The fewer calories and fat your child takes in, the more likely he will be able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. This is a simple concept, but difficult to put into practice. There are several pitfalls that you want to avoid in cutting back on how much your child is eating.
It's important that you don’t promote a sense of deprivation. If your child feels like you are depriving him of something that he should have, he will only want it more. Eventually he will focus on attaining the “forbidden fruit” and all other principles will go out the window.
You want to try to adjust portion size in a slow and subtle manner. The more rapid and drastic a change you try to make to their dietary habits, the more likely you are to foster a sense of deprivation.
Don’t encourage skipping meals.
This is so important. It’s natural to think that an easy way to cut back on how much your child eats would be to skip breakfast or lunch. When you miss a meal, your sugar drops and your body sends you signals to correct the situation.
Hunger pains, headaches, and nausea are your body’s way of telling you to get something to eat. This will cause binging on snacks in between meals, and in the end wind up increasing the amount of calories and fat your child consumes.
Here are a few tips on decreasing portion size:
Don’t keep serving dishes on the table.
Put the food on their plate away from the table, preferably before your child sits down for their meal. Having the serving dishes in front of him sends a subconscious message that he should finish what he has because there’s more to eat.
Use smaller dishes and bowls.
This is a nice psychological tool that really works. Your child is more likely to overeat or feel unsatisfied when he sees a half-filled large plate than if he was given a completely filled small plate. Try this one on yourself!
Measure serving sizes once or twice a week.
It’s hard to measure serving sizes at every meal. This quickly becomes a chore and there is little chance you would do this long term. Measuring serving sizes occasionally is valuable so that you begin to get a sense as to how many calories and fat your child is consuming. It also gives you an idea as to what reasonable portions are in general.
Cut back slowly.
If your child is accustomed to having three servings of pasta, don’t take him right down to one. Take a little bit away at a time, and don’t do it right in front of him. Have his plate ready to go when he sits down at the table. Cut back too quickly, and he’ll feel deprived.
Michael P. Scaccia, M.D., F.A.A.P.
It's important that you don’t promote a sense of deprivation. If your child feels like you are depriving him of something that he should have, he will only want it more. Eventually he will focus on attaining the “forbidden fruit” and all other principles will go out the window.
You want to try to adjust portion size in a slow and subtle manner. The more rapid and drastic a change you try to make to their dietary habits, the more likely you are to foster a sense of deprivation.
Don’t encourage skipping meals.
This is so important. It’s natural to think that an easy way to cut back on how much your child eats would be to skip breakfast or lunch. When you miss a meal, your sugar drops and your body sends you signals to correct the situation.
Hunger pains, headaches, and nausea are your body’s way of telling you to get something to eat. This will cause binging on snacks in between meals, and in the end wind up increasing the amount of calories and fat your child consumes.
Here are a few tips on decreasing portion size:
Don’t keep serving dishes on the table.
Put the food on their plate away from the table, preferably before your child sits down for their meal. Having the serving dishes in front of him sends a subconscious message that he should finish what he has because there’s more to eat.
Use smaller dishes and bowls.
This is a nice psychological tool that really works. Your child is more likely to overeat or feel unsatisfied when he sees a half-filled large plate than if he was given a completely filled small plate. Try this one on yourself!
Measure serving sizes once or twice a week.
It’s hard to measure serving sizes at every meal. This quickly becomes a chore and there is little chance you would do this long term. Measuring serving sizes occasionally is valuable so that you begin to get a sense as to how many calories and fat your child is consuming. It also gives you an idea as to what reasonable portions are in general.
Cut back slowly.
If your child is accustomed to having three servings of pasta, don’t take him right down to one. Take a little bit away at a time, and don’t do it right in front of him. Have his plate ready to go when he sits down at the table. Cut back too quickly, and he’ll feel deprived.
Michael P. Scaccia, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment