9 Major Taboos for Children's Eating
During the growth and development stage, the nutrients obtained from a child's diet are very important. Children also have many taboos in their eating habits. Parents need to help their children quit bad eating habits to ensure they grow up healthy and strong.
First "Taboo": Picky Eating
"I have to chase my child around every day just to get him to eat!", "My child eats very little and slowly, likes to keep food in his mouth, and the meal gets cold before he finishes it!" Faced with the confusion of many parents, medical experts from China and the United States have stated that some inappropriate behaviors by parents themselves, such as excessive attention during feeding, forcing children to eat, and coaxing or tricking them at the dinner table, can exacerbate children's picky eating. If parents are picky eaters themselves, children will "imitate them" and become even more picky.
30% of Children Are Picky Eaters
Professor He Shaoru, head of the pediatrics department at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, pointed out that picky eating is common in children from 6 months to 6 years old, with a rate as high as 30%. Common problems include eating little and slowly, showing no interest in food, being unwilling to try new foods, and having a strong preference for certain textures or types of food. He Shaoru emphasized that in many one-child families, there is excessive attention during feeding and a tense atmosphere of coercion and tricking at the dinner table. This puts a heavy psychological burden on the child to eat, making them more disgusted and averse to the foods they are picky about.
Parents' Picky Eating Can Lead to Children Imitating Them
In addition, parents' own picky eating behaviors can also exacerbate children's pickiness. Experts have pointed out that if parents have their own picky eating behaviors, children's subconscious "imitation" can make it difficult to control picky eating. This is the so-called "the top beam is crooked, the bottom beam will be crooked" effect.
Professor He Shaoru stated that problematic eating behaviors in children can lead to a series of health issues such as malnutrition and developmental delays. For picky eating, the effect of medication is minimal, and behavioral correction is more important. Professor He Shaoru has therefore prescribed the following "remedies": allow the child to experience moderate hunger, if they are full, allow them not to eat, reduce distractions during meals (TV, stories, toys). In addition, making food into fun shapes using various molds on the market can stimulate the child's appetite in terms of color, aroma, and taste. He Shaoru pointed out that if necessary, parents should consult experts in the relevant field for necessary training in the child's oral motor skills.
Under current conditions, parents can refer to the following methods to solve children's picky and selective eating behaviors:
1. Let the child experience hunger and then feel full.
2. Limit calories between meals, and do not drink beverages or eat snacks one hour before a meal.
3. Meal time should be less than 25 minutes, with intervals of 3.5 to 4 hours between meals.
4. When the child pushes away their bowl and chopsticks, cries, or turns their head, parents should use a temporary isolation method, remove the food, and put the child in a high chair and ignore them.
5. Take the child to the market or supermarket and let them decide which foods to buy.
6. Let the child try new or disliked foods multiple times.
7. Use fun names for foods.
8. Create a happy eating atmosphere.
Second "Taboo": Squatting to Eat
In the Guanzhong region, it is common for adults and children to squat and eat under trees in the village, in front of or behind the house, which is known as one of the "Eight Oddities." In fact, this is a bad eating habit. It not only affects the gastrointestinal tract's digestion of food but also easily leads to varying degrees of food contamination, causing "illness to enter through the mouth."
When squatting to eat, the abdomen is compressed, which not only prevents the stomach and intestines from蠕动 normally but also prevents gas in the gastrointestinal tract from moving up and down smoothly, causing fullness in the upper abdomen and affecting the digestion and absorption of food.
Squatting for a long time compresses the abdomen and lower limbs, obstructing blood circulation throughout the body, leading to soreness and numbness in the lower limbs. The stomach's peristalsis and tension increase, requiring a large amount of blood. However, squatting affects blood supply to the stomach, which directly weakens its digestive function.
If you eat while sitting on a high stool, the abdominal muscles are relaxed, blood circulation is not obstructed, and the gastrointestinal functions work regularly and normally, which is very beneficial for digesting food.
In addition, when squatting to eat, placing bowls and dishes on the ground, dust will be kicked up and fall on the food as people walk by or when the wind blows. The dirt, bacteria, viruses, and parasite eggs on the dust will contaminate the food, easily causing illness.
Therefore, from a health and hygiene perspective, this bad habit of squatting to eat should be corrected.
Third "Taboo": Binge Eating
Infants and young children can suffer from gastrointestinal diseases caused by overeating and humid weather.
Symptoms:
Vomiting, bloating, chest tightness, loss of appetite.
Dietary Therapy:
Skim milk—Boil milk, cool it, and remove the floating fat layer from the surface. Repeat several times to make skim milk. It can treat infant vomiting but is not very suitable for babies and young children.
Apple puree soup—Mash ripe apples into a puree and put them in light tea. Apple fibers are fine and less irritating to the intestines, and the pectin it contains has an astringent effect.
Light tea—Brew a small amount of black tea with boiling water and give it to the child to drink 4-5 times a day, which is very effective for acute gastroenteritis.
Carrot juice—Wash and mash fresh carrots, add a small amount of water and simmer for 10-15 minutes, then filter and add more water and a small amount of sugar. Boil again, pour into a container, and steam for another 10 minutes before drinking.
Hawthorn, rice, and brown sugar juice—Simmer hawthorn in a clay pot to make a thick juice, then add rice and brown sugar to cook congee. Give it to the child in the morning and afternoon. Do not eat on an empty stomach.
Special Reminder:
At this time, the list of foods to be avoided:
· Irritating and raw-cold foods, which are more likely to harm a child's gastrointestinal tract.
· Greasy foods can cause vomiting in children.
· Foods that cause bloating will worsen a child's bloating and loss of appetite.
· Indigestible foods.
Fourth "Taboo": Salty Food
"Among a hundred flavors, salt is the king." Salt can be considered the king of seasonings. In modern diets, children's sodium intake is gradually increasing, including excessive salt in daily family meals and more sodium in snacks. Recently, child health experts have pointed out that both healthy children and sick children should not consume too much salt, and their diet should be light-based.
Excess salt can cause respiratory infections. According to surveys, more and more children are developing high blood pressure, and the vast majority of these children often ate very salty food during infancy. Excessively salty food can increase blood pressure and cause edema. In addition, excessive salt intake in children is also a contributing factor to upper respiratory tract infections.
First, a high-salt diet reduces the secretion of saliva in the mouth, which is more conducive to the presence of various bacteria and viruses in the upper respiratory tract.
Second, after a high-salt meal, the osmotic effect of salt can kill the normal flora in the upper respiratory tract, causing flora imbalance and leading to illness.
Third, a high-salt diet may inhibit the reproduction of mucosal epithelial cells, causing them to lose their ability to resist disease.
These factors weaken the role of the upper respiratory tract mucosa in resisting disease invasion. Coupled with the fact that children's immune system is naturally lower than that of adults and they are more susceptible to catching colds, various bacteria and viruses take the opportunity to invade, leading to upper respiratory tract infections.
Eating salt affects zinc absorption. Children's taste preferences follow their parents'. If parents' eating habits are salty, children will also like salty food. Eating too salty directly affects the absorption of zinc in a child's body, leading to zinc deficiency. However, many people have the habit of eating pickled vegetables, salty fish, and cured meat. These foods generally have high sodium content and should be avoided by children. In addition, bean paste, chili paste, pickled mustard tubers, sour pickles, pickled cucumbers, soybean paste (da jiang), fermented bean curd, salted duck eggs, canned food, sausages, pork floss, fried dough sticks, and instant noodles should also be avoided as much as possible.
Fifth "Taboo": Eating Too Fast
Currently, the phenomenon of eating too fast is common among children and adolescents, especially at breakfast and lunch.
A survey shows that 20.3% of children and adolescents finish breakfast in less than 5 minutes, and 85.5% finish breakfast in less than 15 minutes. Lunch is also a quick affair, with 18.3% finishing lunch in less than 10 minutes and 72.5% finishing in less than 20 minutes.
Only dinner can be a bit more leisurely, but nearly half of children and adolescents still finish dinner in less than 20 minutes.
Researchers point out that eating too fast is not good for children's physical and mental health. When children eat too fast, they cannot savor and appreciate the taste of the food, making eating only serve to fill their stomachs. It neither stimulates nor cultivates the pleasure of eating, nor is it conducive to the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Eating too fast means food is not chewed thoroughly, so it cannot be preliminarily digested by saliva, thus increasing the digestive burden on the gastrointestinal tract, prolonging digestion time, and reducing the proportion of nutrients digested and absorbed. In addition, eating too fast can easily lead to overeating, which in turn can cause obesity.
Generally speaking, a child's meal should last no less than 20 minutes.
Sixth "Taboo": Sweet Food
The sugars commonly eaten in daily life, such as white sugar, brown sugar, rock sugar, and fruit candy, are all extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets and are collectively called sucrose. Although children like to eat sweets, sugar should not be consumed in excess.
Excessive sugar consumption can lead to malnutrition in children. Sugar is a pure energy food that contains almost no other nutrients. It is measured that each gram of sugar can produce 4 kilocalories of heat in the body, so eating sugar often reduces appetite. As a result, although the body's required heat energy is sufficient, other nutrients such as protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and dietary fiber are not enough, leading to nutritional imbalance over time.
Sugar consumes a large amount of calcium in a child's body. Sugar is an acidic substance that neutralizes the alkaline substance calcium in the body. Calcium deficiency not only directly affects a child's growth and development (resulting in short stature) but also more prominently causes osteoporosis and rickets.
Frequent consumption of sugar can easily cause cavities. Sugar provides a good environment for the growth and reproduction of bacteria in the mouth. These bacteria, together with residual sugar, can increase the acidity in the teeth, gums, and mouth. Because teeth are frequently eroded by acid, it can easily lead to cavities, which over time form cavities or oral ulcers. Therefore, Japanese dentists suggest that the primary prerequisite for preventing cavities is to eat less sugar.
Excessive sugar also weakens the human body's resistance, making children more susceptible to various diseases.
Sugar is an indispensable food in our daily lives. So, how much should a child eat per day? In recent years, there has been a consensus at home and abroad: it is appropriate to control it at about 0.5 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. That is to say, adults should not exceed 50 grams per day, children should not exceed 20 grams, and children weighing less than 10 kilograms should not exceed 10 grams.
Seventh "Taboo": Eating While Watching TV
There are many disadvantages to eating while watching TV:
First, it can easily affect appetite. Appetite can be caused not only by physiological factors but also by external factors that can enhance appetite through conditioned reflexes. When eating while watching TV, people often focus on the TV and neglect the taste of the food, causing the existing appetite to be suppressed or diminished by the TV. Over time, this can lead to malnutrition.
Second, it affects the digestion of food and the absorption of nutrients. When a person eats, they need digestive juices and blood to help the gastrointestinal tract digest food. When eating and watching TV at the same time, the brain also needs a large amount of blood. This creates a competition for blood supply. As a result, neither can get sufficient blood, leading to poor eating and poor TV viewing. Over time, this can also cause dizziness and blurred vision.
Therefore, do not eat while watching TV at home. It is best to watch TV 20-30 minutes after a meal. If you must watch TV, choose programs that are not tense or overly stimulating.
Eighth "Taboo": Eating While Walking
Eating while walking or in a car is unhygienic and not conducive to the digestion and absorption of food, which will affect health over time.
In cars and on the road, people come and go, and dust is flying. Food is easily contaminated, especially when a child eats in a car. It is easy for bacteria and viruses on the handrails to contaminate the food through their hands, leading to illness after ingestion. In addition, the nutrients in food must be absorbed and utilized by the body through two digestive processes: physical and chemical digestion.
Teeth chewing, tongue stirring, and gastrointestinal蠕动 are physical digestion; amylase in saliva, pepsin in gastric juice, trypsin in pancreatic juice, and bile, which digest starch, protein, and fat in food, are chemical digestion.
Both of these digestive processes are carried out under the unified command of the brain. However, when eating while walking or in a car, the brain has to command both the digestive system and the motor system, leading to scattered energy. As a result, chewing is often not thorough, and digestion is poor. It can also lead to choking, biting the tongue, and food entering the trachea, causing tracheal foreign body obstruction. This is especially true when eating food with pits in a car, which can easily lead to accidents.
Ninth "Taboo": Laughing While Eating
When children laugh and play while eating, or when the elderly are distracted during meals, or when the elderly take medicine due to degenerative reflex function, it can cause organs to inhale foreign objects, leading to suffocation. If this happens, foreign objects should be quickly removed using first-aid methods. Do not be lucky, otherwise, it can be fatal in minutes. But it should be noted that the child's body should not make large-scale movements at this time. Parents usually cannot remove the foreign object by themselves and should immediately take the child to the hospital.