “uninvolved feeder” is. A parent who buys the snacks and leaves the children to decide when they’ll eat them? A parent who doesn’t prepare regular meals and thus, doesn’t sit down with the children to eat them? A parent who prepares meals, but leaves it up to the kids to decide what to eat? A parent who always has an alternative snack available if the kid dislikes the meal? I seems that any one of these behaviors could contribute to a child’s poor food choices, but the main one has to be buying unhealthy snacks in the first place. Young children don’t have the means to buy cheese puffs or Oreos, so if they’re in the house, the parent is to blame.
I think snacks are not to be the major source of calories for the kids, but it is not surprising that for many it is a major source of calories. I think this pervades the parenting of more educated folks as well. One pet peeve of mine is “car snacks”. Yes, unfortunately many kids are in the car a lot, going long distances to school, activities etc. Sometimes it is unavoidable to eat in the car (eg. long trip back after an extracurricular activity), but there are plenty of kids who routinely have juice, goldfish, or other chip type food in the car all the time (to keep them quiet I guess). Then they don’t eat their lunch or dinner which hopefully is better quality food. I never liked the idea of kids eating in a moving vehicle (choking hazard etc.), but maybe I am overly strict. Feeding kids can be difficult since many don’t like to eat vegetables and “real” food so issues arise. Again, thankfully, my kid always liked vegetables. In the olden days when I was young, we went home after school and might get cookies and milk (not a snack that I would consider serving today.)
Going back decades, I remember a college friend who said that candy and snacks were not allowed in her house growing up. She was in great shape and an athlete too. I tried not to feed my kid sugar etc for years when she was small. Eventually they get that first cookie and soda in school or wherever, and the issues do arise (that these foods exist). I had various friends in the time of play groups etc. that took feeding kids healthy foods very much to heart as well. Some kids are very active and can handle “empty” calories, but not all are. I think any approach can backfire as well. Another friend said that the snacks were handed out judiciously by her folks, but that she would sneak snacks that she got elsewhere because of this.
Training kids early as to healthy foods is a good idea, but they have to be of an age to understand and cooperate. “Sigh” - this often is hard.
When I had the time, I’d bring freshly prepared fruit when I picked my kids up from school and they’d happily wolf them down on the short drive home. It was great seeing them enjoy the healthy food. Then I wouldn’t have to be concerned about whether they got the right amount of fruit at some other time of day. It was a great win/win.
If you don’t have unhealthy snack food in the household, it’s not there to tempt anyone! We try to keep unhealthy things to a minimum around here.
^ yeah it’s amazing if I have blueberries available instead of chips they will eat them!
I hope this is just a bad write-up. I hate to think a dime was spent on a study with the primary finding of “if you let a kid who loves sugary, fatty foods eat whatever he or she wants, chances are that kid will develop a weight problem.”
Well, duh!