“Just Eat Your Peas!”

Green Peas.

They seem so innocuous, don’t they?

Who knew that something so small and seemingly simple could cause so much mealtime drama?

And that’s what it is, isn’t it? Drama.

Maybe peas is the issue of choice in your home.

Broccoli?

Cucumber?

Maybe it isn’t even something green. Maybe it’s meat, or rice, or sauce of any kind.

Do you catch yourself at dinner every night begging and pleading your children to eat the food on their plate? Do you sometimes resort to bribing them?

Ok, maybe not sometimes, maybe it’s all the time?

Does mealtime give you total anxiety about the foods that your children are or aren’t eating?

Do you feel “seen” right now?

You are not alone. I repeat. It’s not just you.

We have all been there. Except for the one person whose child is a miracle child and eats all the things and never complains. That child might exist, but I sure haven’t met her.

Maybe you have one child who is an “awesome” eater and another who is “picky” and you are wondering what you did “wrong” with your selective eater.

We could spend hours and a lot of money dissecting why one child eats one way and the other eats another. At the end of the day, what’s done is done, and now we get to work on creating competent and healthy eaters.

Competent Eaters

Our job as parents and caregivers is to help our children become competent eaters. Not perfect eaters. Competent.

Do you see the difference?

Competent eaters are kids that trust their body’s hunger and fullness cues. Competent eaters don’t place higher value on any one food or food group (oooooh just I just hit a button there??!).

Competent eaters don’t feel guilt or shame around the foods they eat. They understand there are no “bad” foods.

Competent eaters trust their varying appetites to know what to eat.

Competent eaters can be around new and strange food without getting upset.

Competent eaters will try new foods and can “make do” with less than favorite foods without a fight.

Competent eaters enjoy a high variety of foods.

Ok, breathe.

Is your child a competent eater? Are you?

Even as full-grown humans, we will struggle with some of the above critera. Which one resonates for you?

What do we do about it?

If you are one of the lucky parents whose child checks all these boxes, you can politely exit out and go about your day.

BUT if you are one of the millions of parents who struggle to feed your child, this is for you!

Helping families navigate the world of having a selective eater is quickly becoming one of the MOST important things I’m helping children and families with in my practice.

Here’s why it’s so critical:

• Eating disorders are terrifyingly on the rise. Especially in children.

• Anxiety disorders are on the rise in children. Anxiety messes with appetite and digestion.

• Parental stress around mealtime impacts the health child-caregiver relationship in a negative way.

• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner.

• 81% of 10-year-old children are afraid of being fat.

• 46% of 9-11 year-olds are sometimes or very often on diets.

• 35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives.

• In a college campus survey, 91% of the women admitted to controlling their weight through dieting.

Many of these behaviors and worries (if not all) stem from the child-food relationship. Our job as the adults is to best support our children so that one, they aren’t afraid of food, and two, they trust themselves.

We live in a world where we barely find time to eat as famlies and when we do, we find ourselves in battle with our children over eating the “healthy” foods we know they need.

We BEG them, just ONE more bite.

“Do it for mommy?”

“You can have ice cream after?”

“Please just eat your dinner. I spent all this time making it. You don’t want to make me sad do you?”

“For the love, just EAT YOUR PEAS!”

Sound like a conversation at your table?

If this sounds like you, I have great news.

I can help.

Or any qualified nutritionist for that matter.

We will remove stress from the table.

We will create an environment of calm.

We will change how we view food. We will change how we approach mealtime.

We will build in eating competence, one meal at a time.

Seem like woo-woo voodoo?

I thought so too at first.

But then I implemented it.

And it WORKS.

If you are tired of the mealtime battles, I can help.

Food is one of the greatest sources of joy.

It represents love, celebration, friendship, nourishment, and so much more.

Let’s get your family back on track. Let’s make food fun again.