Getting children to eat has always been a challenge for a lot of moms out there. Children seem to love food but only certain types of food, and this creates picky eaters all across the country. Mom may try every trick in her book to get children to eat, to no avail. Food is an essential part of a child’s health and development, and mom may be concerned when their child suddenly will only eat dinosaur chicken nuggets and French fries, with a (un)health serving of ketchup on the side.
Moms may try everything to get her child to try new foods, and she may be tempted to try and bribe her child to try the food with rewards. However, this may be a thin line that may not actually help encourage her child to try new foods. According to Nurture Life, bribing children to eat their food or try new foods, just doesn’t work.
What Are We Teaching Them?
One of the reasons why we don’t want to reward our picky eaters when it comes to trying new food is because it does not send the right message when it comes to food. Children will want the reward, and this means that they will ignore their body when it comes to the cues that they are hungry and full. According to Caring For Kids, it is important that a child listens to their body when they are eating, and it is how they develop a healthy relationship with food. This relationship will last throughout their whole life.
It Turns Into A Power Struggle
Another reason why rewards for eating does not work is because it is hard to maintain consistency. It can encourage mealtime battles or make them even more difficult. An example of this is if mom offers her child an extra 15 minutes of TV if they eat 5 pieces of broccoli. The child may turn this into an arguing point, and mom may find that the circumstances change. She will begin lowering the amount of broccoli her child has to eat in order to get the reward. This is proof that rewards for food just do not work.
What It Is Essentially
When we are offering rewards for a child to try new foods, we are essentially “bribing” our children. The reality of bribing children to do things can hinder their development when we think to the future.
According to Psychology Today, children should not be bribed for doing things that they should be doing anyways. Children should be eating, and they should be trying new foods that give them proper nutritional intake and when mom offers them a bribe or a reward for doing this, it may hinder their learning.
It also may become a difficult thing to stop. Children will learn to expect a reward every time they finish a meal, and this is not attainable in the long run. By offering different solutions to picky eating like having them help you pick and cook the meals are much more beneficial when it comes to teaching them healthy eating habits that will last a lot longer than extra screen time.
Sources: Psychology Today, Nurture Life, Caring For Kids