Chelsea Choice- Choosing can be complicated

Exploring parenting styles when it comes to feeding has proven to be more complicated and time consuming than I thought when I started this blog series. Not only does feeding our children relate to our parenting style but so does discipline and ethics, therefore making what appeared to be a simple topic explode into a larger can of worms per se. Chelsea choice is especially hard because she is likely the best way to describe me. It can be difficult to explore the reasons why your children may not eat the way you expect. So lets see why I am now in the predicament that I am in.

Chelsea is a parent that has always given choices. I personally went down the path of Attached Parenting parenting method. In this method the focus was to not neglect the emotional sides of your child by allowing them to nurse till they weaned themselves, co-sleep and baby wearing as much as possible in slings. The way I interpreted the parenting style was to also provide choices. The parenting books stressed the importance of allowing a child to choose and the child will eventually make the right choices.

In effect, because I did not always focus on the healthier choices and allowed unhealthy choices into meal times these choices eventually took over leading us to where we are now. A world of mac and cheese, soy nuggets, tacos and limited intake of vegetables. Chelsea and I also became short order cooks. We are exhausted and now in a cycle of providing unhealthy processed foods.

So where do we go from here?

The idea behind letting a child make a choice is strong but in reality, unless a parent is willing to have a predetermined plan about what the child eats, then unhealthy habits will form. In order for Chelsea to be successful she has to pre-plan the weeks menu for the entire family, focus on the healthy choices and limit the unhealthy choices. She can let the child make choices at the grocery store and possibly help with meal planning and preparation, but only what is initially chosen by her. 

Children are flexible and I strongly agree that eating habits can be changed without a lot of drama and whining. 

What do you think? Are you like Chelsea too? 

www.OnANutritionMission.com 

Lackadaisical Lucy- Laid back and lucky feeding style

Through the years I have seen many parenting types when it comes to feeding children. There is Lackadaisical Lucy, Chelsea Choice, Erin the Enforcer, Wanda the Whining Worrier , Betty Briber and Hilda Hide It. It is not to say that any one of these types of parents are wrong in their techniques in my belief everyone has an ultimate goal, that which is to feed the children the healthiest way they feel best. Today we will look at Lucy, maybe you will find some similarities with your feeding techniques and hers.

Lackadaisical Lucy 

Lucy likes it laid back and quiet without any turmoil or disruption. She has educated herself on healthy foods and enjoys trying new things. Her approach is to cook what she will eat and let her kids try it as they will. She refuses to be a short order cook.

Here are the positive attributes of Lucy:
1. She instills nutrition education. Each time they eat she casually mentions the benefits of the food that she is eating.
2.She involves the children with cooking and shopping and she lets them help pick out key ingredients for meals.
3. She is less stressed when it comes to meal times.

Some days I wish I could be like Lucy. Not really thinking too much about what a child eats and has the attitude that eventually he or she will be a good enough eater to get by. Lucy offers the child what she eats but does not dwell on the fact that the child has not eaten anything for 2 meals or only ate donuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The negative attributes of Lucy are that, in a way she is waging her bets on whether or not the child will turn out to be a good eater or not. I personally, am not a gambler and can't stand thriller movies so watching and waiting doesn't work for me, but for Lucy it does.

What do you think? Are you like Lucy?

If you want to read more about a culture that does not stress about feeding their children I recommend reading: French Kids Eat Everything by Karen LeBillon. This book tells the story about how a family moved to France and "cured picky eating, banned snacking and discovered 10 simple rules for raising happy healthy eaters".