Guest Author - Shaunta Alburger
According to nutritionist and mental health professional Ellyn Satter, author of Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family, the principles of eating competence are attitude and skills regarding eating, food acceptance, internal regulation and ability to understand contextual aspects regarding food and eating, such as nutrition and planning.
Eating competence also has to do with what, when, where, how much and even whether they eat. Statter's eating competence model suggests that while what, when and where of eating is the responsibility of parents, how much and whether should be in the control of the child. This goes for young children, and especially for adolescents who are also starting to take more control of the what, when and where.
It can be so tempting to try to force teenagers to eat, or to stop eating if it feels like they are non-stop eating machines. Taking the leap and trusting them to be competent eaters, providing them with a wide range of nutritious food and a place to prepare and eat it, but not dictating how much they eat can be scary.
For a teenager to become a competent eater, certain skills and attitudes can be fostered.
Eating and Internal Regulation
A teenager who is worried about weight, or who has developed extremely picky eating habits may not have healthy attitude or a developed set of skills regarding eating. You can help foster these skills and attitudes by remaining calm at eating time. If your family eating ritual has evolved to include a lot of harping about how much or what your child is eating, this is not conducive to developing eating competence. Provide your child with food, and learn to trust them to eat it.
If your teenager has a food preoccupation, repeatedly assuring him or her that the time when they can eat is coming and that when that time comes they can eat as much as they need to in order to be full is a good way to help them learn to trust that their hunger needs will be met.
Food Acceptance and Contextual Ideas
According to Satter teaching eating competence is a consciousness-raising activity and nothing more. It is about your teenager learning to regulate their energy levels, not about what they should be eating. High school and middle school aged children must learn to start making choices for themselves with regard to food and how it makes them feel.
Some children are very picky eaters and are extremely reluctant to try new foods and learn to like them. You can support your child learning food acceptance attitudes and skills by providing food exposure. Make exploring new foods a family activity that is connected with other activities that your child enjoys.
High school students are old enough to think about nutrition, be involved in preparation of foods and learn about the history and culture of foods. These things might make it easier for your child to start expanding their food acceptance.
Middle school students may be influenced by learning what their peers enjoy eating, and having the opportunity to try these foods at home. They are old enough to start exploring more complex ideas about culture and food as well.
For more information about eating competence and adolescents, check out Dr. Satter's book, Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family.
