“Clean Your Plate, Billy”
There are many different cues that we grew up with that are now so remote that we may not even be aware of them I received the "You're a good person IF you finish all the food in front of you" The reward for parental approval when growing up can often be around food From this I am prone to overeating
My wife received the message "Why are these people so fat?" She still carries anorexic tendencies
Sometimes these messages will never be uncovered but nonetheless they shape our eating patterns
And this is not to rag on my mother or any parent but to point out the subtleties of messaging that we pick up in childhood At the time it's impossible to interpret whether that message is something we want to carry with us through a lifetime
Since today is my birthday and I'm blogging about nutrition it caused me to reflect on what are the issues that we carry along through life that sculpt our attitudes around food
Here are some reminders
1 Most habits are well neurologically established before age 4 years!
2 So it's not direct verbal comments to the infant and toddler but indirect messaging ie what we say about food, how we hurry feeding, how we push feeding; in general what attitudes we demonstrate to our infants and toddlers
3 As a nutritionally mindful parent we should be assessing "What messaging hasn't worked well for me and do I want to continue this messaging along to my children directly or indirectly"
4 And what do I do now to change the messaging Open frank discussions I think can be valuable
What common refrain around foods would you hear growing up? Would you send them along?
Tomorrow To health as a Skill Love DrBill
