Feeding Philosophy

Everywhere we go people comment that Simon is a "good eater"...I'm not always sure what they mean, but I think it is that he eats a lot, and isn't very finicky. We appreciate the compliment, but at the same time it seems like kind of an odd thing to identify as "good"...are there "bad" eaters?

Through ECFE I was introduced to the feeding & eating philosophy of Ellyn Satter--we really like it. Basically, she says that our society worries too much about food and as parents we often unintentionally put more pressure on food and eating than there needs to be. There's a nice summary of one of her key tenets here--the division of responsibility in feeding. Basically the idea is that its the parents job to provide healthy food choices and some mealtime structure, and the child's job to decide whether to eat anything available and how much of each thing to eat (if any). If offered a variety of healthy foods, she says (and research backs her up), even infants will eat a pretty balanced diet through their own choosing--their appetite will guide them by making them hungry for different types of food. (Which is how all of our appetites would guide us, if we didn't have all sorts of emotional and social issues mixed up with our food consumption.)

This feeding philosophy is still new to us, but in the past several months it has gone well. It prompted us to phase out pureed foods as soon as Simon was able to pick up pieces and feed himself, so he would have more control over his own food intake. We are also trying to avoid any sort of coaxing or coercing Simon to eat any particular thing or amount, which is sometimes difficult (e.g., it is tempting to say things like "are you sure you don't want more cheese?" or "but you love cheese!" if he is suddenly not interested in cheese one day). As he's able, we let Simon feed himself, and when he's not able, we try and make sure to wait for cues from him that he wants another bite or spoonful, rather than continually putting more food in front of him unrequested (which we used to do when feeding him pureed food--he was so compliant and such a "good eater" that we really don't know if he ate so much because he was really hungry or because we just kept putting another spoonful in front of him).

Sometimes we have to get a bit creative with trying to give him some independence and control while also limiting mess. Right now we're trying to let him experiment with toddler-sized dishes and silverware, while also not having bowls full of food on the floor (which is what happens if we just give him a bowl full of something with a spoon and let him go at it). We've recently found a decent intermediate solution that lets him work on his spoon-handling skills and feed himself without extreme mess--it works well for anything thick enough to stick to the spoon...

Spoons (57 seconds):

We also like Ellyn Satter's view that you should let kids grow into the bodies they were meant to have--be they small, medium, or large--which means you shouldn't either restrict quantities or force (or even encourage) kids to eat more than they are hungry for. (Just imagine if we all ate when we were hungry and stopped when we were full!) Apparently this part of the feeding philosophy is more difficult during toddlerhood, when most children become more picky and will at times eat just a couple of bites and then be done--if you've ever seen Simon eat, you know that isn't currently his tendency--but even if it becomes his tendency, we plan to stick to the philosophy. Needless to say, we don't really believe in the "clean plate club" philosophy--though recently it appears that Simon does...

Clean Plate (14 seconds):

In other food-related news: We don't know about other bean soups, but Simon loves Grandma Marilyn's!