One of Sarah’s main worries was that she didn’t want her children “growing up learning to eat kiddie food as opposed to food that I wanted them to eat”.
She was also concerned that by plating up her children’s meals, she could unintentionally be over or under feeding them: “The whole point of it is that you’re trusting your child to listen to their internal body signal of being hungry or being full. We’re putting them in charge of the food that goes into their own bodies.”
However, parents can still set a healthy example for their children whilst still giving the autonomy to make the final call: “By building your own plate to have some vegetables, some chicken, some pasta, whatever it is, they can see from looking across the table what it takes to build a healthy meal.”
Asked if this method has a potential risk to child weight gain, Sarah assured: “It’s actually the opposite. If a child is allowed to eat intuitively, they won’t gain too much weight. But if a child is being told to eat something, we know that in the long run we know that those kids go on to gain extra weight as adults.”
