Lazy bloody town and damned sports candy

[ailbhe]

Linnea is really confused by what constitutes "healthy" food and since I explained that fruit contains sugar (we were talking about dental health) she's not sure whether she's ALLOWED to eat fruit any more. I can't see why any child likes bloody Lazytown because it is incredibly irritating and all the people are wholly unattractive and the puppets are horrible, but they do - and it's a bit crazy about the whole food thing.

Sports candy. Fruit is FRUIT, it's not a substitute for sweets and cake. It's worth eating in its own right. And conflating sugar and refined sugar is really annoying.

Comments

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

There is no such thing as 'too much' for a child that has been allowed to wean properly, with no pushing of food.

"Too much" only takes place once the natural biology of the child has been disrupted. The body produces strong and powerful signals to stop when full, and children who are raised to respond to food naturally, recognise those signals.

And then telling them if they eat too much, will make them ill, makes then second guess and make suspect their own perfectly balanced reactions to food.

It is not too easy to overeat at all, actually. One the signal is in place, you have to do a lot of work to overcome it. Those who've had the signal blown, can often wonder what the hell people are talking about - but talk to people with the signal intact, and it's a very strong chemical reaction from stomach to brain, and they will tell you it's a switch 'on' and 'off'.

Normal healthy appetites do not need controlled in the slightest: the biology is in place. It's only once you've wrecked the biology, done to most of us by force feeding either from a baby bottle, or at early weaning, that any support is needed at all for making conscious adjustments to eating.

And a child raised in such a normative feeding way, with a good range of normal foods, would find it very hard to over eat on sweets. (Although how we got to over eating on sweets, from a point about being told to not eat 'too much' good nutrition, is beyond me.) Children who can listen to their own bodies around food, do not over eat sweets. They feel the 'feeling sick' signal from the sugar rush, and stop. It's been observed and written about, and something I've watched my own child do.

The point is that pitching all the kid's food messages, to the level of trying to get the message through to those with bad habits already, is often counter productive to those children with very normal and body timed eating habits.

One size does not fit all.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

This. I'm a firm believer in intuitive eating, and our only rule around food is "If you're hungry, you can eat it" (with due regard for allergies, necessary safety precautions, asking the owner if it wasn't bought out of general household money, etc). My daughter was raised on intuitive eating principles, and at nine years old, she was amazed - amazed - to discover that there are people who eat when they are not hungry. She reported it to me in the tone I might use if I suddenly discovered ET living at the bottom of my garden.

(The other kids were older when I started doing this, so can remember it being different and aren't surprised by people with broken satiety mechanisms - but both of them have now internalised intuitive eating pretty well. Meanwhile, I think some of their friends suspect I myself am some sort of alien in disguise because I don't make them finish their plates when they aren't hungry or don't like my cooking.)

[ailbhe]

I sometimes have to stop my children eating things while they're recovering from minor illnesses - seven satsumas in a sitting feel lovely and cleansing as they go in, but bode ill for later on.

I don't eat when I'm not hungry. But sometimes I don't remember to eat when I *am* hungry, which makes me cross and unreasonable.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Yes, we do encourage them to be sensible when ill and to follow medical advice, but I've had success with phrasing that as advice rather than a rule, or encouraging them to make their own rule rather than having me impose one - it even worked when C was unable to eat chocolate for a while due to IBS-like symptoms.

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I fascinated to watch the odd arguments between my sister raising her son (4) and my mother and my mother having to unpick in her mind the stuff she thought was 'good': 'one more mouthful, don't spit it out - here comes the train woo woo'. No you can't have desert until you've cleared you plate, you can't leave the table until you've eaten all of xyz'. All of these things override the body's signals.

I'm having to struggle so hard now as an overweight adult who has internalised all these 'rules' and try and 'hear' the signals my body gives me.

So proud of my sister who seems to be raising a child who loves his grub, tries anything and everything and stops when he's full.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

A story about the signals. I too am an overweight adult, who firmly had the signals blown in very early childhood. In fact, it was so alien to me, I couldn't comprehend what everyone was talking about. It was an alien language.

And then, I went on prozac. The signal hit in loud and clear, and was so strong, it was like a blow to the head. I simply could _not_ eat one mouthfull more, when the signal hit. And the portion size was so small!!!

I've been on prozac three times now,a nd each time, BANG, for two weeks, I get a full signal. It's just wonderful. I always lose about two stone in weight. But it wears off, and my need for food, and the pleasure signals that it fills my brain with, takes over, and my portion size creeps back up again.

But having experienced that signal, I'm very determined my child will be allowed to keep his! :-)

It also allowed me to re-evaluate smug relatives who'd always said "Just stop whilst you are full, I do. You have no self control."
Actually, dear relatives who HAVE NO CLUE, it's you who don't understand self-control. You don't' consciously stop eating to stay slim, you have a working signal, and so you NEVER HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT.

It was a very healing experience, all round, being able to look at 'the signal' from both sides. :-)