Parents with anxiety about proper nutrition and “orthorexia”.
Excessive information creates correct choices or simply excessive anxiety?
Are we transferring this anxiety to children and achieving the exact opposite results?
“Superfoods” are great and they all have their role. But is it appropriate for a child to know so many details and rules about proper nutrition or does he have the right to remain a child?
There are many questions.
We believe that the answer is one. Children have the right to remain children without special knowledge about proper nutrition. This is the obligation of parents. But how can we guide them?
Children are imitative beings, simple and clear. They learn to eat through imitation. So let the image do its job.
For example, do we want our children to learn to eat fruit in the afternoon? We make a fruit salad EVERY afternoon and eat it in front of them. We don’t emphasize it to them and we avoid expressions like “come on, my love, eat and see how good fruit is, you’ll grow with fruit…” we simply eat it every day consistently in front of them. After a few days, they will ask for it on their own.
So whatever we would ask of the children, we simply do it in front of them. It has been proven that only 2 out of 10 children manage to differentiate their eating habits from those of their parents when they leave the family veil. So our role is great and of course it has its difficulties. It is a great burden for mom and dad, since we are called upon to make a proper diet with its good and bad first.
Everything should be allowed in moderation. Any extreme behavior is wrong. It is certainly wrong to let our children eat whatever they want uncontrollably, but it is also wrong to forbid them from anything that is not considered healthy. It is reckless for a child not to have tasted sugar by the age of 5! And what if when they try it they love it?
Parents with appearance anxiety…
Very often, parents transfer our image anxiety to their children.
When a child enters adolescence, their body changes. The role of parents is crucial. We must reassure the child, teach them to admire their body and not look at imperfections with severity. How can this be done? We ourselves should not judge the child’s body with severity, nor demand perfection, but only look at it with admiration.
Children in adolescence must have self-confidence as a weapon. Many times, parents’ fears lead children to endless diets. This gets worse over the years, self-confidence decreases and this is how eating disorders appear, anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa or even emotional overeating.
Let’s not judge children for their bodies. They did not choose it and they must learn to live with it forever, no matter what… Let’s not demand more from our children than we can. Everything in moderation and everything together… Let’s leave the children to their childish carelessness and let us parents make the choices for the ENTIRE family.
