Here's a little exercise for you parents. Which of the following four factors do you think has the greatest influence on a child's eating behavior?
1. Child's gender, birth weight, and temperament
2. Economic status, parental income, and child's exposure to media
3. Calorie content, flavor, color, and palatability of food served to child
4. Parental BMI, example, nutritional knowledge, food preferences and dietary intake
According to current research1, of these factors, the fourth has the greatest influence on a child's diet. While all factors play a role, and many other factors are included, parents and the family as a whole play a huge role, indeed.
The influence of parents and family go beyond parental BMI, parental knowledge of nutrition, and parental food preferences, though. A review of many research studies shows that other factors include a parent's physical activity life style, portion size choices, access to healthy food, parental body satisfaction or dissatiscation, and even frequency of shared family mealtimes.
Yes, children tend to model themselves after their parents when it comes to eating habits, lifestyle habits, body image, and attitudes related to eating. Their habits, views, and attitudes are shaped at a younger age than most of us imagine and are even maintained as such later in life. 1, 2
Feeling a lot of pressure?
Consider some of the following strategies that may help:
1. Avoid using food as a reward. This is a common pitfall for parents. The reward food is usually something high in added sugar or fat. It is given in exchange for a desired behavior or to avoid an undesired one. Essentially, it is a food bribe. It sounds something like this: "Eat your veggies, then you can have a piece of cake." Or: "If you behave while we are at the grocery store, Mommy will buy you an ice cream bar."
Studies continually show this practice not only intensifies the child's preference for that food. It also decreases the child's preference for other non-reward foods that have been provided. 3 For example, if you promise a cookie in exchange for eating the veggies, your child can, in time, develop a decreased preference for the veggies and increased preference for cookies.
Sure, they will eat their veggies in that moment. But it will undermine your efforts to develop lifelong positive eating habits. They will be less likely to learn to want, eat, choose, and include veggies in their diet as they continue to grow or later when their eating is more independent.
Also, their increased desire for the reward or prize food can grow to the point of being overeaten when freely available.
INSTEAD: Offer a real, non-food reward. Offer words of sincere praise. Offer something tangible, such as a toy or other gift. Offer an experience, such as a trip to the waterpark.
2. Don't underestimate what happens at family meals. Aim for three or more shared family meals per week!
Research shows that fewer family meals is associated with greater consumption of unhealthy foods in adolescents. 4 Why are shared family meals so great?
- They replace watching television while eating. Distracted eating can lead to overeating. Also, studies show that children who view TV during two or more meals per day consume fewer servings of healthy food and more junk/processed food than children from families that do not watch TV during meal time or only allow it for one meal. 5.
- When everyone eats together, the parent has more control and influence on what foods are available to the child. This gives parents an opportunity to expose and increase preference to a greater variety of foods.
3. Consider adopting an auhoritative parenting style.
Research in psychology has classified four different parenting styles: 6
1) Authoritarian (high control, low responsiveness) - often described as "too harsh"
2) Permissive/Indulgent (low control, high responsiveness) - often described as "too soft"
3) Authoritative (high control, high responsiveness) - often described as "the perfect balance"
4) Neglectful (low control, low responsiveness)
In this context, "control" refers to how demanding the parent is; "responsiveness" refers to warmth from the parent.
Going into detail about each style is beyond the scope of this article. However, research shows that children raised with the authoritative parenting style have shown higher diet quality (including higher fruit and vegetable consumption) and lower risk of obesity. 8-10
This parenting style seems to strike the balance between setting necessary limits (control) while still giving a child some freedom to exercise their ability to make decisions and to explore their options (responsiveness).
Here are some strategies for exposing your child to an authoritative parenting style:
- Remember you are the example! Demonstrate healthy eating habits and let them see you enjoying those foods. On the flipside, avoid showing dislike of foods in front of your child.
- Encourage your child to try new foods
- Exercise your control by offering healthier food choices and setting clear boundaries and expectations
- Show responsiveness by allowing your child to choose from a greater variety of healthy foods and allowing your child to choose the portion size.
Parents are to be praised! They definitely have a tough job. You not only have to purchase and prepare nutritious food your kid will actually like. You also have to be the example. You have to model postitive habits. You have to provide a positive eating experience at mealtime. And, to top it all off, you have external influences from the community, from society, and from the media that are also exerting an influence on your child's habits, views, and preferences. That's a lot of responsibility to shoulder! We hope these strategies offer a measure of support.
References
1. Scaglioni, S., De Cosmi, V., Ciappolino, V., Parazzini, F., Brambilla, P., & Agostoni, C. (2018). Factors Influencing Children's Eating Behaviours. Nutrients, 10(6), 706. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10060706
2. Montaño, Z., Smith, J. D., Dishion, T. J., Shaw, D. S., & Wilson, M. N. (2015). Longitudinal relations between observed parenting behaviors and dietary quality of meals from ages 2 to 5. Appetite, 87, 324–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2014.12.219
3. Russel, C.G.; Worsley, A.; Campbell, K.J. Strategies used by parents to influence their children’s food preferences. Appetite 2015, 90, 123–130.
4. McIntosh, A.; Kubena, K.; Tolle, G.; Dean, W.; Kim, M.J.; Jan, J.S.; Anding, J. Determinants of children’s use of and time spent in fast-food and full service restaurants. J. Nutr. Educ. Behav. 2011, 43, 142–149.
5. Robinson, T.N.; Banda, J.A.; Hale, L.; Lu, A.S.; Fleming-Milici, F.; Calvert, S.L.; Wartella, E. Screen Media Exposure and Obesity in Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics 2017, 140, 97–101.
6. Maccoby, E.; Martin, J. Socialization in the Context of the Family: Parent–child Interaction. In Handbook of Child Psychology: Socialization, Personality and Social Development; Hetherington, E., Ed.; Wiley: New York, NY, USA, 1983; pp. 1–101.
7. Pearson, N.; Atkin, A.J.; Biddle, S.J.; Gorely, T.; Edwardson, C. Parenting styles, family structure and adolescent dietary behaviour. Public Health Nutr. 2010, 13, 1245–1253
8. Rhee, K. E., Lumeng, J. C., Appugliese, D. P., Kaciroti, N., & Bradley, R. H. (2006). Parenting styles and overweight status in first grade. Pediatrics, 117(6), 2047–2054. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-2259
9. Arlinghaus, K. R., Vollrath, K., Hernandez, D. C., Momin, S. R., O'Connor, T. M., Power, T. G., & Hughes, S. O. (2018). Authoritative parent feeding style is associated with better child dietary quality at dinner among low-income minority families. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 108(4), 730–736. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy142
10. Blissett J. Relationships between parenting style, feeding style and feeding practices and fruit and vegetable consumption in early childhood. Appetite 2011;57(3):826–31.