Tips to Get Your Kids Eating Healthier: Tummy Time

This post is a continuation from: Tips to Get Your Kids Eating Healthier

Humans are amazing creatures. Look at all the things we are capable of and can accomplish if we put our mind to it! And, our biology is fascinating, how we move, learn, live and grow. Who can say we aren’t miracles of nature?

When our body needs rest, we feel tired. When we need nutrition, we feel hungry. When we need hydration, we feel thirsty. As my significant other says, “the human body really knows how to take care of itself.”

So, why do we then ignore it when it talks to us? Have you ever eaten when you didn’t feel hungry? What about waited for hours and hours to eat, feeling like you were starving?

More than likely, you were raised to eat at a certain time every day and eat a minimum amount of food at each sitting. It’s hard to break out of that habit.

In relation to my children, I call it Tummy Time. I have two daughters, ages soon to be 12 and 9. My 9 year old has Asperger’s and she’s petite. She has always been in the 0 to 5% weight scale for her age. For awhile, she stopped gaining. Well, several years, doctors and tests later – we now know she has Asperger’s and we know she isn’t going to starve to death. She is completely healthy, and only needs a small amount of food to be perfectly healthy!

This is what I have learned: Your children will not starve. When they feel hungry, they should eat. If they don’t feel hungry, don’t force, cajole or bribe them to eat.

Studies show that having smaller, frequent meals is much healthier for your body. Think back to the stone ages when we all roamed around stuffing roots, nuts and periodically chewing a squirrel. We were roaming creatures that ate as food presented itself, not creatures that sat down at predetermined times and ate bowls full of food.

Diabetes is on the rise and sadly, more and more children are developing blood sugar issues. Eating smaller, more frequent meals helps maintain and regulate blood glucose levels. It is also much better for digestion and metabolism. I found this article interesting.

I have one rule at the meal table. It’s called the: One Bite Rule. It’s very simple.

I will make the meal and I will plate everyone with what’s for dinner. The children must take one bite of everything on their plate. If they genuinely don’t like it, they don’t have to eat it. If they aren’t hungry, they can be done. But they should stay at the table with the family while the others eat.

It’s a tough rule sometimes when my younger daughter is fighting it, but by following that rule I make sure they at least taste everything and then determine what they like and don’t. My older daughter doesn’t like broccoli, she hasn’t for years. When I make broccoli, I put one on her plate and she eats it. She knows the rule.

Sometimes my older daughter is “staaarrrrvvvviiiiingggg,” as she says with a dramatic sigh that only tweens and teens can truly master. On those days, she’ll eat twice as much as I do at dinner. Other nights, she’s not hungry at all and only wants a few bites.

And here is the point that I’m getting at, listen to your kids. When they are hungry, let them eat. When they aren’t hungry, don’t make them eat.

If they are hungry at 4 but dinner isn’t until 6. Let them have a snack. Making them wait while they are hungry can put them in the “must eat” mode and they will tend to overeat.

And the flipside, at 6pm when you all sit down to dinner, if your son or daughter says, “I’m not hungry,” tell them it’s fine, they don’t have to eat, but they do have to stay and be with the family during the dinner experience. Making someone, especially a child, eat when they aren’t hungry begins to teach them the behavior to eat even if they aren’t hungry… and leaves the door open for tendencies to eat comfort foods.

Trust me, that’s very hard to break when you are an adult and have done it since childhood.

This flyer was provided to military members and I found it very interesting:

“Honor Your Hunger—Eat Only When Physically Hungry
Keep your body fed biologically with adequate energy; otherwise, you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. When you reach the point of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderation are gone. You will overeat (eating to a stuffed/full sensation.). Eat only when physically hungry because any food that goes into your body when you are not hungry will get stored. IF you have any doubts about whether you are hungry or not, you probably aren’t! True hunger is unmistakable.”

I’m not saying let them have cake and cookies whenever they want. I am saying to listen to what their bodies are telling them. There is nothing wrong with your child having a bowl of fruit two hours before dinner and then just eating a small portion of protein and vegetables at dinner. There is nothing wrong if they truly aren’t hungry and don’t want any snacks or dinner. (Unless, of course, they are sick or have other complaints.)

The important thing in my household is to have relatively healthy snack options (and a few not-so-healthy ones too – they are kids, after all) that the girls can have quickly, but are small and won’t cause too much upset to the regular meal times. I hope to teach them to eat healthy and eat RIGHT. I hope that they never experience the need to eat for comfort or feel the need to eat just because it's expected of them. I want their bodies operating under the best conditions possible.

So, do you listen to your kid’s Tummy Time?