MANY parents will stress to children the importance of finishing all of the food on their plate.
But we spoke to child nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed, to get her thoughts on whether this actually does more harm than good.
Charlotte is the founder of Charlotte Stirling-Reed, The Baby & Child Nutritionist and Author of How To Wean Your Baby and How to Feed Your Toddler, and she has shared her top tip on tackling mealtimes with children.
The child nutritionist explained to us that she would never force her children to finish their plates and actually this is something that parents should avoid.
She explained: “Some children will eat MORE and others will eat LESS than these portions.
“My advice is always to use them as ideas of how much to serve, but ultimately let your little one decide HOW MUCH they actually eat at a sitting.
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“Responsively feeding your baby or toddler is about recognising and following their hunger and fullness signals.
“The aim of this is to help little ones learn to follow their own appetites and to support them in learning to eat healthily with autonomy.
“It takes time to learn skills such as walking and talking, and learning to eat and respond to our own hunger and fullness is the same.”
The nutritional expert highlighted that encouraging children to finish their meal can actually come across as very pressuring and can often do more harm than good.
She continued: “We often see a lot of ‘encouragement’ for children to eat up at mealtimes, but this can be interpreted by children as pressure.
““Finish your peas” or “just one more spoonful” are common and quite natural reactions to children eating.
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“However, these gentle pressures may actually STOP them from responding and listening to their own body signals; may stop them enjoying their food and may even teach them to overeat.
“Pressure (in any form) to eat rarely helps in the long run and this is supported by lots of research too.
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“It’s SO important not to only look at what your child eats at ONE meal or even a couple of meals.
“Rather, looking at what your child eats over a few days or a week is a better indicator of children’s eating behaviours and how much they are consuming.”
