Making Your Kid Clean Their Plate Might Give Them An Eating Disorder
Latest“A clean plate is a happy plate” is a common refrain for new parents — but sometimes it’s not so happy for the kid. More like “miserable” or “potentially pukey” or “burgeoning weird relationship with food.” As if you moms didn’t have enough to worry about. I have a fucking CAT, and every time I go out of the house I am stricken with fear.
In today’s Motherlode/NYT blog, Maryann Jacobsen, a family nutritionist and mom, says that raising a kid with “external” signals of the right amount of food to eat, e.g. the amount of food left on the plate, should be scrapped in favor of allowing the child to rely on her own internal signals. She adds that bribes like “Finish all your broccoli and you can have dessert” aren’t so hot either — they intrinsically foster your precious lil’ snotball’s fixation on sweets.